honeymoon in hawaii: day one
us on the pololu valley trail
Originally uploaded by embem30. Disclaimer: Although we flew to Hawaii the day after the wedding, I'm calling the next day, Monday, our first official day in Hawaii.
On Monday morning, I woke up at about 6am. I had left most of the window blinds open the night before--one of my techniques to not sleep in too late. The sun was just rising, although we weren't in a very good spot for a dramatic sunrises. Nevertheless, I hopped out of bed, put on my glasses, and started snapping some pictures of the view out the window and our little balcony. I probably could have slept longer, but I had no real desire to go back to bed once I had gotten up. The 3-hour time difference worked out well; it felt like 9am instead of 6am, and things tended to shut down around 9pm there anyway.
Steve was still sleeping when I got up, but the snapping of my camera shutter woke him up after a while. I made him pretend to be sleeping anyway and took a picture of him in bed before we officially got up and headed for the shower.
The shower in the Dream Room at Aaah the Views was actually outside on the little balcony/patio. It was on pretty much the second floor, and obviously, there were no sight lines. So it was a little weird showering outside, but not a big deal.
steve & the first breakfast
Originally uploaded by embem30. Breakfast was from 7:30-8:30am in the main house. We were up early enough that we were ready to go down at 7:30. In the kitchen, there were various juices, coffee, fresh fruits, yogurt, bagels and things for toasting, hard-boiled eggs, cookies, and brownie bites. I ended up eating a couple hard-boiled eggs, which I hadn't had in a long time. I also had some yogurt, fresh pineapple, tropical fruit juice (guava-pineapple?), and a brownie bite. Steve tried the papaya with lime juice as recommended by Derek. It was good, but I liked the pineapple better.
A Canadian couple from Toronto joined us partway through breakfast, and we had fun chatting with them. They had done the day before what we were planning to do that day, and they also mentioned a beach that they visited and liked. Derek, the owner of the bed and breakfast, was in and out and also chatted with us all a bit. He and his wife were trying to get their 5 year-old twin boys off to their second week of school, so we didn't meet Erika until the next day. In any case, Derek was very cool. He told us all about how they ended up moving to Hawaii (he's originally from South Africa) and taking over the bed and breakfast. They kept the original name, so he's not completely to blame for the cheesiness of "Aaah the Views."
We eventually went back to our room and packed up Steve's backpack and my camera bag for the day's trip. Then, we took off in our PT Cruiser towards the Kohala Mountain Road. Driving out of Waimea, we went uphill for a while, as one might expect on a "mountain road." The landscape started out a little barren, but it got greener as we went. Going north, we stopped a few times to take some pictures, and we made it to top part of the island in less than an hour.
Heading east, we drove through the very small town of Kapa'au (ka-pow!) to the Pololu Valley Lookout, where the road dead ended. I took some pictures from the lookout/parking area, we sun-screened up, and then we headed down the trail into Pololu Valley. The trail itself was mostly dirt, a couple of people wide, and had medium-sized rocks that we had to step on or over about half the time.
pololu valley
Originally uploaded by embem30. When we got almost to the bottom, we took a little short cut and ended up in a wooded area that had various tire and log swings. We walked back towards the end of the real trail from there and joined it as it went to the beach (over more rocks). The sand there was dark, though not as black as the real black sand beach that we visited a few days later. On the beach, I took lots of pictures, of course, and Steve and I both put our feet in the ocean.
My newly purchased Ahnu hiking sandals, which had done really well when I was climbing down the rocky trail, had gotten pretty full of sand by the time we made it to the water. I had the bright idea of going in the water with them on to wash out the sand, since the shoes were made for water and drying fast. That probably wasn't the best of ideas... It pretty much just made the sand stick in them better, so they were gritty and damp the rest of the afternoon. It would have been better to keep them dry, go in the water barefoot, dry off my feet after walking back through the sand, and just shake out the shoes before putting them back on.
Hiking back up the trail and out of the valley was a bit more difficult that going down. Along with my slightly sandpapery shoes, I was fighting my hat. The visor made it difficult to look up at the path ahead of me. As is my habit, I was also trying to keep an eye out for pictures to take. Between that, the hat, and trying to navigate rocks, my attention was a little split. Steve kept having to wait for me. The trail was steep enough by the end that I needed a couple quick breaks too, but the top was in sight sooner than I expected.
banyan tree house
Originally uploaded by embem30. After our hike, we got back in the car and drove back the way we came. We stopped a couple times so that I could take pictures of a huge banyan treehouse and a very cute church, and then we continued on to the town of Hawi for lunch. We had planned to try the Bamboo Restaurant, but it was closed on Mondays. Instead, we went to the Kona Coffee Mill, which also appeared to be Tropical Dreams Ice Cream, and asked if they could recommend somewhere for lunch. The sandwiches and things that they had looked okay, but nothing really stood out. They suggested Short N Sweet across the street.
