Hawaii - we meet again!

We had the incredible good fortune that our good quaran-team pals, the Wongs, loved our trip to the Big Island earlier this year so so much that they actually bought a place (after a few virtual tours with a realtor) there and invited us to stay with them as they settle in and wait for their STVR license to make it a vacation rental! It's so nice that we can work remotely right now and since the kids don't have school, we decided why not go again?

Not sure if it was our timing, but we lucked out on the flight out because Scott got 2 seats upgraded to first class. Yay for me since he gave me his seat! Evie sat in the other seat for half the trip and then swapped halfway through with Nora. It was a nice way to start our trip. 

First time in first class! For dinner - a fancy cheese and fruit platter, a smores tart and quinoa and mango salad.

Same as our trip last time, Scott and I worked for most of the 12 days we were there. We flew in our Friday after work so that meant we had 2 full weekends plus our weekday afternoons to play. It meant getting up crazy early (I had one 7:30 PST call so I had to be up and Teams-video ready by 4:30am Hawaii time!!!) but it felt really nice to be done with your work day by mid-afternoon. It gives you a few hours to hit the pool or beach, eat dinner, and then zonk out at the same time as the kids around 8pm. 

On Saturday, our first day there, Scott got up bright and early Hawaii time to go surfing with Kathy and Edmond. The waves ended up being too small so it was a dud morning for them. Afterwards, we hit one of our fav beaches - Mauna Kea - for some sun and sand time. There were actually signs warning of man-o-war jellyfish and while Evie did get stung/bitten by something, we don't think it was a man-o-war because it probably would have been much more painful and terrifying!

On Sunday, we jumped into the car and headed towards Hilo to check out the Botanic Gardens. Since we didn't get to do this last time, we made a point of setting aside a day to trek the 1.5 hrs to the other side of the island for the visit. We broke up the drive over with some stops at a scenic overlook and at Mr Ed's bakery - a hole-in-the-wall place we loved so much on our last visit and wanted to return to in order to buy more home made passion-pineapple jam. The Botanic Gardens themselves were quite nice and we spent a good 2+ hrs wandering around. They had "beware of falling fruit" signs and boy, they were not kidding - we heard a mango fall and it was so loud! I can imagine it seriously injuring someone if it hit a person because it fell with so much impact that it split open!

On the way back, we tried to catch the Perseid shower by heading up to Mauna Kea for stargazing. This time, we were prepared with warm clothes and we lucked out with clear skies too. The girls were a bit grumpy with the idea of stargazing but once we got there, they were absolutely mesmerized by all the stars we saw. Since we weren't out too late (around 9pm), we only caught a few falling stars but it was enough for some great memories!

We grabbed takeout at a local store and at outside Mr. Ed's bakery.

Mr Ed's is in a tiny little "town" outside Akaka Falls.

At the Botanic Gardens. Look at the size of those leaves!

I think this should be Scott's Halloween costume this year. And yes, that's a real plant.

A ginormous monkey pod tree. The shape reminds me of coral.

Twisty curvy tree trunks.

Beautiful green ferns that are very different from PNW ferns!

Don't see a purple hibiscus every day!

Crazy kids swimming in this waterfall lagoon.

On one of the weekday afternoons after work, we headed to the nearby secret Queen's pond. This was a queen's bath that Kathy discovered while walking around, and the interesting thing about it is that it has the little fish that eat the dead skin off your feet! So basically, it's like going to a spa, but for free haha. I thought the sensation was SO tickly but the kids loved it and Scott did too - he had a lot of "customers" enjoy his feet. 

The fishies loving Scott's feet

I liked how clear the water was that you can see the reflection of the palms.

Nora's 7th birthday happened to fall while we were in Hawaii (more on that in a separate post), but here's a quick little pic of the little cutie pie enjoying her day.

More Hawaii in the next post!