Category: Big Island

Big Island 2026

Big Island 2026

Day 13 Friday 

Last day in paradise. I checked out of my room and stored my luggage until it was closer to my flight time which isn’t until 7:40pm.  I am debating on whether or not to get in the ocean.  I don’t know if I want to be soggy before the flight. Like Kauai with Krystal lol.

I wanted to swim in the lagoon but it was closed due to the high surf.  I was wondering how that turtle got into the lagoon when I was here last time.  Now I know. The lagoon is pretty much protected but in high surf conditions the waves go over the protective barrier of rocks and even over the wall onto the sand. I could sit and watch the waves forever.

I love this beef jerky! Beef Crisps made in Hilo. I got it from Costco on Oahu and here. It’s like potato chip beef.  Very crispy. I will definitely be ordering this.  I also have eaten probably 100 of these apple bananas lol. I will miss them 💔

My last apple banana😭

I went to Gecko Girlz shave ice. That was the best shave ice I’ve had this whole trip.  I got the Lava Flow with mochi. The  mochi was hand made and so delicious 😋 it was also the messiest.  It started melting and dripping through the metal table I was sitting at and onto my feet.  This attracted honey bees that wanted to eat it off of me lol. I moved to a different table and then spilled it down my legs lol.

How do you choose!

Headed to the ocean to wash it off. I was going to use the outside shower but  there was a line. Went back and chilled by the pool until I had to leave.

I did my math and put 2.75 gallons of fuel into the tank lol. Dropped off my rental. It wasn’t too far from the front of the airport.  

Lol, was I right?

This was the first red eye trip I’d ever done. Two layovers. One in Honolulu – 2 hours and the second in Seattle – 3 hours.  The long layovers weren’t that bad. I didn’t have to worry about missing my connecting flights, so no need to run to the next gate. The last flight, Seattle to Eugene, was the longest. Pacific time 12:30am to 6:30am. I think I slept four hours which is good but it was not comfortable.  I don’t think I would do a red eye again unless I was in first class lol.

Home at last😁

Big Island 2026

Big Island 2026

Day 12 Thursday 

I walked down Ali’i Drive from my hotel. I was headed to check out the Marriott and the lagoon in front.  It has a sandy beach and some rocks to snorkel around. I saw a bunch of colorful fish.

I noticed a couple of changes since my 2017 trip.   Bubba Gump Shrimp restaurant is gone. Scandinavian Shave ice was temporarily closed until further notice.  Bummer, that was my favorite place for shave ice. So I waited at Ululani’s for them to open.  I needed my shave ice fix lol.

On the way back I stopped at the farmers market and got a butter avocado. It’s so huge! I cut it open but it was still crunchy.  Oh well, all I really wanted was to see the seed. It was regular size lol.

I had to wear my hiking/water shoes today because both pairs of sandals gave me blisters. All this walking today has given me new blisters in different places lol. I didn’t think I was going to make it back to the hotel. So I stopped and bought some slippers and said goodbye to the hikers lol. Ahhhh, so much better.

Went back to by the hotel pool and it started to sprinkle. Half the people hogging the good lounge chairs got up and left. Thank you rain gods lol 😁

Last night here.  I have to get packed up tonight and decide what to take and what to leave behind lol. That means a very difficult game of Tetris😂

Big Island 2026

Big Island 2026

Day 11 Wednesday 

Checked out of the Outrigger and went to take my rental car back to Enterprise. I decided to rent another car through Turo for the remaining two days. Basically, you’re renting somebodys car from the island. I dropped off the Jeep at Enterprise. With Turo you  can choose any car, not just a Jeep and it’s a tiny bit cheaper. I looked at the app to see where I was supposed to pick it up. The car was parked out in long-term parking, which was a ways away from Enterprise. I had to walk  a half mile to get there. The sidewalks were covered with little round tree nuts so I opted to walk in the middle of the road rather than slip and knock myself out.  I was dragging two suitcases and wearing a backpack so I think I got my workout in lol.  

I rented a 2022 Subaru Forester.  You would think that would be fine for the year but it was very rough to start and it ended up dying at a stoplight. I’m not talking about the auto shutoff. It completely turned off. I had to put it into park to start it back up all while people were honking for me to go lol. Then, I looked down at the gas gauge and it was missing one bar. Which meant  I didn’t start out with a full tank.  Annoyed, I sent a message to Turo about the fuel level and the car shutting off and they said they never heard of it dying before and to put what gas I think I used when I filled it back up.  Great, now I have to do math😂

I checked in to the Royal Kona Resort.  This is where I stayed in 2017. My first solo trip to Hawaii.

They were very nice and stored my luggage until my room was ready.  While I was waiting I drove to Waikiloa and checked out the Queen’s Marketplace and surroundings. It was a fancy resort area that we drove by on the way to Mauna Kea. I ate my go to Starbucks lunch. A pink drink, grilled cheese sandwich and a lemon loaf. By the way I have eaten that five times so far lol. I’m not a big fan of trying new restaurants or waiting for my food. Its a huge waste of time plus you never know what you’ll get. I can order on the app and just pick it up lol.

