This year, between Thanksgiving and Christmas, Shanna and I took the kids to the Big Island of Hawaii for a wonderful [re: warm] vacation. The weather cooperated the entire time with just enough sun every day, and no rain until the day we left.
We stayed at the Hilton Waikoloa Village just north of Kona about 30 minutes. It was a great resort for the kids with multiple pools, a protected saltwater lagoon and seemingly endless pathways through palm trees and lizard-laden vegetation.
The Island of Hawaii is quite large, and we ended up putting over 500 miles on the rental Jeep driving to and fro and all the way around. The terrain and the subsequent amount of annual rainfall varies wildly from area to area, so the island is full of contrasts. Barren lava fields to snowy high mountaintops to rainforest to volcano, all surrounded by some really sweet beaches.
Overall, aside from a little motion sickness puking and a lot of sticker shock after each meal, we had a fantastic time and plan to return ASAP.
The thumbnail below will link to an album of lots of pictures, and I'll put some of my favorites further down below as well.
We stayed at the Hilton Waikoloa Village just north of Kona about 30 minutes. It was a great resort for the kids with multiple pools, a protected saltwater lagoon and seemingly endless pathways through palm trees and lizard-laden vegetation.
The Island of Hawaii is quite large, and we ended up putting over 500 miles on the rental Jeep driving to and fro and all the way around. The terrain and the subsequent amount of annual rainfall varies wildly from area to area, so the island is full of contrasts. Barren lava fields to snowy high mountaintops to rainforest to volcano, all surrounded by some really sweet beaches.
Overall, aside from a little motion sickness puking and a lot of sticker shock after each meal, we had a fantastic time and plan to return ASAP.
The thumbnail below will link to an album of lots of pictures, and I'll put some of my favorites further down below as well.
Long flights, sleepy kids
Water, water and more water
Some nighttime shots
Mr.Pig went to a Luau
Jeep hair
Jeeping lava everywhere
It wouldn't be vacation without a little fishing now would it?
This one's for Aunt Sally
At the Botanical Gardens
This one's for Gramma Linda
My Shorty showing off her guns
Stricken with volcanic fumage
Waiting and waiting, in the rain, for a late night flight back home :(
