Let me first sneak in a quick review of the prior night’s travel across the island.

Our destination airport in Hawaii was in Kona on the west coast of the big island. Our drive to our hotel (originally had been planned for the day time) took us up over the island (literally underneath the Mauna Kea Volcano), down through Hilo on the east coast and then back up to Volcano Village. It was about a 2.5 hour drive after dark. After such a long trip, I was a bit worried about people being tired but everyone did well. It was even more interesting as, when we had just passed the big volcano, a pea soup fog settled over us and stayed for half of the remaining drive to the coast. We didn’t miss seeing anything as it was dark while the fog made it feel like we were driving in a totally different world.

We all made it with only a minor incident between Rudy and the cops. Turns out that going downhill for such a long ways and with fog, it is easy to get going a ‘bit’ too fast (guessing that was the excuse used with the police). Amazing how a police car just happened to be watching out for speeders late at night approaching Hilo. It turns out however that Rudy must be a fast talker and/or just looked exhausted as the cop let him off with just a warning - very, very nice!

We got to our hotel (Kilauea Lodge) after they were closed but they had a drop box for our keys so we were able to get quickly settled in. I had a quick panic as I could not find any of my power/connection cables (camera, computer, phone, etc). Luckily, once I had slept a quick check the next morning in the car found my bag stuck between the seats (whew!)

The lodge was literally within walking distance of Volcanoes National Park, sitting in a lush tropical area amidst old lava flows. It originally had been a boy scout camp which had later been converted to a lodge. We took over most of the back building which had a little patio, a nice common area and really big rooms. It was definitely built from the earlier time but was well maintained and very comfortable.
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We had breakfast in the hotel (delicious and the staff was fun) before we all jumped into our two cars and headed out to Kealakekua Bay for some kayaking and snorkeling.

Kealakekua Bay is home to the Captain Cook Monument which only allows access by licensed tour boats. To go onshore there, you have to hike down to the monument or take a kayak. We were able to take our kayaks near to it and then do some snorkeling on the reef.

The town on the bay looks like one of the original towns settled by a mix of locals and people who moved in from the main land many, many years ago. The town is not built up or touristy in any way. It was just nice and comfortable and very ‘islandy’.

To get to the kayak launch site, we had to drive down a long narrow winding ‘street’ where, after a while, we were able to find street parking before grabbing our kayaks and gear from the local supplier. Our second car (we were using two cars to allow flexibility) missed the exit and took a while to find us. We did discover that cell service was a bit spotty and some roads/streets were not well marked but we made it work.

There were a couple of rental companies at the pickup point. Ours was represented by a young guy who was drinking beer with some of the other company’s people (talk about a home town setup!). He got us equipped and into the water without much trouble at all.

Rudy and Janet were good sports and got into their kayak to start rowing around the immediate area. It didn’t take long to notice that Janet wasn’t exactly enjoying the waves. Rudy dropped her back on shore and then spend some time on the water himself doing his own thing.

We had left Adele at the hotel to recover from the trip. While Charles did come with us, It turned out that he wasn’t interested in the water that day so he did some exploration of the area on foot.

In the meanwhile Sandy and Rob and I took our two kayaks and headed to the monument on the other side of the bay. It was overcast but pleasant. Once we got to the reef, the three of us jumped into the relatively warm water and enjoyed watching some of the fish darting around the reef.
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After we had all returned to the cars, we headed back towards the hotel. On the way, we crossed several large old lava fields and were treated to a rainbow over one of them. We did one extra stop at the black sand Punalu’u Beach. Here an old massive lava field had flowed directly into the ocean. As it was windy and overcast, no one took a swim. But it was a beautiful and dramatic location.

After the beach stop, we headed back to our lodge for a 7:30 dinner reservation. The lodge has a well known restaurant that is packed with visitors and locals alike. A bit fancier than is my taste but the food was excellent and the staff, while being more formal for the dinner setting than breakfast, was still a lot of fun.