Abigail, Katie, and Drew each had just one call this morning and then we packed up and headed on an all day excursion to the green sand beach (Papakolea), black sand beach (Punalu’u), and the Volcano National Park. It is about a 2 hour drive to get to the green sand beach and then a 2.5 mile hike to make your way along the coast to the beach. Thankfully it was early enough in the day that it wasn’t too hot and we had a nice ocean breeze on the way there. The terrain was really interesting with lots of ditches and weird, unlevel paths to hike along.
The green sand beach itself was pretty small and had quite a steep descent down to get to it. We weren’t dressed for swimming but that didn’t stop Drew from getting in and jumping through the waves.
I challenged Carly, Jason, and Justin to race up the sandy part of the cliffside. They all got up there pretty high, but Justin did if fastest and furthest.
On our way back to our car we saw one of the local “shuttles“ tipped over in one of the ditches. That made me feel even better about our decision to hike to the beach instead of hitching a ride.
It was a warmer hike back to our car and we were all pretty exhausted when we got there. I think virtual school has softened up the stamina of some of my younger kids who haven’t had to walk to school every day.
Our next step was to pick up some lunch at the southernmost bakery in the United States at the recommendation of my friend Tracy. A few of us got teriyaki chicken and we also tried their malasadas, but still prefer the malasadas from earlier in the week better.
The black sand beach was right off the main road and easy to get to. Our friends that were here two weeks ago we’re lucky to spot several turtles here. We only had one onshore. We didn’t stay long but we did take some pictures and buy some souvenir T-shirts for Carly, Katie, and Justin.
Justin really wanted to check out the volcano since we were in the area. It was really late in the day so we only stopped at a few viewpoints.
We knew it was going to be a long drive home so we stopped in Hilo for a quick dinner at Taco Bell and then ended up getting back to our hotel just before 9pm. Which according to Seattle time is nearly 11pm and the kids still had to shower before going to bed. Abigail had some studying to do tonight and it took us a while to get everything cleaned up and put away. Which made for a very early morning the following day.
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