Paradise Found

So we are back from vacation. We had an amazing trip. Two weeks is the perfect amount of time to truly drop out of your day to day life and really let go, which is exactly what we did. The only downside to this? It has been extremely difficult to get back into my regular schedule. Hopefully next week I can actually get to work on time.

My biggest decisions to make while on vacation? What to eat and what level of SPF to put on for the day. Tough decisions, I know. For two weeks I didn't use a blow dryer, went make-up free, didn't look at a computer screen once, no TV except to watch movies, and waking up each day by my internal alarm clock. Boy you really cannot imagine how these little freedoms can change a person. I was about as laid back as my normally fired up self will ever get.

So back to the trip. The weather was sunny the entire time, even where my Mom lives which is rare. They can have weeks of rain in Volcano Village. To give you an idea of how dependant her neighborhood is on rain, none of the houses on this side of the island have city water, all their water is stored in catchment tanks that collect rainwater. This is fine for bathing and brushing your teeth but for drinking and cooking you have to buy purified water. She really does live in the jungle.



The first day there we dropped Mom off at work and then drove through the Volcano National Park. It doesn't matter how many times I visit I still am caught off guard by the sheer power of what an active volcano does to a landscape.


This is a shot of Halemaumau which legend says is Pele The Goddess of Fire's home.


This is a steam vent. These are located all over the park. This is an opening through which volcanic material is emitted. At some point it could have been lava or gases, but this one is now releasing steam. If you stand real close the warm moist air hits your face and you get an all natural facial.

The next day we packed up and headed for Kona. Kona is a city located on the south side of the island. It is much warmer and sunnier than the side my Mom lives on, so this is where you will find all the big resorts that people typically think of when they think of Hawaii. We stayed at a condo for three days that was right across the street from our favorite snorkel beach, Kahalulu Beach Park. This is a great place to see all kinds of amazing fish and sea turtles.


This is the view from the beach at sunset. What I wouldn't give to be living in one of those houses right on the ocean watching this sunset everyday.



The next day we drove to another beach that none of us had ever been to. A lot of the prime beaches on the Kona side are "owned" by the resorts. They legally cannot keep locals off the beaches, they're all public but they have lots of ways of making it difficult to get to the beaches if you are not paying ridiculous amounts of money to stay at their resort. Anaeho'omalu Beach (or as the locals call it ABay) was an exception to the rule. The Hilton actually has a nice large parking lot which makes it local friendly and it is a perfect beach.



After a few days in Kona we headed back to Mom's for a few days before heading off again. Her neighborhood is eclectic at best. There are all types of homes, big new homes with manicured lawns, B&B's, houses that look like someone may be squatting. Really anything goes. A few lots down from Mom is an old abandoned bus. This picture really does reflect that if you leave something here untended nature will claim it.



Next we headed down to Kapoho, where we rented the cutest house. I truly never wanted to leave.



The house sat with two neighboring houses on a natural warm pond. Located right across from the ocean, the pond is filled with fresh sea water. Even the depth of the pool would fluctuate based on the tides. In the morning it would be shallow, 4 to 5 feet deep, by the evening the water was lapping over the edge.





Hawaii is full of mongooses which remind me of ferrets. They are not native to the islands, but were brought over to help cut down the rat population, but someone didn't do their research. Mongooses move around in the day, rats at night so now the islands are overrun with both. We would sit and watch as the mongooses would walk back and forth across that bridge. Smart buggers. It really would be much longer to walk around the pond.

On Saturday Mom's girlfriends, the "tribe" as she calls them, all came down for the day. We floated around in the pond, grilled all kinds of seafood and veggies and had a fabulous time. All these women are interesting and great fun. My only regret of the trip was that I didn't take a picture of the whole group. Every night we fell asleep to the sound of waves crashing on the shore, much more relaxing than the sound of our air purifier.

We have an ongoing restaurant tradition when we visit that started when I was 20. That summer my best friend T., had come over to spend the summer with me in Hawaii. At the time Mom lived on another island Oahu in Honolulu. We flew over to the Big Island for my birthday weekend and went to the Kilauea Lodge for my 20th birthday dinner. When J. and I were visiting in 2004 we celebrated my 30th birthday dinner their as well. This trip we treated Mom to a belated Mothers Day dinner. It is the best restaurant on the island, hands down. And I do hope by some stroke of luck we will be able to ring in my 40th birthday their as well.



Needless to say, I have had a hard time being back home. Nashville has lost a bit of her luster for me, but I am sure at some point she will win me back over. I did get a walk in at Radnor Lake earlier this week which is one of my favorite places to hike. As thick and green as it was at Radnor I almost felt like I was back in Hawaii, but just almost.