Mahalo Hawaii!

Thanks Hawaii! What an awesome way to re-enter the United States! The night before we arrived in Hilo, we had pre-port as always. But this time it was so much different because we were actually entering back into the United States. During preport they said something along the lines of welcome back to the USA where you can eat the food, drink the water, and where the taxi drivers still don't speak English! They also said, Hawaii uses the United States dollar where the conversion rate is 1:1. We all thought it was funny considering the past three and a half months our main concerns are, can we eat the food without Pepto Bismol, drink the water, and how rich will we feel?!

 

We got into the Hilo harbor around 8AM on Sunday morning. It really reminded me of Ghana but just a little more civilized. Brittany, Stephani and I decided that we would end up spending just as much on taxi's as we would if we rented a car. We decided that would be fun and would give us more freedom. There was a shuttle to Hilo International Airport which took us to the Avis rental cars. We decided that it would be a blast if we got a Jeep Wrangler to drive around the island in. So we got hooked up with a Jeep, a Garmin GPS, three backpacks full of overnight clothes, and a set of scanned pages from The Rough Guide Hawaii travel book with the awful map that SAS provided us and instructions not to drive on Saddle Road which crosses the island. We headed out, SOuth to Puna to try and find a beach because we originally thought Kona would be too far as it's on the west coast. As we headed further and further South, the rain kept getting harder and harder. So we made an immediate decision to go to Kona. ROAD TRIP!!! We were PUMPED!

 

We backtracked through Hilo, passing good old American restaurants and of course a Wal-Mart. Ahhhh it's good to be "home." As we headed north through Hilo we started seeing signs of sun. We stoped at a scenic point to look at the view and "go topless" as Jeep fanatics say. So we found the instructions to put the top down, put on some sunscreen and continued on our trip to Kona with no real destination in mind other than a beach. The sights were beautiful and breathtaking. When I went to the Bahamas I thought the ocean was blue, but the Hawaiian water's definitely one up'ed the Bahamas. It was picture perfect. The radio was blaring, the sun was shining, our hair was crazy in the wind and we were just so excited to have so much freedom in a place where we could finally get out and about with no restrictions. As we continued northwest across the island aloing Hawaii Belt Road we went through a few small towns which were all so tropical and laid back. Everyone waved to us using the hang loose sign. It was awesome! We finally got hungry and decided to stop in a random shopping center which had a KTA grocery store where we could get some snacks. We decided to get pizza at this italian place. I got a "Big Island" pizza which was amazing! I love pineapple on ANYTHING! It was SO nice to be able to drink the water that they poured for us. The sun made us really thirsty. After chilling out there for a while we went to the grocery store. WHOA. Culture shock like non other. There's so much food and it all looks so good! I wanted to buy the whole store!!! We managed to get out of there with a bag of chips, two gatorades, and some cookies. Pretty good!

 

We continued our way west to the coast. The roads were fairly curvy as we winded our way around the hills that were at one point probably volcanoes. We could see the coast in the distance but no beaches. There was a ton of lava rock all around us and people took shells and white sand to write on the rocks, almost like a Hawaiian form of grafitti. We saw one that said SAS. We finally made it to the coast and passed a ton of resort entrances. We decided to drive through the resort. Wow....so pretty. The golf courses looked absolutely amazing and well kept. I wanted to play SO bad. I could smell the golf course....mmm! We couldn't manage to get to the beaches from the resort area but I'm sure there was a way somehow. So we decided to put "White Sand Beach" into the GPS which was on our map. Ready....GO! This sounds like a great beach! Along the way we passed a Target! So tempting to stop! As we continued our drive through tiny little neighborhoods, and past hotels we finally came to the beach. Except there was a patch of sand about as big as a king sized bed, and the rest was lava rock. The beach was surrounded by houses and looked like just a little local's beach. But we decided to give it a shot. We staked out our spot and chilled out, enjoying our snacks. There were a ton of body boarders catching waves into the cove. I thought we were going to witness one of them hit their head on the rocks...they were so close EVERY time! We were there for a while and watched as the sun began to set. While we were there we decided we probably should say in Kona that night at a cheap hotel. It was too late to drive the two hour drive back to Hilo. So Brittany ended up somehow calling Hotels.com. They hooked us up with a $97/night hotel called Kona Seaside Hotel. We weren't expecting much but were actually pleasantly surprised!

 

We got there and found out we had breakfast at a nearby restaurant included, there was a pool, shops, and restaurants within walking distance as well as a small beach. That night after showering, the three of us went to Splasher's Grill which was nearby. Brittany got her first legal drink in the U.S, Steph got a drink and I got a virgin daquiri (The drinking age should really be 18!!). We ended up going to sleep really early that night. We woke up at 7 the next morning and got breakfast at this place which had a view of the ocean. It was an indoor/outdoor kinda place and it was so yummy! I had a half a papaya with yogurt and granola on it along with passion orange juice which was AMAZING! They also had coconut syrup for pancakes which was super good! After breakfast we looked at the little shops around. We decided to just hang out by the pool for the first half of the day and then we'd have to head back to the ship. The pool was very nice!

 

We left Kona at noon and headed back to Hilo. We took a different route which took us more through the mountains and countryside. I had no idea Hawaii had rural parts but it really does! We saw some cows, cactus, little farms and lots of rock! It was sunny the whole drive back. We were kind of worried about gas since there weren't many along the way but we made it back to Hilo with plenty. We decided to go to Ken's Diner before returning the car. It's won a bunch of Reader's Choice Awards and some other awards. It was really good anda  great local treat. I had the strangest sandwich I have EVER eaten. It had teriyaki chicken, a pineapple ring, lettuce, tomato, pickle, and mayo on it. Really weird but surprisingly good! Lot's of SAS'ers were there. After that we dropped the car off at the rental plae, so excited that we were all great drivers after 3 and a half months. We didn't have any problems at all! We took the shuttle back to the ship where we were told that it was our last time we'd be swiping into the ship and having our bags searched. WOW! Where does time go?! It was bittersweet to see "Next Port of Call - San Diego" written on our info board.

 

We had a yummy barbeque dinner and "Last port" party last night. Only 5 more days until San Diego. Hawaii was the perfect place to end this trip. The relaxing atmosphere and ability to feel so free made it awesome. I'll definitely be back to Hawaii some day. One night wasn't enough and I'd love to see more of those resorts in Kona : )

 

In the words of Jock Jams "America, are you ready??"

 

We're coming home!!!!