It was a bakery and sandwich shop that apparently also did wedding cakes. (They had pictures and magazine articles of their work on the wall.) Since the people at Kona Coffee Mill mentioned that their focaccia was really good and homemade, I ordered the grilled cheese on focaccia. Steve got a salad with Mahi Mahi filets on top, as well as an iced tea. They were out of their normal iced tea, but the cook guy said he could brew some from a tea bag. So Steve picked out a tea bag, and he got his iced tea, which he said was really good.
We ate, and then we went back to Tropical Dreams across the street for some ice cream. I got strawberry, and Steve got some Kona coffee ice cream, along with a cup of coffee (redundant much?). The ice cream was good, but I thought it was a little on the sweet side. Maybe that's just a Hawaiian ice cream thing?
After a quick stop in the gift shop next door, As Hawi Turns, we got back in the car and drove south again on the Kohala Mountain Road towards Waimea. We got back to the bed and breakfast around 2pm and finally washed off our feet in the bathtub. I washed out my shoes again and set them outside to dry.
lovely beach
Originally uploaded by embem30. Since we still had a few hours left in the afternoon, we decided to go in search of the beach that the Canadians had mentioned at the Mauna Kea Resort. That area was not really what I expected. There aren't very many places to turn off the highway to get to the beaches, and most of the turn-offs are labeled with resort areas. The resorts themselves are set off the highway quite a bit, probably because the highway is actually a ways away from the shore.
Anyway, I was a little unsure about how to find this beach, given that we only remembered something about "Mauna Kea" and a resort that was still under construction after the 2005 earthquake. It turned out that we had all the information that we needed. We turned onto the drive with the Mauna Kea Resort sign and told the guy at the security station that we were looking for the beach. He gave us a parking tag to give to the people in the beach access lot and directions to follow the road until construction signs told us to turn right. We followed the directions easily found the right place to go. Then it was just a matter of following the signs and the people to find the path to the beach.
The Canadians were right: it was a really nice beach. It was the most stereotypical beach that we visited that trip, actually, with normal sand and few rocks. We spent about an hour, from 3-4pm, at the beach. We took turns swimming in the ocean while the other sat on the towels and watched the camera (and/or took pictures with it) and beach bag. The ocean water was relatively warm, like Lake Michigan in late August for those two days before the air gets too cold for swimming and the water temperature catches up.
When we got back to the car, we saw a couple wild turkeys in the bushes in front of it. It looked like a mother and a baby turkey. I got a few pictures, but I didn't want to scare them away.
welcoming party
Originally uploaded by embem30. We headed back to the bed and breakfast after that, and we were greeted by a friendly black cat in the parking lot. Within the hour, we had a pretty good guess at his name. While I showered and got dressed for dinner, Steve spent his time reading the guest books in our room. A few people mentioned "Schooner" the "welcoming party." A search on Flickr when we got back home to SF confirmed our suspicions that Schooner was the cat's name.
For dinner that night, we went to Merriman's in Waimea. The Canadians had gone there the night before, and Derek, as well as several of the people in the guest book, also recommended it. It was one of two nicer restaurants in town, and the prices confirmed it. Everyone seemed to think it was worth the money, though.
Steve and I each ordered a glass of white wine that sounded good, as well as the appetizer special: a flatbread pizza with shrimp, tomatoes, greens, etc. It was really good, and I could have easily eaten more of it. We also each ordered an entree to share:
kona kampachi
Originally uploaded by embem30. Steamed Kona Kampachi and Garlic Rice
Haricot Verts, Hearts of Palm, Kohala Carrots, Carrot-Ginger Reduction.
Blackened Strip Loin of Kahua Ranch Beef
Melted Goat Cheese Tomatoes, Toasted Garlic Butter.
Both were really good, and it wasn't too surprising that the food was expensive. Besides being on an island, which would make things more expensive anyway, it seemed that the ingredients were all fresh and high quality. The julienned vegetables that were served with the fish were especially good. We had also been looking forward to trying Kona Kampachi, a locally farmed fish that is similar to Yellowtail/Hamachi (my favorite sushi) and is sourced by several restaurants in the Bay Area, including Spork in our neighborhood. This was very tasty, but I think I still prefer my Kampachi and Hamachi raw.
Sadly, we had no room to try the desserts, despite having heard that the chocolate purse was amazing. Instead, we paid and drove back to Aaah the Views for the night to repack our suitcases, watch some Olympics, write what we did in my handy-dandy notebook, and go to bed.