Hawaii Day 8

Today is our last day. :( Joe requested a late check-out of 2pm so we at least get to stay a little longer. Our flight isn't til 5:00 anyways so we wouldn't have really known what to do with all that time in between. We went and got our breakfast buffet for the last time (we actually made it there every day) and then went to watch the dolphins at the resort get their morning check-up and breakfast.



Decided to not be outside today cause my scalp is so burnt. I think someone should make SPF shampoo and conditioner. That would be brilliant.

So we're now at the airport waiting to leave the island. It was a very eventful trip! The only thing that disappointed me was that neither the airport nor the hotel greeted us with a lei. I thought that was customary, but I guess it's not to be expected anymore. The rest of today should be uneventful (hopefully).

I've posted more pics on facebook and more videos on utube.


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Location:Big Island of Hawai'i

Hawaii Day 7

Yesterday was our 5-year anniversary! This trip has been an amazing way to celebrate it.

We started off the day with our catamaran ride and coral reef snorkel. We actually left our rings in the room so they couldn't fall off while snorkeling. Sorta funny that we don't wear our rings on our anniversary. Some irony for the day. Unfortunately today was the one overcast day we've had here, but at least it stopped raining before we left on the boat.
The boat ride to the reef was about 45 minutes and they served fruit and muffins on the way. Once we arrived to the monument where the snorkeling took place, we got on our gear and went out. Because it was morning and overcast the water was freezing, however once we were all the way in it wasn't too bad. I personally preferred the snorkeling at the resort's lagoon cause we saw more. This trip was cool to see the coral reef, but as far as fish there weren't too many.



And there weren't any sea turtles like we got to swim with in the lagoon. I got out a little early and just enjoyed relaxing on the boat.


We got some underwater pictures but will have to post those later after we get them developed.

They called everyone in about an hour later for a cookout. The hot captain and other boat workers grilled up some burgers and dogs, along with beans, fruit and chips for a great lunch. Why are guys who work on boats in tropical places always smokin' hot? Maybe cause they're super tan and ripped. Joe and I stayed on the boat for the second half of snorkeling and the sun finally started coming out right before it was time to go.



As they were calling everyone back to the boat, a group of about 60-100 spinner dolphins made their way to the catamaran! We got to watch them go crazy spinning in the water. It was very cool. Too bad they came over too late cause they got so close that we could have actually swam with them.



On our boat ride back I actually fell asleep cause it was so relaxing.

Shortly after we got back it was time for our anniversary dinner! We asked the valet how often the shuttle comes by for the Kings/Queens shops (where the restaurant was at) and some people who just had their car pulled up overheard us and offered to take us. Such nice people here. So they dropped us off and they continued on to their 25 year high school reunion. Once we were seated at the restaurant we were baffled to open our menus and see this.



Our orientation lady made our reservations so she must have told them. We had nice indoor seats overlooking a lake behind the restaurant and ordered a bottle of wine.



Joe's sister and brother-in-law had given us a gift card for this place so we went all out. We got an awesome "canoe" appetizer which ended up being my favorite part.


I got the 75% lamb meatloaf and Joe got shatome fish.






We then finished it off with a pineapple upside down cake a la mode which ended up being on the house for our anniversary!



We were even greeted with a "Happy Anniversary" on our way in and our way out. These people were good! We then walked back to the resort after a long and fulfilling day.

There have been very few times in my life that I have felt this tired. And it's obvious I have used many muscles on this trip that I never use cause I can feel every single one of them. I'm so happy Monday is a holiday.

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Hawaii Day 6

We started off today with our dreaded timeshare pitch that we chose to sit through to get our discounted activities. Little did we know that by 2:00 we'd be Hawaii Hilton owners. What the hell?!?! We're so excited! We bought a timeshare through Hilton and we can basically use it at like 10,000 properties across the world, but we're deeded at Kingsland on Big Island, Hawaii. This will be something we can share with our families and pass down to our children, not to mention force us to take a memorable trip every year for the rest of our lives. Needless to say, we didn't do anything we were thinking about doing today cause that ended up taking 6 hours. But it's okay cause we'll now be back often to do everything on our list. :)

For dinner we went to KPC at the resort for a front row ocean view dinner.


The food was great and the weather was perfect. Joe got a tomato salad and monchong fish.






And I got a Caesar salad and crabcakes.



We finished it off with cheesecake. YUM! I maybe stole a bite before this picture got taken.



