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Today we ranged up and down the west coast of the Big Island, from Kona to about 25 miles north.
Stop One: Hapuna Beach. Our first stop for the day is a beautiful white sand beach. It doesn't have the character of the neat lagoon-beach in Hilo or the black sand beach down in the south, but it nonetheless is a gorgeous expanse of sand in front of a sand-filled bay. The water is also a bit warmer than any of our other swimming. It was very nice.
Stop Two: Lunch! We have lunch at a tasty taco and burger place! With super-friendly staff. Chicken verde tacos! (I am surprised to discover the chicken is breaded and fried, which makes it more tasty, but not something I'd usually order.)
Stop Three: Pu'ukohola Heiau. In trying to get back on the highway, we accidentally turn into Pu'ukohola Heiau, which is a historic site. In fact, it's a pretty notable historic site, because it was the home of King Kamehameha I. He built his temple to the war god here, assassinated his cousin here, took control of Hawaii from here, and then went on to take control of all the Hawaiian islands.
Anyway, his lava-stone temple to the war good, on the Hill of the Whale, is still standing there, and so is an older temple from the 1500s. We get to hike around in the hot sun and see them. I find it amazing that they're still standing, despite the fact that they're unmortared, and despite the fact that Hawaii has earthquakes, but there they are.
There used to be a temple to the shark god too, in the bay, but it's lost now, last seen in the '50s. Apparently, lots of sharks swim into that bay, and the king used to give them goodies there.
Stop Four: Puako Petroglyphs Field. A bit further south, we hit the petroglyph field we were actually aiming for. Just a little bit along the path there are a bunch of recently cut petroglyphs, and my theory is that they're their to dissuade tourists from going on to the actual petroglyphs. We continue on, though the path becomes a bit faint at that point, and soon we're heading through a super-cool forest that looks all dead at ground level, but has some greenery above us. The petroglyphs themselves are about .7 miles from the start of the path. We see maybe half-a-dozen though there are apparently thousands more if we continue on. We're content with a few men and sea turtles and such though. They're all pretty hard to see today, as they're mostly faded. But it's more cool history.
Stop Five: Kaloko-Honokohau Park. This is another historic park, though it's mostly big fields of lava stone. Melody loves the lava stone, but I'm pretty done with it by now. There are some paths up and around and through the lava stone and eventually going over to the beach. But we just spend 15 minutes here or so, and when our first path loops back to the parking lot, we decide we've had enough.
Stop Six: Shave Ice. A Hawaiian vacation isn't complete without shave ice. I have chocolate and strawberry from a place called Ululani's, and the chocolate in particular is quite good.
Stop One: Hapuna Beach. Our first stop for the day is a beautiful white sand beach. It doesn't have the character of the neat lagoon-beach in Hilo or the black sand beach down in the south, but it nonetheless is a gorgeous expanse of sand in front of a sand-filled bay. The water is also a bit warmer than any of our other swimming. It was very nice.
Stop Two: Lunch! We have lunch at a tasty taco and burger place! With super-friendly staff. Chicken verde tacos! (I am surprised to discover the chicken is breaded and fried, which makes it more tasty, but not something I'd usually order.)
Stop Three: Pu'ukohola Heiau. In trying to get back on the highway, we accidentally turn into Pu'ukohola Heiau, which is a historic site. In fact, it's a pretty notable historic site, because it was the home of King Kamehameha I. He built his temple to the war god here, assassinated his cousin here, took control of Hawaii from here, and then went on to take control of all the Hawaiian islands.
Anyway, his lava-stone temple to the war good, on the Hill of the Whale, is still standing there, and so is an older temple from the 1500s. We get to hike around in the hot sun and see them. I find it amazing that they're still standing, despite the fact that they're unmortared, and despite the fact that Hawaii has earthquakes, but there they are.
There used to be a temple to the shark god too, in the bay, but it's lost now, last seen in the '50s. Apparently, lots of sharks swim into that bay, and the king used to give them goodies there.
Stop Four: Puako Petroglyphs Field. A bit further south, we hit the petroglyph field we were actually aiming for. Just a little bit along the path there are a bunch of recently cut petroglyphs, and my theory is that they're their to dissuade tourists from going on to the actual petroglyphs. We continue on, though the path becomes a bit faint at that point, and soon we're heading through a super-cool forest that looks all dead at ground level, but has some greenery above us. The petroglyphs themselves are about .7 miles from the start of the path. We see maybe half-a-dozen though there are apparently thousands more if we continue on. We're content with a few men and sea turtles and such though. They're all pretty hard to see today, as they're mostly faded. But it's more cool history.
Stop Five: Kaloko-Honokohau Park. This is another historic park, though it's mostly big fields of lava stone. Melody loves the lava stone, but I'm pretty done with it by now. There are some paths up and around and through the lava stone and eventually going over to the beach. But we just spend 15 minutes here or so, and when our first path loops back to the parking lot, we decide we've had enough.
Stop Six: Shave Ice. A Hawaiian vacation isn't complete without shave ice. I have chocolate and strawberry from a place called Ululani's, and the chocolate in particular is quite good.