Hawaii Baby!

We just got back from our week long trip to the Big Island of Hawaii. Baby M did quite well and I think he is ready for pretty much any trip we might want to do. Of course his favorite part of the trip was staying in the hotel and riding in a minivan, so he probably would have been just as happy in Cleveland, but mom and dad were quite pleased to be in a tropical paradise.

As you may recall, 4 days before leaving on this trip I learned that I had miscarried 11 weeks into my pregnancy. I had a D&C the next day and left for Hawaii with a bottle of antibiotics and strict instructions not to submerge my lower half in any sort of water for a week. That meant no snorkeling, no swimming and no relaxing in the jacuzzi while watching the sun set over the Pacific. Lucky for me the Big Island has lots to do and we kept busy with other activities.

The Big Island is, as the name indicates, big and if there is one thing I regret about our trip it's that we didn't plan out our week better. There are rocky, sandy, sunny, rainy and volcanic sides to the island. Each has interesting sites, but it can take several hours of driving on winding, 2 lane roads to get to the different areas. Our haphazard approach to sightseeing resulted in missing a few places we wanted to see and probably more time in the car than was really necessary. If you're going to try to see the entire island, I would suggest booking a few days on the Kona side and a few on the Hilo side to eliminate some of the driving.

We stayed at Aston Kona By the Sea in Kailua-Kona and shared a 2 bed/2 bath condo with some friends. The condo was reasonably priced and worked well for us. It was large, had a kitchen and laundry in the unit, a balcony overlooking the ocean and its carpet and wicker furniture were very kid friendly. The resort had a pool, jacuzzi and a strip of sand between the pool and the rocky coast. There are not a lot of sandy beaches around Kailua-Kona (mostly rocks) and since Baby M loves digging this strip was a key attraction for us.

A few of our other favorite activities:

Pu'uhonua o Honaunau - a national park and historical site, there are ancient structures and recreations of Hawaiian temples, plus there are huge sea turtles wandering around.

Chocolate Factory Tour - this was a very detailed tour explaining how the chocolate is grown and processed. The grounds are lovely and there are free chocolate samples.

Greenwell Coffee Tour - we went on tours of several coffee plantations and this one was our favorite, but the best tasting coffee was actually at the Mountain Thunder plantation.

Hilton Waikaloa Village - This resort feels a bit like "Las Vegas - Hawaii!!", but it was a nice place to visit with Baby M. There are boats and trains to get around, a dolphin pond, a protected sandy beach, bridges, waterfalls, basically if Baby M could design a hotel this would be it.

Mauna Kea Beach - Best beach on the island. Beautiful, sandy, waves just the right size for Baby M, fancy hotel bar nearby... I couldn't swim but I would have been happy laying on this beach all day.

Kilauea and Volcanoes National Park - Hawaii has an active volcano and if you are lucky you'll be able to see lava flowing into the ocean. We didn't plan ahead and weren't dressed appropriately for the hike down to the coast, and it probably would have been too difficult with Baby M anyway, but we did enjoy the film in the visitor center, walking through the lava tubes and watching the steam rise out of the crater.