Our honeymoon started as a gift from Joy's family friends, Janie and Tom Lindsay. They gave us a week stay in their timeshare, and we had to pick where we wanted to go, and when. We searched based on where they had timeshares available and decided that we would go to Hawaii. We booked our stay with the Wyndham in Kona on the Big Island and began figuring out other arrangements. Planning the honeymoon was a lot of fun!
We started looking at airfare prices, and we were planning to leave on Christmas Eve, because that would put us in Kona at the right time to check in to our condo. The airfare prices were a bit high, and we thought for a while before checking some other dates. We decided that it would be worth paying for a hotel for a couple extra days in Hawaii if we saved some money on the airfare. We saved quite a bit by going 3 days early, and we booked the flight, and 3 nights at the Hilton Hawaiin Villiage in Honolulu, right on Waikiki Beach!
When we landed in Honolulu we were anxious to get to our hotel and check in. We were tired and hungry from the trip and just wanted to relax. We found a cab and told the driver where we were going, and we were off. Then traffic. It seemed like it was jus there to highten the anticipation...and finally we arrived. The hotel was more like a miniature city, huge high rise buildings, with shops and restaraunts on the ground floor. Enough of this lets check in and find some dinner.
We didnt have to wait long to get through the line at checkin, and they were wonderful. We had signed up for an upgrade online, basically we paid an extra 10$ a night, and if they had suites available they would give us one, if not we got our 30 bucks back. They had one available...up to the 27th floor of the Rainbow Tower, right on the beach. We opened the door and were amazed once again that this was really our life!
There were two 5foot sliding glass doors in the corner of the room, one overlooking the city of Honolulu (which is quite a site in the evenings), and the other looking out at the ocean and over Waikiki Beach. With the doors open we could hear a live band playing in one of the restaraunts downstairs, and the Luao music from the other door. We enjoyed that for a moment, before the hunger took over and we were back in the elevator to find a place to eat.
We sat down in the out-door dining room overlooking the ocean and the beach lit by tiki torches and ordered a couple drinks, pina coloda for me and a mai tai for Joy. I'm pretty sure I ended up with the Mai Tai because the Pina Coloda was rediculously good. We ate a tasty meal and walked around for a few minutes before we gave into the exhaustion from travel and went to bed.
We woke up early the next morning and made the complimentary Kona Coffee they leave in the room. Sipping fresh coffee on the balcony overlooking the ocean before there's anyone on the beach making noise, or splashing in the waves...it was awesome. We repeated this every morning in Honolulu. We went downstairs and thought we would search a bit for a place for breakfast. Down the road we found a path that ended up leading to the beach by the outrigger, we met a guy who signed us up for some discounted tours for a dinner cruise and Pearl Harbor...but more importantly, he sent us to the Shore Bird for breakfast.
The Shore Bird had a breakfast buffet, fresh fruit, ham, bacon, cheese, french toast with coconut syrup...the whole 9 yards. It was fantastic, and we came back again before we left for Kona. We enjoyed our breakfast then spent some time on the beach back at the Hilton. Later that evening we went on our dinner cruise...which was more of a Macarena party for the Japanese Tourists...I felt like we fell for some sort of scam, which made me nervous about the trip to Pearl Harbor the next morning.
Up early the next morning, coffee, balcony...you know the drill. We both decided after going to Pearl Harbor that it wasnt right to share those pictures online. It wasn't a "wow this is cool" type of place, more somber and it deserves respect. I'll gladly share the pictures with folks in person, but it's something that folks should make an effort to see for themselves if possible. It was a pretty powerful experience.
We spent the rest of the afternoon on a guided tour around Honolulu, our driver "cousin Dave" showed us around, gave us fun facts...and made us laugh. It was a nice tour and by the end of it I was glad we took the trip, coulda done without the Macarena Cruise, but the Pearl Harbor/Honolulu tour was great. We spent the evening enjoying food at the Hilton, a few drinks, and some Ice Cream.
The next day it was off to the Big Island, after coffee on the patio of course. The flight was at 1PM, so we waited til 10:30 or so to check out of the hotel, it seemed as wonderful as the Hilton was that the Wyndham was going to be a let down, so we were sad to leave. We loaded our things into the cab and off to the airport. Once we finally got on the place and in the air, it was only about 35 minutes before we landed on the Big Island. Off the plane and over to baggage claim, we quickly got our bags and headed for the car rental...I was very excited to pick up our rental car...a Jeep Wrangler!
We got the Jeep and immediately put the top down...so nice to drive with the wind blowing all around you and the sun shining down. It was about a half hour down the highway to Kona, the speed limit drops to 15 and there are stores and restaraunts on the left and the ocean on the right...white sand and black lava rocks with the waves crashing over them. We drove right through the little town and found the Wyndham...we were a bit early for check in but we wanted to try because the bags didnt feel safe in the Jeep with the top down.
As soon as we pulled in and told them we were checking in, they knew we were the "honeymooners", and the front desk and concierge staff made sure we had eveyrthing we needed and sent us up to our condo. We parked the car and grabbed the bags, we were pretty curious to see what the Wyndham had to offer, and it was ALOT. We opened the door to a huge living room, with a couch and 2 chairs, a big kitchen full of appliances and anything we might need. The living room had a glass door that opened to a huge deck with a cieling fan and a big table, where we ate breakfast almost every morning.
We continued exploring and found a bathroom with a washer and dryer in it, and it opened up into a bedroom that I was sure was the master. Meanwhile Joy was in the REAL master bedroom, a huge room with a giant bathroom, complete with a standup shower and a clawfoot jacuzi tub. This all seemed like something out of a movie to us, and it took some time to set in. Once again, hunger got the better of us, we drove back down to the front desk and asked for some suggestions of where we might eat. After the first place was closed we ended up at Bongo Ben's Cafe.