We then came back to the room where I caught the season premier of So You Think You Can Dance - one of my favorite shows!


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Location:Big Island of Hawai'i

Hawaii Day 5

Originally we were going to do the full day volcano tour today, but we both were having a hard time getting excited about it. You don't actually get to see the red lava in the volcano unless you take the helicopter ride and we couldn't get excited about seeing steam. So we decided to enjoy the amenities of the resort instead.

It started off with another fulfilling breakfast at the buffet.






We then headed to the lagoon for some laying out and water fun.
The resort is only at 45% occupancy so it sorta feels like we have this place to ourselves. It's not crowded at all. Apparently this is the best time of year to come because school is ending and parents don't want their kids to miss their last couple weeks. Something to keep in mind when you plan your next vacation if you don't have kids.

We both snorkeled again. I'm slowly getting better. We saw a few schools of fish and swam with 6 large sea turtles! That would be Joe out in the water.



I learned what it's like to get attacked by coral today as well. I stood on what I thought was a rock to re-adjust my mask and thought I just scraped my ankle on the rock. I felt it but definitely didn't think it broke skin or anything. Wasn't until 20, 30 minutes later that we got out of the lagoon when I realized my ankle was bleeding. It didn't hurt at all but coral definitely makes you bleed non-stop. It actually looks pretty nasty. As I write this 4 hours later it is STILL bleeding.

Later while I was laying out I overheard the woman next to me talking about Ft. Wayne, Indiana which is where we're from! I butted in and found out she used to live in Indianapolis and her brother lived in Fort Wayne. She now lives in Hawaii. Once again, small world. After about 3 hours of fun in the sun we decided to do our miniature golf rematch. Joe still beat me but I improved by 9! Go me!












We then passed by an empty hammock and listened to the ocean for a bit.







After showering up, we headed to The Boat Pavilion restaurant on site so I could get my hamburger. That was my one and only food request for this week. Afterwards we headed back to Mololo Lounge for some drinks and live entertainment.



I've had a good mixture of beach drinks while here - Lava Flow, Mai Tai, The Pipeline, Kona Colada and The Bikini. LF and KC are my favorites by far.

The days here seem so long, which I'm not complaining about. Since we couldn't figure out what to do tonight when it felt like 11 but it was only 8, I suggested we pose with the millions of dollars of art they have displayed around the resort, so that's what we did.














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Hawaii Day 4

This day 4 blog has caused me so many problems and I've had to rewrite so many sections of it that I don't care how it's written. Sorry for it's bluntness.

We were early risers today to make the trip to Waipi'o Valley. Got our daily breakfast and took off in our awesome Kia Rondo rental. The valley is in a town called Honoka'a on the north side of the island. This side is much more green because they get more rainfall. It's crazy the difference in climate in such a small area. I think the trip around the entire island is 222 miles but the west side only gets 10 inches of rain a year whereas the east side gets about 150. We're on the side with less rain and haven't had any rain since we've been here!

We got to Waipi'o Valley extra early so we just waited looking at the amazing countryside. It looked more like Wyoming than Hawaii.




While we were sitting in our car waiting at this ranch a guy came out from somewhere and immediately reminded me of Mose from Dwight's beet farm. If you watch The Office you know exactly who I'm talking about. The only difference was this guy was shirtless and muscular instead of wearing a button-up with suspenders. He first appeared coming towards us with a wheelbarrow. He then stopped a distance away and began stretching. Then he just took off running. I have no idea where to but he ran as if he forgot to do the most important thing in his life. Then he came walking back towards the wheelbarrow and the second he got to it he took off running again, this time with the wheelbarrow, as fast as he could possibly go. Again, he didn't seem to be running anywhere in particular. All I could think of this whole time was Mose which just made it even funnier to me. The next time he appeared he came up over a hill on a 4-wheeler going like 40 miles an hour while eating a banana. He passed our car, went out of sight, and then reappeared but this time behind some trees. And just sat there on his vehicle with his banana peering out from a bunch of brush and trees. I'm really wishing I had taken a picture of him. I expected him to be mute like Mose but I did eventually hear him talk.

As we sat there waiting 2 more cars pulled up, one with a couple and one a family of four. We learned that the couple is from Cape Coral, FL which is where some of our family lives. The lady even went to and works at FGCU which is where 3 of my cousins go/went. Small world!

So after checking in, eating an apple banana from their banana trees, and meeting a 7-month old puppy, we loaded up in the van.

