Hawaii {Day 6} – Snorkeling & City of Refuge

It seems at least one of our kids is going to have at least one thing they have to catch in the morning, ha! Today it was Carly’s turn so she was up this morning at 5:30am to catch her weekly seminary call and then JKD each got up and worked on some schoolwork. Jason even tuned into his second class. We were aiming to leave the hotel around 9am to head Two Step beach for some snorkeling. Per usual it took us a little bit longer with all the sunscreen prep but we were out the door shortly before 9:30am.  The snorkeling spot was about an hour away and the water was incredibly clear allowing us to see lots of different varieties of fish. We only had enough equipment for four people to be out at a time so we spent a couple hours there. 

Abigail almost jumped in the water with the stickers still on the new googles we bought

We took lots of video while snorkeling but we’ll save that footage for the vacation video that Abigail will put together for us.

Checking out the tide pools

It was right next to the City of Refuge National Park (Pu’uhonua O Honaunau) so we visited that as well. We walked around a bit, but it was quite warm and we didn’t know what exactly we were looking at until we got back to the car and looked at the pamphlet they’d given us. 

We’ve been looking forward to treating ourselves to Gypsea Gelato. Unfortunately it’s not peanut friendly so AJK has to miss out. We got them McDonald’s after our lunch stop instead (which took a ridiculous amount of time waiting curbside for them to bring their treats out). Lunch was a combo of some roadside brisket Justin couldn’t drive past without stopping to taste. He let the kids try it and they liked it so much that he had to go back for seconds. Our main lunch stop was at Ultimate Burger which came highly recommended. The consensus was that it was good but not incredible. That was right next to Panda Express which is where I got some chow mien for me and Katie. Feeding the crew today was a process!  

By the time we got back to the hotel it was pretty late in the evening. ACJ needed to go back to the room to finish up some homework and so Justin took KD down to the pool for a few hours and I had to hit the gym since I mistakenly didn’t get credit on my watch for snorkeling.

Hawaii {Day 5} – School for some, Kona for others, Beach for all

Abigail had a midterm today at 6am and needed a place that would be completely private so Justin and I needed to vacate our room very early. Abigail had a full day of studying today so we decided to have JKD catch their classes as well. Carly also had some studying to catch up on. It was a lazy morning for me while I listened to a Instagram live from my documenting guru, Becky Higgins.  

Abigail’s Testing Center

Jason’s Classroom

Justin took Drew to a nearby beach and Carly and I went down to the pool for an hour or so with Katie before she started classes.

Carly and I decided to head into town to try an acai bowl and run a few errands. Justin wanted to join us. We decided to get the large açai bowls which I don’t regret but they were quite large and we could’ve easily shared two between the three of us.  We also swung by the Kona temple for a quick pic.

We also hit Costco to get some more macadamia clusters (we’ve eaten an entire container in 4 days!). The idea was to get back to the hotel and make a quick turnaround to the beach. But it always takes us much longer than we expected/should. We didn’t get to the Hapuna beach until 4pm. This is the same beach that we watched the sunset a few days ago. The kids took dozens of pictures on the GoPro.

It was way too cold for me to get wet so I sat onshore and tuned into a stake fireside on protecting young minds and online safety. It was long but interesting and definitely a conversation we need to revisit often with our kiddos. We stayed at the beach until the sun disappeared and then back to the room for showers and pizza. Our kitchen didn’t come with any flat pans so Justin had to put them straight on the racks which made a huge mess and resulted in a little paper towel fire. Abigail had another midterm to take tonight so we were once again kicked out of our room. I listened to a CFM podcast while Justin and Carly did work/homework. 

Hawaii {Day 4} – Green Beach, Black Beach and Volcano

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.