Big Island 2019

Calvin recently took a bike tour around the Big Island of Hawaii and I joined him for a week of relaxation afterward. This was not our first trip to Hawaii, so we weren't quite as anxious to see everything, but we had a few good side trips retracing Calvin's bike tour. We rented an older condo in Kona with a spectacular view of the balcony.

One might be content to spend a week just enjoying the view

But we managed to travel a little beyond the balcony.  One day we went north to visit Pu'ukohola Heieau which was the last large temple built by Kamehameha when he consolidated his kingship of all the islands.

Cannons were placed on the lower rock embankment around 1790, which marked the advancement from the stone age to the modern world for the Hawaiian culture.
We stopped at Spencer Beach, which is a perfectly lovely beach

but Calvin had camped there on his bike tour and discovered an even lovelier beach down the Ala Kahaki Trail.

Mau'umae Beach

Another day we went south and rented kayaks to paddle to the Captain Cook monument.  I forgot the underwater camera, so no sea pictures, but the water was so clear we could see the fish from the kayak.

After kayaking we toured the "Place of Refuge" where early Hawaiians who had broken the law could be forgiven if they could just get there before they were caught.

 And we made a side trip to visit the "Painted Church."

One day Calvin rode his bike north and I drove to explore some petroglyphs the same direction. The trail to the petroglyphs was through a spiky treed forest

and the up a dry path

 to a smooth lava flow that was just covered with stick figure petroglyphs.  The was a little variety, but most just looked like this.

After we got back together we circled inland to see a little of the famous green hills that you expect to find in Hawaii.

Another trip was to visit the volcano.  We stopped at the southern most bakery in the United States for lunch.

The recent eruptions have changed the crater, but it was hard to get a good photo of the crater because it is so big.

 So we took pictures of ourselves instead

We spent several delightful evenings enjoying dinner at local restaurants on the beach.

And we had one delightful lunch in the middle of a rainstorm.

There is a reason Hawaii is so green