I didn't have internet access on our trip, but I took pictures and notes every day-- so you are going to get a week's worth of posts all at once.
Some background: Marc and I LOVE Hawaii. This is our third trip-- our first time to the Big Island we went with my extended family-- my parents, brother and grandparents for my parent's 25th wedding anniversary-- only a few months after our wedding. We didn't see a whole lot of the island, due to the size of our group and age of some of our party. It was more about family togetherness than excursions. Our second trip, to Maui was in 2006, and it was an amazingly fun time-- we did and saw just about everything there was to see and do-- our best vacation ever, and the last one we had taken until now. My parents have a timeshare where they pay a fee each year and accumulate points that can be spent at locations all around the country. They were not going to be able to use their points this year and they were set to expire so they offered them to us, which is how we ended up going. The other thing I should mention is that I highly recommend the book "Hawaii Big Island Revealed"-- we used this author's book in Maui as well and it is written by a long time Hawaii resident-- it's fantastic.
On our first day we got up early to make our 10am flight. Marc's parents caravan-ed with us to the airport, where we parked our car in Marc's dad's spot (he works at the airport) and then they drove us to the gate. I had packed organic turkey pepperoni sticks, carrots, bell pepper slices, larabars and fruit for the flight. They also served a "meal" consisting of a tiny serving of pasta and a brownie-- I gave mine to Marc. We arrived in Maui and had a bumpy, turbulent landing which made me nauseated-- I should mention I am extremely prone to motion sickness, an issue that will come up repeatedly over the course of my posts about this trip. We had a brief layover in Maui where I went searching for something carbonated to settle my stomach without high fructose corn syrup and failed-- I ended up buying vitamin water from a vending machine-- I figured the coldness and the potassium would help. I also took a couple ginger capsules, which did little for me. Fortunately the short flight from Maui to Kona was uneventful.
We arrived in Kona at 3pm Hawaii time, 6pm Seattle time, starving, tired and cranky. We went in search of dinner and stopped at the first Thai food place we found-- the restaurant was empty given the time of day and perhaps we should have taken that as a sign. We had what was undoubtedly the worst Phad Thai EVER. It was barely edible-- I ate half of it because I was ravenous, but everything from the chicken to the noodles was dry and overcooked, and surprisingly flavorless. There was also a couple of random old looking shrimp on the plate that completely grossed me out.
Back on the road we went to three stores-- Costco, Safeway and a Natural Foods store to get supplies for our trip before heading to our first condo which was a little remote and a good hour and a half away from any stores. Food is very expensive in Hawaii-- I was excited to find kombutcha at the health food store, but didn't buy any when I discovered it cost $5.20 for a bottle! I tried to choose things that would be simple and quick to make-- I'm not sure if it was really any cheaper to make food, but it was easier for me with my food restrictions and took less time than finding a restaurant three times a day.
We arrived at the condo around 7pm (10 in Seattle) and Marc went immediately to the bed and passed out in his clothes. I put the groceries away and went to bed a bit later after I applied a half of a prescription motion-sickness patch (it makes me sleepy and I'm very sensitive to medication so I don't use a whole one-- I found that out when we were in Maui).
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