We ordered our food and a couple drinks, and were soon interupted by Louisa...she worked at the tourism desk and wanted to offer us some christmas cookies her mom had made. She and Joy got to talking and she was very excited to tell us all about what the Big Island had to offer, and of course she offered us some deals. Then she offered us better deals because we were on our honeymoon. We ended up calling her later in the week to schedule a few trips and we were very glad to have met her.
After we left Bongo Ben's we decided to get some groceries (and coffee). As we drove down the road there was a little pulloff next to an empty beach and I quickly pulled over and shut off the car. We got out and took some pictures and enjoyed watching the surf role in. This little empty beach quickly became one of our favorite spots, and we returned again the day we left to say goodbye to it. After some time had passed we moved on to the grocery store, bought some food to get us through a few days, and some rum. Fresh fruit and the coffee. then we took it back to the condo and put it all away.
The next day we hopped in the Jeep and took off down the highway. The concierge at the Wyndham was so helpful, they suggested checking out Southpoint, the southernmost tip of the United States. So 90 miles later we approached one of the 2 roads on the map the rental car company said not to drive on, made the right turn, and 30 minutes and 12 miles later we were there. Beautiful greens with dark back volcano rocks. 40 to 50 foot cliffs down into the deep blue ocean, so clear you could see the rocks on the bottom clearly. We ran all over the cliffs, party to find the best view, and party to excape the flies that were swarming us.
We got back in the Jeep and continued a little farther on, where we found the real southpoint, there was even a place to climb down and jump into the ocean! We couldnt resist. Joy was in first and I took a few pictures then I went in after her. I realized pretty quick it was gonna be tricky to get out, the tide was rushing up pretty high on the rocks, and the only way to climb out was to wait for the tide to come in and jump up before it pulled you back into the ocean. A few tries and a couple scrapes later I was up...then I had to help Joy. It took her a few more, but I eventually yanked yer right up with me. We drove back to the Condo and spent the evening with some rum and cooked a little dinner. it was a great day!
The next day it seemed fitting to go North. We went up toward the Wai Pio Valley, where they filmed parts of Jurrasic Park. When we got there it felt like we were in the movie. The road leads to the top of a 1500 ft cliff overlooking a valley with a black sand beach. The waves were crashing in on the sand clearly even from up there. There was a road that led down to the bottom, a steep, bumpy, narrow road. We had a Jeep with 4wd, so we gave it a shot. About two turns in I realized it was a mistake, but there was no turning back so down we went. We got to the bottom safely, and really felt like we were in Jurrasic Park, continued on a bit and saw a huge waterfall way off in the distance before turning back and making the equally scarey drive back up. We continued on the rest of the way around the Island, stopping to see waterfalls, and the Akaka falls State Park. We drove down past Hilo on the opposite side of the Island and back down past South Point. Finally we reached our condo again, exhausted, the trip took about 10 hours..most of it in the Jeep. I was tired of driving.
After the long day we both wanted to take it easy. We drove to a beach suggested by the concierge and spent a couple hours laying in the sand and playing in the big waves. At one point, one of the waves hurled me into Joy headfirst...right into her hip. Scared us both to death...but we were both OK in the end. We spent some time relaxing at the condo, and had some dinner. We scheduled a Manta Ray dive and dolphin swim with Louisa from Bongo Ben's.
When we arrived for the Manta dive, we were the only 2 scuba divers on the boat, the other 9 or 10 people would be snorkeling. We found out that the company was called Lobo Del Mar and it was all run by a huge family on the Island, and everyone who worked for them was family. They were all wonderful and treated us like family while we were there. We got to the dive site and finally got in the water. This was Joy's first night dive so I was a little concerned that she would be uncomfortable, but she didnt have any problems at all. We sank the to bottom and took our places around the big light where the manta's feed. They started coming slowly at first, then there wer several huge Manta rays swimming all around us, they were anywhere from 10 feet wide to 15 feet wide and they would swim within inches of our heads. It was a pretty cool experience.
When we came back for the dolphin swim, everyone on the boat remembered us. They would find a pod of spinner dolphins and drop us in the water ahead of them, the dolphins would swim by and check us out then they were on their way. The captain would pick us up and take us to another pod and repeat. Most of the dolphins were swimming too deep to see them, but occasionally they'd come near the surface, or even jump out of the water. Joy enjoyed hearing them "sing" as they swam below us. There was one small group, a mother and a calf with one other adult swimming about 20 feet below me, I dove down and swam along side them for a few seconds and made eye contact with the mother...it was odd, but pretty cool too.
Once the dolphin swim was over we were dropped off on a beach for a snack and some drinks, they had ocean kayaks to play with, and joy and I paddled around a bit in the surf. We saw a big sea turtle on the beach, and when we swam back to the boat there was another one playing by the anchor line. Scared me to death when I looked down and saw the bottom moving toward my feet. It was a great trip and we appreciated being included by the crew of the Sea Wolf.
The next day we checked out of the condo and back to the airport. We had to return the rental car by 1PM, and the flight didnt leave until 6, so we were stuck at the airport until then. Sadly there isnt alot to do at the Kona airport, so we just sat on the grass and enjoyed the sun for a while longer. 5 hours later we got on our plane and flew back to Honolulu. After a short layover there, back to LA, a few hours there and 7 more in Chicaco...we were finally on the way back to Columbus. All in all the trip back took us 26 hours without any real sleep or a shower...and it was all worth it!