The van tour took us on the most bumpy, windy, steep trail of road we've ever been on. This area is 100% private property, so unless you're a trespasser the only way to see it is on such a tour as we took, but the view was outstanding.



At one point we stopped to get a view of the tallest waterfall in the state at 1300 ft.




You can see it way off in the distance between the two shaded parts of the mountain.
We eventually reached the stables where we saw our horses waiting.




I was given the white one named Mauna Kea, which is the name of a volcano here. Joe got Alla. The ride was awesome and I'll let the pictures and videos speak for themselves.
















My horse liked walking so far to the side that he was dragging me through all the overhanging branches and plants. When I would guide him away he would just move to the other side of the trail and do the same thing to the other side of my body. At one point someone saw a huge spider on my horse. I thought I got him off but soon after someone saw it on my leg. I do not do spiders and this was the scariest looking spider I've ever seen in person. It had a bright yellow butt and brown and black striped legs. And did I mention it was huge?! Luckily my guide saved me and brushed it off along with a dead bee that was stuck in a spiderweb strung across my leg that was probably supposed to be that spider's lunch. Aside from the webs, bugs and sore butt it was a fun little adventure with stunning scenery.

After the horseback ride we drove to a restaurant called Tex for lunch, which we had heard about. It was in the small town of Honoka'a filled with locals. Tex is known for their malasadas which are really thick square donuts covered in sugar. Very good!

On our way back to the hotel we saw a sand devil which is like a little twister made of sand that starts from the ground up.



It eventually got longer and thinner until it finally dispersed.

Once we returned we decided to sit out on a cabana chair and enjoy the breeze for a couple hours until the sun set.




I love this picture cause you can see the sunset in his glasses.



As we waited, we saw the fire thrower from the luau running across the entire resort barefoot lighting the torches.



At 6:45 we got to see the Hawaiian sunset. Apparently the sunset is always 180 seconds long every night from the time it touches the horizon until it disappears no matter what time of year it is. It looked like a beachball bouncing in the water as it went down.











We finished the night at the Mololo Lounge. I, being who I am, ordered a full wine glass of chocolate mousse for dinner. Joe got fish.

More pics on facebook and to see videos just go to uTube and search for videos by jamiemikol.

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Location:Big Island of Hawai'i

Hawaii Day 3

Today started off with relaxing on the balcony while Joe went to work out. I got a friendly aloha shoutout from a canal boat driver passing by with no passengers. And I also got to see a feral kitty roaming the sidewalk below. I saw a sign today stating that the property takes care of the feral cats you see wandering around, so that makes me feel better cause I've seen about 5 so far. They're not bothersome. They just pass by every once in a while...or take cat naps on cabana chairs. :)

Once Joe returned we headed to the breakfast buffet. Unfortunately we went towards the end so it was mostly scraps leftover. We learned our lesson on that and will go earlier from now on. We then made a quick Walmart run to buy a few staples for the week. Would rather spend $5 on a 24-pack of water opposed to one bottle.

We then headed to the lagoon for some Hawaiian sun!






Joe went out in the water to practice snorkeling. He actually got me to go out and give it a try as well. I've never snorkeled in my life and if you know me well I am so not a water person. I love looking at the water, being on a beach and being on a boat but doing things in the actual water is scary to me. I sorta got it down but could definitely use more practice. At least I didn't inhale any water and choke. Joe saw a bunch of sea turtles in the lagoon but I didn't see any. :( I did see some fish though. This is me trying to get out of the water (from really far away).




Joe really wanted to get sushi for his birthday but since the luau was on his bday we went tonight.


We went to a place called Sansei and sat at the sushi bar so we got personal attention from the sushi rollers. I'm not a fan so I got some noodle thing, but Joe left very fulfilled. We then walked around the king and queen shops which are two little shopping areas down the road from our resort. We followed that with an evening walk around the resort seeing even more spots that we hadn't discovered yet. This place keeps getting bigger by the day. And there was a beautiful sunset tonight, although this picture doesn't do it justice.



When we got back to the room The Bachelorette season premier happened to just be starting so I got stuck watching it and I think I'm now hooked for the season. Dangit!

Now that we've gotten some relaxation out of our systems, we begin more of our adventurous activities tomorrow so I'm really excited! One thing I've noticed here is the two main places tourists stay are Kona (east side) and Hilo (west side), but all the non-resort activities are on the north and south ends so you basically have to travel to do any of them.

Tomorrow: horseback riding through Waipi'o Valley!


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