Hope's Travel Blog

Today we left Granny and Papa behind and had Mommy and Connor day. We started our day by going on a guided kayak tour. I was actually a little nervous about being out on the ocean in a kayak, since I’ve never been in one before. However, after a 30 second lesson from our guide Cassie, we were ready to head south along the coast. We stopped once to get a brief lesson on how to get in and out of our kayaks. It was a little strange to get out of the kayak and float around in open water. There are no beaches along this part of the Big Island, so dry land was your kayak. After that, we continued on to a sea cave. We actually got to go into the cave and ride a swell inside it. Once everyone had a chance inside the cave we continued southward towards our snorkel and rest spot. It was a great place. The water was clear and we could see to the bottom at about 30 feet. It could have been less, or more, it was hard to tell. There were also tide pools and a cliff to jump off of. The cliff was about 22 feet high. Connor jumped and unfortunately landed a bit wrong. He survived but decided not to go again. As for me, well, I did enough cliff jumping when I was younger so I decided to pass. The return trip was much easier. Connor figured out how to steer and I figured out how to let him steer. In general, it was a great experience. I was glad that we decided to go on a tour instead of renting a kayak and trying it out for ourselves.

After the kayak trip we had plate lunches at Kamuela Deli. A plate lunch consists of some meat dish – in our case it was kalbi ribs and yakatori chicken - two scoops of rice and macaroni salad. Macaroni salad is just elbow macaroni, mayonnaise and julienne carrots. The entire thing doesn’t sound very nutritious and it probably isn’t, but it is good. We were a little tired after the kayak trip so we decided to see a movie. It might seem like a poor use of time to see a movie during the middle of the day in Hawaii, but neither of us were up for sight seeing or getting more sun burnt. Thankfully, the theater had stadium-style seating, so now I can officially move here some day. I have always told myself that I won’t live in a place that doesn’t have it. After the movie, we watched the sunset, had sushi – including fresh Ono - at Wasabi on Ali’i Drive and then headed back to the condo. Our day together was busy and a lot of fun.

The pictures below are of the kayaks we used on the trip and of the sunset from the scenic point in Keahou.