Aloha

Back in March, we went to the Island of Hawaii during Tanner's Spring Break. Him and Drew had a week off, and the rest of us were able to take it off of work. It was so fun to go on a trip with our friends - especially before the Fabrizio's moved! MarLeice's parents had a time share available, so we were able to snag that which helped a lot since it's the most expensive time to go to Hawaii! It's definetly a trip we will always remember!

Tanner and I weren't familiar with The Big Island because it was our first time visiting (and first time together!) so I'm going to list our activities and restaurant list since I had a couple of questions from friends.

Sunday: We flew non-stop on Alaskan Airlines, and were really happy with them. I think that was only like my second time flying with them, but never to Hawaii, and it was a great experience. The leg room wasn't horrible either! Just FYI: Exit Row seats DON'T lay back like I thought they did... I thought I was tricking the system getting us extra leg room and leaning chairs but I guess you have to pick one or the other! ;)

The Big Island is very big (duh?) and spread out. As soon as we landed we hopped in the rental cars (we scored with two Jeeps because of points) and drove to Costco. We loaded up on groceries and snacks for the week and indulged in some good ole' pizza and hot dogs to start off the trip. We hung around the pool and explored the resort the rest of the evening, and went into town for dinner.

Monday: The next morning the boys golfed while the girls went to Zumba. After that, we made our way to the resort (we were staying in the timeshare area) and explored the pools, got some virgin lava flow's and pina colada's, and pool food: aka chicken fingers and fries! (I was embracing my Miley buns all day long!) They had dolphin excursions at the hotel so we sat and watched them for a bit. Once the boys met up with us, we went down the slides and ventured around the lagoon swimming with turtles, then headed back to get ready for dinner. 

My friend recommended Huggo's on the Rock's for a sunset dinner, and that's exactly what we did! Their little restaurant is right on the water, with live music and hula girls so it was a fun 'welcome' to the islands! We loved the fried rice and the fish tacos. We heard the desserts were great too, but we had planned to get shaved ice so we didn't get to try any. We had Scandinavian Shave Ice for dessert and it was a typical delicious Hawaiian shaved ice shack. Tip: 'Check In' on Yelp to receive one free topping.

Tuesday: We discovered what would become "our beach" aka Hapuna Beach. We loved this area for body surfing waves and the calm yet fun atmosphere. There's also a large tree that can give you some shade when you're feeling too much sun.

We went to a "The End of the Road" destination in Puako for some great snorkeling. The waves were a little rough this day, and we still didn't have our GoPro case but we made the best of it! We were the only ones there, so the turtles were really loving our attention.

We were all freezing after snorkeling, so we rushed home to get in the hot tub. We also started a licorice-chocolate milk-in wine glass tradition.

Wednesday: This was our Hilo day - where we drove to the other side of the island. It was one of the most eventful days we had. We started off the morning at Tex's Drive In for some Malasadas, and then had the prettiest time getting lost on our drive to Rainbow Falls. We hiked around Rainbow Falls and Akaka Falls, the Botanical Gardens, and Waipio Valley. We found another secret beach near The Botanical Gardens to picnic at, and got swept up by a huge wave but luckily didn't lose anything critical (except for my Polaroid getting water damage). Mike threw a log off of the side of the cliff and Drew almost died (literally) and the wives weren't too happy about the husbands acting like children. We got stopped by a drunk ranger and almost got police reports because we were being "too loud" on the beach at 6pm. Some lady's dog went wild and she was claiming it was because of us. There are some sketchy people living in Hilo, but it was a fun day!

Thursday: We ventured down to the Mauna Lani Resort for more beach relaxing and snorkeling. I would love to stay at this resort someday, with all the beautiful cabanas and the pools! When we first walked in, they let us feed the largest orange fishies I've ever seen and it was so exciting! They let us just walk through to the beach and they were extremely friendly.

We went back to "our beach" for some more body surfing later in the afternoon, and finished the night off with watching the sunset and the tiki man run from each tiki torch at the resort. We had a fun little family dinner that night and went to bed early!

Friday: We had another relaxing pool day, watched a luau show at the timeshare lawn, and headed to the Observatory in the evening for sunset. It was FREEZING but thankfully we were semi prepared. We felt like we were on the moon with all the lava - it was so crazy! We got to look through the telescopes and see all the stars, and it was pretty sweet! 

Endless hair braiding with my girl, Lex!

Saturday: We listened to General Conference on our Bluetooth Speakers, visited the "End of the Road" snorkeling location again, and swam and ate at the resort. It was another relaxing day, but I felt like we had a super relaxing day, every other day and that was perfect. We surprised Alexis for her birthday back at the rooms with balloons and funfetti cake! We all got ready to go to our favorite (and most expensive!) dinner of the week at Lava Lava Beach Club. They had live music, corn hole games, and we got to eat in the sand again - it was the perfect way to our our trip - watching another beautiful Hawaiian sunset.

Sunday: We laid out by the resort pool one last time, while we listened to General Conference and watched the IronMan racers race on the hotel grounds! We packed up the rest of our stuff and headed to the airport. I think we were all depressed for the rest of the week going back to real life. 

Looking forward to getting back to Hawaii... and I hope it's sometime soon!