World Tour Stop 2 - Hawai'i

Heading to the other side of the world was a lot all at once, so we broke it up with a one week stop in Hawai'i (as far as stopovers go, it is pretty much the best one you can have). I've been to Hawai'i a number of times but this time we were fortunate enough to stay with friends that live in Hilo, so we could have a more local experience.

We flew from Portland into Kona where our lovely friends were waiting with fresh leis for us. It is actually funny how many lei stands are around catering to tourists. Not mad about it.

From here we enjoyed some mai tais at Foster's Bar in Kona and then had a wonderful evening where we failed to shake off the jet lag and woke up at 5AM. Fortunately the hotel had a wonderful gym that overlooked the bay so made for a great morning workout. That next day we had a great breakfast of mimosas, bloody marys, eggs and bacon and then headed to Hapuna beach for a wonderfully relaxing day of beers and unfortunate tan lines.

We headed across the island to Hilo after our beach day and then spent a couple of great days on the west side of the island. First we went to the green sand beach hike and then South Point cliff jump. If you are headed to the big island these are for sure some must see/do events. There are only 4 green sand beaches in the world and Papakolea is only a 2 mile hike from the car park and is so worth it. South Point is the southern most point in the United States (not to be confused with the point in Key West that is the a great photo op for the southern most point in the continental US). At the South Point there is a cliff jump spot that is about 10 yards to the right of the ladder, and 40 ft above the sea. Do it. Seriously, don't let nerves stop you as it is such an exhilarating and cool experience.

After a wonderful day on the south side of the island and a viewing of Game of Thrones that evening we decided to do Volcano National park the following day. There are a number of hikes and observation points but the ones we stopped at were the steam vents that overlook what was a crater until 2018's volcanic eruption leveled the crater walls, so a lot of this was actually blocked off. We then went down to the sea arch which is about a thirty minute drive and is so pretty. You can see the different volcanic eruption points and the way the island has grown over time. We then started back up and did the petroglyphs trail and followed that with the pu'ulu hike where it started raining but worth trekking though for the view at the end.

Our last day in Hilo we went to the resort in town (Hilo Hawaiian Hotel) and rented paddle boards (cheapest option as the other locations were at $35-50 while this one was $25) - paddle boarding was super fun but a little hard against the wind and current. We did a little more than an hour and then we visited rainbow falls and had dinner at Hilo Bay Cafe and had sushi!

On our final day we went back to Kona through the saddle ridge road (between mauna kea and mauna loa) and went to the royal kona hotel and used their pool until it was time to head out. Love everything about Hawai'i but spending time with great friends was the best part.

Food that you have to try -

Manopua - a pork filled bun that was delicious

poke - spicy and shoyu (soy sauce and sesame)

shrimp shumai - shrimp wrapped in a dumpling

calamari steak

spicy tuna sushi

so many mai tais :)

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