My room was ready. I am on the fifth floor. I have a corner room with a wrap around lanai. There are big windows on both side walls.  I have an ocean view and a mountain/parking lot view😁

The hotel is ocean front, not beach front but it does have it’s own little lagoon.  I took a dip in it and swam around.  The last time  I was  here there was a turtle in it.  

I swam in the pool and got to see some whales just off shore.  They were breaching and waving their fins. I should have brought the binoculars.

I watched the sun set from my lanai.  It was on fire🔥

Big Island 2026

Day 10 Tuesday 

Drove to a bookstore. Kona Stories. They advertised sitting, reading, and petting cats so….😂 of course I had to go. There were two cute store cats.  They could use a little exercise lol. 

I drove to the touristy spots and lookouts. 

I found this gross, squishy, yellow fruit. I guess it’s called a Noni fruit or cheese fruit.  The Mauna Kea Summit guide said Noni fruit tastes like a mix of rotten cheese and vomit and when he was a kid they would wait until the fruit was super ripe and throw them at each other.  Gross.

I wanted to drive towards Hilo to see Kilauea and visit Volcanoes National Park but there was an eruption on Saturday, January 24th that sent out tephra, or rock fragments. It was literally raining rocks. They had to shut down the park and evacuate.  The air quality turned questionable as Vog set in. Vog is volcanic smog.  Like smog, it’s  a haze in the sky when gases are emitted from a volcano. Volcanic gas emissions can pose health risks to nearby communities.  Although I didn’t really see any in the Kailua Kona area but when I was up on Mauna Kea there was a bump in the cloud cover just above where Kilauea was located from the heat and gases.

The evacuees were advised not to use their windshield wipers as it could scratch the glass. I wonder how much damage was noticeable when the rental cars were returned. 

Big Island 2026

Big Island 2026

Day 9 Monday 

I found another cat cafe to visit. Their mission is to get the cats and kittens adopted out and it’s not just for petting exotic cats lol.  Although I guess there were a couple breeds that I would’ve never got to meet in real life.

At the Kona Kat Cafe there were no bandanas, no rules on treats or where they could be touched.  Well, except the big fluffy orange one, he was on a diet so he only got a few treats. 

There also wasn’t any cat police patrolling to make sure you followed the rules lol. 

Most of their kittens come from feral colonies and they have to be socialized in order to get them adopted out.  There were a couple that were waiting vaccinations so they had to stay in their cages. However, you were encouraged to take them out and give them treats and pets.  I guess that’s an easy and free way to tame them. Charge people to pet them lol. They were kind of squirmy so keeping them off the floor was a little difficult but they were super sweet.

One of the kittens

I went down to the pool for lunch and saw this critter run across the rock wall.  At first I thought it was a fuzzy lizard lol. I guess it was a mongoose.  

I have questions  lol.

Aren’t they used to kill snakes?  

I thought there were no snakes in Hawaii?

What’s it doing here? 

Is the “no snake” thing an urban legend?

😂Krystal? Thoughts?

I got a delicious purple Ube coconut drink and a burger.  I think there was alcohol in it because it kind of gave me a stomach ache lol.

Big Island 2026

Big Island 2026

Day 8 Sunday 

Driving to the summit of Mauna Kea today.  Well, being driven to the top of Mauna Kea by Mauna Kea Summit Adventures in a Mercedes 4×4 luxury van. 

I considered driving myself, but I don’t know the guard rail situation, four wheel drive is mandatory and I didn’t read the rental agreement lol.  Some rental companies don’t allow you to drive off road and they all have GPS devices on their cars. It’s 13,803 feet in the air which is higher than Haleakala on Maui and randomly I get acrophobia, which is a fear of heights.  It really only happens when there is nothing to stop me from falling off of high places.  I can go on the tallest roller coaster or stand at the top of a mountain as long as I’m strapped in or there is a fence. It’s probably because I trip and fall so much.

I just hope I don’t get carsick lol.

Good news! Party of One gets the front seat 😁 so I should be good!

There were a bunch of warning signs about altitude sickness and how you need to breathe and acclimate your body to the assent. You shouldn’t scuba dive 24 hours prior to the tour or you could get the bends. There is no decompression chamber on the Big Island. They would have to helicopter you to Maui which would put you even higher in the air.  I didn’t really feel anything, but I chewed on some ginger candy (thanks Krystal) just in case. 

We stopped at the visitors center for dinner.  They served us a hot dinner of veggie lasagna and a brownie.  I opted to not eat the lasagna because of the tomatoes and cheese but I kept the brownie to eat with my car food lol.

This pit stop also allowed me to put more clothes on. The warmest clothes I had packed for Hawaii were a pair of hiking pants and yoga pants. I put them on together. Lol. I wore my water/hiking shoes with socks.

We left the visitors center and started the drive up the mountain. The park rangers were checking each vehicle for four wheel drive and whether or not the drivers knew how to use it.  The first four miles was like driving up a logging road. It was dirt and gravel and was wash boarded out.  The guide said they grated it once or twice a month but you couldn’t tell.

