IN KONA WITH KIM!

First, we want to apologize for not posting anything in so long. We had been stealing internet from our landlord (she knows) since we got here. But, the connection wasn't strong enough and so just when I would be finished writing the whole post on Kona, the connection would die and I would lose anything. Yesterday, Adam and I went to Verizon and finally got hooked up. We now have a MiFi. It's basically an internet hotspot that you can take with you anywhere you go and have wireless internet. It's pretty cool, so that's how I'm able to post stories now.

Getting to our Kona trip.....Kim was in town for a week and Adam and I only had to check in to work for a few minutes on two different days, so we decided to explore Kona on the other side of the Big Island for 2 days. We planned on leaving later in the day on Friday, but since none of us had adjusted to the time change yet, we were all ready to go by 6:30am! Adam even made us a hearty scrambled egg breakfast (no bacon). In our Big Island guide book, we had read about some interesting places to stop on the way to Kona. Our first stop was at Rainbow Falls. I actually work right down the street from Rainbow Falls at Hale Anuenue Restorative Care Center. "Hale" means house and "anueanue" means rainbow. So I work at the House of Rainbows. Anyway, I digress. The Falls is called Rainbow falls because supposedly, on most mornings, you can see a rainbow. This largely depends on the weather, and on this day in Hilo, like many days in Hilo, it happened to be raining. So we saw no rainbow. But, it was still really pretty and we got some good pictures:

Kim and me by Rainbow Falls:

Rainbow falls is in this really lush rain forest that has these huge Banyan Trees that are really pretty. Here's Adam and Kim in the Banyan Tree:
Next, we decided that we wanted to "frolic in a waterfall", and we found an entry in our guide book that promised just that. So we pulled out car off the road at the mile marker our book instructed us to do so at. We donned our newly purchased reef shoes and started on our trek on the "short 10 minute hike" that the book promised. There was a ton of mud and the trees were thick.... the book should have told us to bring machetes because at some points, we weren't even sure if we were still on a trail. Long story short, eventually the trail just got completely lost and so we turned around to go back. We did see the waterfall that they promised we could frolic in, but we just couldn't figure out how to get close to it. So, we have no pictures and did no frolicking. But, we were good and muddy and ready to continue on to Kona

To get to Kona, we took the northern route around the island and drove through lush rain forests that quickly turned into volcano land. Lava rocks are everywhere in the northern part of the Big Island. It took us about 2hrs to get to Kona via the norther route. We were told that it's quicker to cut through the middle of the island on Saddle Road, but Hertz told us we weren't allowed to take our rental car. Anyway, we got to the Sheraton and went in to unload our things and relax a bit.

Here is the view from our room... sweet! You can see the waves crashing

on the rocks behind the trees

After a little R and R we decided to continue R and R-ing at the hotel pool. They have a pretty awesome water slide that we all enjoyed. Here I am on the slide!

We did go to a beach that day as well. The concierge told us it was one mile down the road and that we could walk. We think that she needs to check her odometer because it was at least 2 miles and it was hotter than you know what outside and we were in the blazing sun the entire way. Once we got there we were disappointed. There were a lot of rocks and the waves were pretty high and strong. People were going in and snorkeling but mostly with reef shoes (we hadn't brought ours to the beach). No one was really laying on the beach either because the sand was coarse and just not comfortable. We were weenies and left pretty quickly. We found out later that this is one of the best places to snorkel.... we've been back since and will write about it soon. It took us FOREVER to get home because we wanted to take the trolley but couldn't find it and then couldn't find a cab. It's a good thing we left when we did, because we had to get ready for the luau that we had bought tickets for.

The Luau we went to was at the Royal Kona Hotel. Again, the concierge told us that a cab ride to the Luau would cost us $7. Try $25!!! This lady needs to check her information. Anyway, this Luau had open bar, and a buffet, along with a show.

Here we are before the show:

They cook the pig in something called an "imu". It's basically a pit, and they cook in there all day. This is what the pig looks like when take it out of the imu.

We enjoyed the open bar, mostly mai tais. Beth learned what heartburn was for the first time and had to cut back on the mai tais. We tried lots of knew things including poi and lomi lomi. Poi is made from a root (like Kava - hahaha) and is ground up into a sort of liquidy paste. Adam had tried poi before but Kim and I had not. I really wanted to like it. I enjoy most foods and have a pretty open mind but........ it was horrible! It tasted like rotten cheese! Kim didn't like it either. I later found out from people at work that if it sits out too long it can turn sour - so maybe that was the case. I just can't bring myself to try it again yet. The lomi lomi was ok. It's basically salmon and tomatoes chopped up into a salsa. I should have taken pictures but I didn't. We're going to another Luau when our friends Lesa and Matt come to visit in a few weeks so we'll take pictures then.

Anyway, here we are at dinner:

The show at the Luau was pretty good. They had all sorts of Polynesian dancers and showed you all the different ways you could tie a sarong. The fire dancer was our favorite part of the show.

Here's a video of the fire dancer..... hopefully it works!

