Big Island Day 1 (May 6, 2009)

So, we flew into Kona on the Big Island on Wednesday. First, we drove up the coastline to the end of the road...

Pololu Overlook is a short, but steep, hike at the end of the road around the Northern tip of the island. It overlooks a rocky, black beach with waterfalls flowing off the cliffs into the ocean.

We were getting pretty hungry by the time we left, and definitely in need of some coffee, so we found a cafe in Hawi where we had local coffee, homemade ice cream, and 1 hard boiled egg. Really, Jaime had the egg and tasted Rex's ice cream and coffee....

Our next mission was to find Lapakahi State Historical Park. It is an old village on the beach with a peak into the way they used to live along a mile long trail. Kind of boring, but the closest we had come to the beach so far.

Then we found a REAL beach at Mauna Kea where we went swimming in the clearest water EVER!

We tried to go to the Hard Rock Cafe for lunch, but thanks to the recession a lot of restaurants and other businesses have had to close down. We settled for a Mexican restaurant with local beer on tap before heading down to our hotel, the Sheraton in Keauhou. We watched the sunset from the hot tub and then went to Kai, the hotel restaurant with all-you-can-eat crab.

Rex's little buddy on our balcony...

Stay tuned for day 2 of our Big Island adventure....