There were guard rails in most places, so I never did freak out and the rest of the drive was on pavement.

Up above the clouds

We stopped and saw the super telescopes they had up there.

When we got to the top of the mountain, they gave us parkas and gloves to wear. It was approximately 25° up there. I jumped out of the van and took some pictures and then jumped back in the van to warm up. I waited for sunset and got back out.  I think I got some good pictures but I should have brought a tri-pod. The cold air was making me shake so some of my photos were out of focus lol.

After sunset, we traveled back down the mountain to about 10,000 feet and our guide set up a giant telescope. I got to see Saturn, craters on the moon, and a twinkling star up close.  In the middle of stargazing, a meteor shot across the sky.  It was the biggest meteor I have ever seen in my life. It was probably half the size of the moon and it super bright green and red and the tail was very long and colorful.  Then it exploded and disappeared behind a mountain. The guide said that he had never seen one that big before.  I wish I had gotten a video of it. It was amazing.

Big Island 2026

Big Island 2026

Day 7 Saturday 

Up pretty early. Trying to stay closer to Oregon time so it’s not such a shock when I get home lol. 

Breakfast down at Piko. What? Party of one? Ok, let me seat you right in the middle of the room. Which is fine, but it makes it hard to watch people without staring lol.

Me: can I have that breakfast bowl without all that extra stuff….lol Them: oh, you just want rice and pork? Yes lol.

I signed up for two of the Outriggers tours. I looked online, but it’s hard to tell which tours are sketchy and which ones are legit. The first tour is tonight at 8:30. I will be swimming with the manta rays! We will be in the water for 45 minutes. I can’t wait😁

I drove north to see if I remembered anything from the 2017 trip. That was my first solo trip to Hawaii. I looked for my favorite shave ice place, Scandinavian shave ice, but it’s temporarily closed. The last time, I stayed at the Royal Kona resort which is where I’m going next.

Went swimming and baked a bit by the pool and caught up on my blog.

It’s time! I signed in with Sea Quest Rafting for the manta ray snorkel. I am so excited!  They gave us a shorty wetsuit to wear. That’s good, I was afraid I would get cold.  There were 16 people on my boat. We got into a small zodiac and headed out in front of my hotel.  We each got a snorkel, mask and a pool noodle. They had us jump/slide off the boat into the water and we swam over to a floating light board.  Once there, we held on to the board with both hands, put our arms out straight and then put the pool noodle under each ankle.  This was so you could lay completely flat on top of the water. They turned the lights on to attract the plankton/food and then we waited. It wasn’t long before a couple of smaller ones showed up. They were gliding through the water underneath us and doing back somersaults.  Then the bigger ones came to eat. They were approximately 8 feet across, maybe longer. The big ones would get within inches of us while swimming upside down.  The guy next to me screamed like a baby 😂 

That mouth😲
Right under my face lol

By far the coolest thing I’ve done in a while😁

Big Island 2026

Big Island 2026

Day 6 Friday 

All packed and ready to go!

Travel day. Me to the Big Island and Krystal, Randy, Camden and Noa are flying home. Krystal is sad and talking about moving here again.  She has her big hawaiian hair going on.  Although I don’t think she got it wet in the ocean. 

We stopped and did some thrift shopping on the way to the airport. Krystal didn’t want to be too early  lol. She did find me a cat shirt 😂 I love it😻

It worked out really well because our flights left at the same time. We did have to part ways when we got through TSA and to the gates because we were going in the opposite direction. For a second there I thought that Krystal was going to crash my party of one and hop on my plane 😂 I wouldn’t put it past her to fly back over on Monday and leave on Wednesday lol.

I went to Starbucks to get lunch while I waited to board. A couple around Krystal and Randy’s age sat down next to me.  They had two kids and they were being pretty quiet.  An older lady came over to compliment them on their kids’ behavior.  That was just her foot in the door to tell her life story😂 I felt bad for them but I got up and moved. Her husband was watching me, he probably wanted to go too lol.

I boarded being mindful this time of my seat number and location😂. I was 4F. When I got there the lady and toddler in the middle and aisle seats asked if  I would switch with her husband….he was in 5A. It was window for window seat so I said okay. Didn’t want him to get out of kid duty. Right Randy?!?😂😂 I might also add that right before take off their kid started screaming  lol. So essentially I dodged a bullet.

Landed and took the shuttle to the car rental place.  No, they didn’t have me on their books.  They did, however, find me at their downtown location….😂 I blame booking.com. I specifically rented a Toyota pu and not a Jeep.  Jeeps scream tourist and I was trying to avoid that. They said they didn’t have a Toyota pu but they did have either a minivan or a Jeep🙄 well, I’m not driving a minivan so I took the Jeep lol. Ugh.

I pulled into the Outrigger.  At first glance it looks a little too snobby for me. Everyone is dressed all tourist fancy and I’m in a cat shirt and an AC/DC hat lol. I walked around and checked out the pools. They have a kids pool with a waterslide and an adult only pool. My room has a mountain view with a nice size lanai.  The only downer is that there is no beach I can walk to.