Hawaii 2009

Our trip to the Big Island of Hawaii over Labor Day weekend was a blast! Carys took right to the ocean this time and you couldn’t get her out. She kept her balance really well in the waves right from the get go and even tried swimming. Once again, sand was a big hit. We did A LOT of driving, including an all day trip around the island, and she did great. Only one major melt down at the end of the long island loop day that we have some funny video of that I’ll post later. Here are a few pictures from the trip. We’ve got a lot of video and once I get through looking at them all I’ll add a few clips.

A feral cat colony outside our balcony. We learned that the hotel has about 100 wild cats in several different colonies and that about 90% of them now are now fixed. The kittens get adopted out when the can find them. Every morning we had to look for the "moews" and they were by far her favorite thing at the hotel. Although, she was always a little disappointed when she would “call” (patting her hand on the ground or clapping) for them to come over to her and they wouldn’t.

An Irish restaurant/pub a block from the ocean, hence “Almost By The Sea”

The Waipi'o Valley

Once the home to many of the rulers of Hawaii.

A stop for lunch at Ken's House of Pancakes in Hilo during our unintentional trip around the island. We had only planned to go to Waimea for lunch but ended up being way too early (I had no idea it was so close to Kailua-Kona). We went on to the Waipi’o Valley but were still to early for lunch and decided to keep driving. Once you hit Hilo you’re at the halfway mark and it’s a little bit faster if you just keep going instead of turning around. Ken’s has been opened since the early 70’s and I’m sure has never seen any updating. I think our waitress had been working there since they opened. Carys is pouring coconut syrup, I think there was also mango. Sean had coconut pancakes, coconut inside, topped with coconut and served with coconut syrup. He said it's better than anything he's ever had at IHOP.

We stopped at this amazing black sand beach totally by chance. We were surprised how soft the sand is, by far the favorite beach we visited. The waves were a little rough, and I didn’t anticipate us getting in but Carys had other ideas.