We went out to a bar in Kona after that for a few drinks and then took our $25 cab ride home. Luckily, on the way home, we met Dennis from Cruisin Taxi. Dennis is the dispatcher and one out of three drivers for this family owned cab company. He didn't stop talking the entire time he drove us home, but he did stop the meter when it hit $20. We gave him a $5 tip to thank him. We see more of Dennis later on our next visit to Kona which I'm sure we'll be writing about soon

The next day we had to head back to Hilo relatively early so that Adam and I could go get our TB tests read. No fun. So we went into town to find a cool place to eat breakfast. This was possibly the best part of our trip to Kona. The breakfast spot is called Java on the Rocks. This, and it's sister restaurant, Huggos, were established long enough ago, that they were grandfathered into the zoning laws regarding how close a business can be to the water. So, this place is literally on the rocks. It's pretty outside, under a tent, and on the beach. There's no floor, just sand.

Here's the outside of Java on the Rocks from the street:

Here's the view from where we had our breakfast:

Here are Kim and I enjoying our coffee. Our table was literally right in front of where we're standing. It was great!

We had a hard time leaving our new favorite breakfast, but had to get back to Hilo.

That's pretty much it for our quick trip to Kona. Adam and I checked in to work later that day and had satellite tv installed in our place, with the NFL package, of course! Did you know that most football games are at 7am Hawaii time? Did you also know that Adam can miraculously get out of bed that early on a Sunday??? Promise it won't be so long until our next post since our internet is now up and running!

OUR FIRST DAY IN HILO

So..... after a very long day of traveling, we finally arrived in Hilo on the Big Island of Hawai'i! This blog will be dedicated to describing our travels around the islands of Hawai'i over the next three months while we are here for work. For those reading this who don't know.... we were married on Sept 6th in Boston, MA, ran away to Aruba for 10 days for our honeymoon, and then ended up in Hawai'i. We are both here to work at rehab centers in the city of Hilo which is on the eastern side of the Big Island.

First, a little about Hilo: This is the rainiest place in the United States and we are here during the rainy season! Hilo can get 75 to 125 inches of rain per year!!! But, it doesn't rain all the time (so they promise us). According the research we've done, and what we've experienced so far, it's mostly sunny and rains at somepoint every day. The rain keeps everything lush and green and very tropical.

We arrived on the Sept 23rd, exhausted from the trip. We stayed up as late as we could but were in bed by 8pm (2am eastern standard time). We awoke at 4am the next day to roosters and were wide awake. We got out of bed, got ready, took showers, went to breakfast, grocery shopping, and to Walmart and were home by 9am! We had to check into work for a bit and then decided to do a bit of site seeing.

Here is Adam carrying some of our luggage into our new house. We have orange trees and avocado trees in the back yard and the people next door have a pet goat!

Our first sight seeing stop was along a scenic route along route 19, in a rainforest, right outside of Hilo. Everything was sooo green and tropical and it was, of course, drizzling here and there. We were told not to leave our rental car in any secluded areas because there is a good chance it will get broken into. This area was pretty secluded so we didn't wander too far. But we did stop long enough to see the beautiful views and snap a picture.

Here I am at the scenic overlook:

Next, we decided to drive over to Akaka Falls, also just outside of Hilo. The waterfall here is 442 ft high. We didn't have a long time to explore the area because we had to check in at work. We had just enough time to check out the falls and head out...... here we are:

Our next stop before having to go do our pre-employment screens was for something cool to drink - we were thirsty! All I really wanted was water, but when we happened in to this little coffee shop called the Bayfront, they had all these different types of something called Kava. I had never heard of Kava and asked the man working there what it was. He told me "Kava makes people happy and it's completely legal!" He said he has it every day and is always happy. He brought us outside and showed us what the Kava plan looks like. Here it is right in front of the shop. It's made from the root of the plant.

So I thought, what the heck as he scooped some up with a cocunut shell for me to try. It tastes pretty bad! Then, he said we needed to taste it in it's concentrated form and dropped some into our mouths using an eye dropper. It was gross! Not only that, but it made our tongues and throats go completely numb. I started to feel a little funny and it seemed Adam was feeling the same. I grabbed the bottle off the counter and read: "Do not drive or operate heavy machinery while taking kava".... then we got really nervous because we had to take drug test in about 30 minutes. The man working at Bayfront assured us we would pass. So we left after buying a bottle of Kava and an iced coffee for Adam. Here's what it looks like when you buy it:
When we got home (after passing our drug tests - thank God!) I did some research to see what Kava is all about. Apparently it's used by Polynesians as a sedative and according to Wikipedia "without disrupting mental clarity". One study did find that it was more effective than placebo for the treatment of social anxiety, although there is concern over liver toxicity. I'm glad we tried it, but I think I'll stay away. There are enough recreational activities we partake in that taste good and help with social anxiety that are also bad for the liver!

Anyway - we went to go get Kim for the airport. We decided to keep her up as late as possible to help her with her jet lag. We went to a sports bar in Hilo called Cronies. Here we are:

Kim looks a little tired, but it could just be the mai tais! That's all for now. We are in Kauai as I'm writing this..... but more about that later. We miss you!