The Explore All 50 States Project
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Just thinking about Hawaii—one of my favorite places on the planet—brings back memories of gentle waves crashing on the shore, the perfume of fresh flowers in the air, and soft music. I love Hawaii for its peacefulness and tranquility, but it's tragic history always leaves me with a twinge of sadness. In my humble opinion, Hawaii should never have been a state. This beautiful land belongs to the Hawaiian … [Read more...]
Every one of the Hawaiian islands is so unique and different but where the other islands are mostly lush and green with sandy beaches, the big island is rocky, volcanic hosting a landscape that is harsher and much more varied than we'd seen. The beaches for the most part were rocky and not conducive to water sports so we took this opportunity to explore the rugged terrain, learning about the geology of how the … [Read more...]
Very close to the Eco Adventures Zip line, is the tiny town of Hawi. Do not miss one of the four original statues of King Kamehameha, the most famous and revered Hawaiian King who united the Hawaiian islands under his leadership. The statue stands not too far from where he was born, here on the Big Island of Hawaii. There are four of these statues, three of which are in Hawaii and one is in our nation’s Capitol … [Read more...]
King Kamehameha is the great Hawaiian king who was born and raised on the big island of Hawaii and under whose great leadership the Hawaiian islands were united. He is the most revered historical figure in Hawaiian culture and memorialized by four life size statues three of which are still in the Islands. The fourth one is in the US Capitol building. The second statue is the second on the big Island and is based … [Read more...]
On the way to Hilo, Akaka Falls is a wonderful stop that will take about 20 minutes and is totally worth it. It’s a lovely nature trail that goes around in a circle. The first thing we noticed were the incredible and diverse plant life. We noticed giant bamboo that seemed as tall as a three story building making us feel like dwarfs and tiny fiddlehead ferns coiling up on themselves. There were exotic … [Read more...]
So one adventure my kids and I have been dying to try is zip lining. The Hawaiian Islands have a ton of places to do this somewhat new and trendy activity so if your dead set on doing it (and you should because it's a ton of fun), see where it best fits into your schedule. For us, that happened to be on the Big Island and we opted for and outfit called Big Island Eco Adventures who were just fantastic! If … [Read more...]
One of the things Kona is most famous for is its coffee and there are several plantations that you can tour. We decided to visit the Mountain Thunder Coffee Plantation, a family run coffee farm that grows and roasts it's unique berries on the hillsides of Kona. In addition to the free tour where you can learn how coffee berries are picked, dried, roasted, and then packed to sell, we decided to pay for the VIP … [Read more...]
After an exhausting day visiting Hilo and Volcano National park, we headed back to Kona for dinner at...Splasher’s Grill. We could not have asked for better given the varied tastes of our picky crew as there was something everyone could enjoy. Lots of fresh fish and seafood, complemented with all American bar food favorites. The service was as friendly as the food was good and there wasn't a complaint to be heard. … [Read more...]
You just cannot visit the Big Island of Hawaii without visiting Volcano National Park which is about a 45 minute drive from Hilo or about a 2 hour drive from Kona. We just could not pass up the opportunity to explore mother nature at her most powerful and to understand how the Hawaiian Islands were created while exploring the geology of our entire planet. As we always do, we headed straight for the visitors … [Read more...]
Driving back to Kona from Volcano National Park, we happened upon the famous Punaluu Black Sand Beach. The black sand is made of basalt and is created by lava flowing into the ocean which explodes as it reaches the ocean and cools. While the scenery is quite spectacular this isn't a great beach to swim at for a couple of reasons. The surf is pretty rocky and the black sand will get all over you and it's pretty … [Read more...]
