Week 2 of Our Fabulous Honeymoon--Hawaii "The Big Island", Kona side

As soon as we got to Kona, we knew it was going to be a completely different vibe, and it was.  In my eyes, it seemed more livable, and less touristy.  When we were there, we spent less time as the resort during the day, and more time at the beach and checking out the sites that the island had to offer.  We took our first trip to Volcanoes National Park.  We didn't get to see lava flowing, but pretty dang close.  We took a 4 mile hike that partly went around the rim of the crater, and then the other part hiked right across the center of it.  We were so tiny compared to the perimeter of the crater's edge.  Since it had just rained, you could see tons of crevices that were steaming because the lava underneath was still so hot.  You can see in the pic below that Dana's hand it hurting because of the steam being so hot.  While he may be acting a bit, you really couldn't leave your hand there for more than a couple seconds.  The next pic below that is me, standing in a lava tube.  Lava tubes are created by lava flow hardening at the surface while its on its way to the ocean, creating a tube.

Another fun adventure we took was coffee tasting.  Since Kona coffee is the best coffee in the world, and Dana and I are coffee drinkers, we were excited to see the process of coffee growing from the cherries on the tree all the way to roasting the beans.  Here is me, in the rows of coffee trees.

We also took a whole day trip to Hilo, which was on the other side of the island.  We weren't as impressed as we thought we would be, but we both agreed that if we didn't go, we would always wonder if we were missing something.  We checked out a few sites, but had to get really creative with our time.  My only memory of it is the huge Banyan trees along the edge of one of the roads, and the huge desserts we ordered at Coconut Grill, we couldn't decide on something to share, so we both ordered our own--not ever recommended. :)  Below is a Banyan Tree, see if you can find Dana!

Most of the time that we spent in Kona, we went to the beach.  The water was beautiful, the sun was shining, and we just couldn't resist.  We did our research, and went to see the most interesting beaches we read about or were told about by the locals.  One beach was famous for their sea turtle population, but at the time we got there, it wasn't their time to lay out on the beach.  We only saw them swimming in the water.

We went to Mauna Kea beach, which is somewhat exclusive and rated one of the best beaches in the world.

We went to a black sand beach, but only went quickly to see it and take a few pics.

And then we went to a beach close to our resort where snorkeling was good.  Unfortunetly, with the waves being so high most of the week, we only had one good day of snorkeling.  Well, Dana did.  I had fun snorkeling for the first time, until I inhaled a mouthful of water, yuck!  But, it was beautiful!  We were swimming with 4 sea turtles that were so close, we could've easily touched them.  Here are some pics Dana got underwater...so cool!!!

Of course there is so much more that we did and so many things that we didn't get to do...this just touches on how much fun we really had.  To see all of the pictures from our "Big Island" trip, you can go to our photo gallery: http://danaandbrooke.com/g-1157-the-big-island-kona.html