Last year (2017) I took my family to the Big Island of Hawaii for a Christmas holiday. I’d been to the Big Island several times before – the first time back in 2002 and then again in 2006 and last year for work and an earlier trip to explore the possibility of buying some land in Kurtistown . Each trip had been about a week – so I suppose that means that all together, I’ve spent a little over a month on the Big Island. I love it and can’t wait to spend more time there.
The Christmas trip last year was by far the best – sure I wasn’t staying in the scientific barracks on Mauna Kea with all the astronomers, hiking through active lava fields, or even driving a convertable Mustang through Kohala with the wind blowing through my hair (hair that is now mostly gone, I might add). What made this trip special was being able to share it with my wife and daughter.
We stayed at the Hilton Double Tree in Hilo – a hotel which sits on one of the most scenic bays in the world. From there we explored in many directions. On Christmas Day, we went to the visitor center on Mauna Kea where there was a little bit of snow to play in. Another day we explored the Volcanoes National Park where we didn’t get to see huge lava flows (those came a few months later) but still got to see a little bit of activity in the distance.
It was fun to share the vast lava plains, the cold mountain tops, the rugged and raw beauty of Kapoho Bay (which completely filled in with lava during the eruption of 2018). We wandered around Hilo and Kailua-Kona (not to be confused with Kailua on Oahu). We explored the lava tree forest and Akaka Falls and we enjoyed almost every minute of it. Even better, Santa somehow found us in our hotel room (our six-year-old Sophia never bothered to ask why usually light packing Daddy brought a huge suitcase on this trip – hint: this was Santa’s bag). We almost had a not so perfect moment when we went down to get breakfast on Christmas morning and found out that there was a 2-3 hour wait in the hotel restaurant – but adapted and headed out into Hilo town where Ken’s House of Pancakes was open and working hard on Christmas morning.
This was a super fun trip and since this is a Friday Flashback – I’ll share a bunch of pictures since every picture really is worth at least a thousand words. Aloha and a hui ho and ho ho ho!
