Aloha Hawai'i

We had breakfast at Lulu's and enjoyed the Sunday football games. It was weird watching games that are normally televised at 12:00 noon at home, but it was at 7:00 am in the morning here. But hey it's football, right?! Nothing wrong with a couple of Bloody Marys at 7:00 on a Sunday morning, right? After the first set of games we went for a walk and took a few last pictures of Kona. Everything is so pretty here, the trees flower, the bushes flower, so much color. Jeff snorkeled off the lava rocks at the condo again and I swam in the pool. Took in the sun for a while and went back to Lulu's to watch the Sunday night football game at 2:00pm. Went downstairs to Bongo Ben's for dinner. We enjoyed our last evening on what has become our favorite spot (the lanai) and watched the sea splash against the lava rock. There's so much energy; the ocean pounding the rocks, yet it's so peaceful and calming.

Silly Tourists Banyan Tree Another Banyan Tree Scrubbing Bubbles Hut hut

We awoke at 4:00 am the next morning and decided to go back to bed where we slept until 7:30 am. It was a sad morning as we prepared to leave this slice of paradise. We packed our things for the 11:00 am check-out time. We paused to enjoy one last cup of coffee on the lanai and tried to etch the beauty into our minds. The sounds, the sights, the smells. We wrote a note of thanks in the guest book to our condo owners for making the condo available for our visit. We went down on the lava rocks and fed the eel; he looks about 3 feet long. There were two other eels but we can't tell how long they are, they seem intimidated by the alpha eel and didn't venture out more than a few inches from their hiding place in the rocks.

Eel's Tidal Pools Eel

We had several last hours to do something before we had to return the car so we drove up the highway to explore a lava tube we had seen a couple of days earlier. Lava tubes form because the outer surface of lava cools and forms a crust beneath which the lava continues to flow. Sometimes lava flows right out from under the crust and leaves a hollow 'tube'. We were told there are some over 20 miles long here.

Lava Tube

We are filled with beautiful memories of this trip to Hawai'i. We have seen and done so much here. Ate, walked, laughed and loved (or was it eat, pray, love?). Our 50th State has given us much to remember. We spent our last hours here driving and enjoying her beauty. It is with tears we leave you, Hawai'i, and are told by the locals that when you leave with tears you have truly enjoyed your stay. We checked out one last shoreline site; a beach area with primitive fish traps and some thatched huts and then turned in the rental car. There was a shuttle at the car rental that took us to the airport to await out flight home, back to our lives where our children and grandchildren await. Thank you, Hawai'i, for helping us celebrate, our 25th anniversary, our 50th state to visit, and our 50th state in which we have ridden a motorcycle. The baggage check this time was without the usual 'pull Joyce aside for a pat-down', but they did have us go through a second xraying of the luggage just before we boarded the plane due to the elevated security level. The flight took off at 8:50 pm Hawai'ian time and landed in Los Angeles on Tuesday at 5:02 am Pacific time. From there we flew to Minneapolis, then to Chicago where we landed at 2:30 pm Central time. That calculates to 17 or 18 hours, but was really only about 11 or 12 hours due to the time zones. Still, we were up at 7:30 am Hawai'ian time so we had basically been up for about 24 hours again. No wonder it takes a couple of days to recover from jet lag.

Aloha, Mahalo, and God Bless.

Mahalo

Lord, you establish peace for us; all that we have accomplished You have done for us.
Isaiah 26:12 (NIV)