Continued from Hawaii Day 3 Part 2.

We are flying home today. It’s been a pretty good trip with the kids and the grandparents. Wouldn’t call it a vacation, but no vacation with kids really counts as a vacation. They are more like adventures and living vicariously through the kids.

I looked at the Kilauea eruption cam this morning and it seemed like the eruption has stopped for now. We were so lucky to be able to see the eruption in person. Definitely one of the highlights for me personally. As I’m writing this about a little over a week after coming back, the eruption has pretty much stopped completely for the time being. Again, so lucky that we just happened to be there during this short eruption period.

The waves this morning were crashing louder than ever. They were so loud you can hear the boom and feel the windows rumble while inside the house.

Kind of which our flight left much later in the afternoon so I could spend all morning just sitting here watching the waves. Quite powerful and peaceful.

There were some monsters here this morning.

Alright, last massive wave. Gotta go finish packing and get going.

House is all cleaned up and we are all ready to go. Beautiful house, beautiful grounds, grill could use a good cleaning though. Also would appreciate a better set of pots and pans. Overall, had a great experience here. Forgot to list the price, but it was $2141 a night to stay here…not cheap. There was actually a whole other studio bedroom available to us that we didn’t use in this trip.

Cool property to visit, but maintenance must be a nightmare with all the salt and moisture. Plus, everything is expensive in Hawaii.

We flew into Hilo airport but leaving the big island we are crossing the island to fly out of Kona. Original reason for this was due to better flights out of Kona, and as a result of that we also get to go on a scenic route through the mountains.

Mauna Kea Observatories can be seen almost everywhere on this side of the island. Apparently there’s also observatories on Mauna Koa, the other giant volcanic mountain in the center of Hawaii.

Turned onto Saddle Road heading right across the center of the island. I guess they call it saddle road because it’s between Mauna Kea and also Mauna Koa.

Excited about this scenic drive, and excited about heading home.

A fire raged through this area a while ago. Wild fire or fire caused by lava?

As we make this long climb up the road, the scenery changes pretty quickly. We went from full on tropical rainforest climate into this much dyer climate.

Where we are headed.

The climate zone keeps changing. The big island has 10 out of 14 total climate zones, all on a small island in the middle of the Pacific. Pretty amazing to see how fast the changes are happening right as you drive around.

Getting closer, and now seeing old lava flow.

Turned from Saddle Rd and heading up to the Mauna Kea visitor center.

And immediately we have a different flora in this one little section. Maybe a stream or something that feed these trees water?

All those domes are old volcanic craters.

They are pretty cute. I just want to go climb up one of them.

Climbing, climbing, climbing.

Always excited to go up to a high point for a vantage view.

Cattle guard, did not expect to see this here.

Much more beautiful than this picture would suggest.

Then out of nowhere, we heard and all scared by this loud boom inside the car. Shit, did we get a flat? Nope. One of the two unopened Cheetos bags had ballooned up due to the high altitude low pressure and exploded. This is the other bag, and we decided to preemptively open it so it won’t explode later.

Photos cannot convey how beautiful that cloud ocean looks in the distance.

Made it to the visitors center at 9200 feet. This is as high as we will go today. Any higher from here, it becomes a dirt road and 4×4 vehicles become mandatory.

I tried to go up to higher ground to try to get a better picture, but short of going up towards the summit, this is as good as I could do.

If I ever do come back here, I’m renting a Jeep and going to the summit!

The road to the summit. They’ve got a park ranger posted there checking everyone’s car to make sure it’s 4×4. Apparently, it’s also the drive down that’s the issue with cars overheating their brakes.

Found these at the visitor center gift shop.

Some little treat for the kids to try.

Down we go. 17% grade, low gear. It’s a long way down.

Just doing engine braking at high RPM the whole way down.

That mountain opposite in the distance on the right is Mauna Koa.

Mauna Koa.

Little craters.

They look so cute.

I wanna go climb one.

Back on saddle road next to all the lava. Now heading towards Kona again.

I think that’s volcanic fog from the eruption at Kilauea.

Fissures in the landscape.

Lots and lots of vog as we get closer to Kona.

This whole area was covered in lava at some point.

Reached the coast again, now we are on the NW coast of the big island. It looks very dry over here unlike the rainforest climate at Hilo.

Crazy to see the clear divide between where the lava flowed and where it didn’t.

Getting closer to Kona, this again reminds me a little of Costa Rica.

At the end of this road by the coast is downtown Kona.

And here we are…

Lunch spot. We need to eat a quick lunch, and then head to the airport.

Marlin ceviche, yes please.

I love all the poke selection here in Hawaii.

I got the poke flight with one of them being the marlin ceviche. Yummmmm.

Our check came in a spam can, fitting.

Drove by Kona Brewing on the way to Kona Airport. We are a big fan of the Big Wave golden ale. Gotta get more of that when we are back in Austin. I’ve had it many times, but I think drinking it so often here really hit home on how good of a beer it is.

Airport is just a short 15min or so from Kona.

There it is, easy peasy.

Returned our car.

Empty at luggage drop off.

Massive lines at security. This is by far the longest line we’ve encountered during this vacation.

Looks long, but at least it was moving. Took a little less than 30 minutes to make it into the airport.

And the airport is completely open air. This is it, and it’s very crowded.

Trying to find a place to sit.

Good thing we ate in Kona before this because there were not many food choices here. It’s also really overcrowded and loud. The turbines are just loud everywhere since there are no walls.

Time to board, old school way via a staircase.

Boeing 777, that’s a massive engine.

Kona airport is literally built over old lava fields.

Lots and lots of private jet considering it’s a smaller airport and there aren’t that many people who live here. Lots of rich people with their second homes here.

Mauna Koa in the distance.

The lava flow leaves a much changed landscape.

Gotta have another one on the plane.

Our flight was a little delayed in leaving due to some small mechanical maintenance issue. We had another female captain on this ride. I want to say we’ve had mostly female captains during all the flights this vacation.

Bay Area.

ipads are a lifesaver for parents.

SFO.

We are hungry. Pho seems like a good jetlagged food.

Yummm. I’m so looking forward to this. Really hitting the spot.

Food for the kids.

Pho is great, but the spoon that they provide is almost worthless as far as a spoon. The only way to get to the soup is to pick up the giant cup and drink it.

And….FUCK ME! Since the soup was in a paper cup, the cup eventually got a little soggy so that when I picked it up to drink, the whole thing crumbled and I ended up spilling it all over my pants, the backpack, etc. etc. Fuck fuck fuck. What a mess and I don’t have anything to change into.

I went to the restroom and tried to get as clean as I could with paper towels. They had no hand dryer, so I’m still wet and walking around smelling like chicken pho. Ugh.

Searching for an Amex lounge, one that’s really far away apparently. This is the same one where we tried to go to on the way to Hawaii from Austin. Well, I’m searching for it again with RL, hoping that maybe in their shower facility they would have a blowdryer for my pants.

0-2. We arrived to find the lounge closing, it’s close to 11pm. Doh. I guess I’ll just have to sit on the flight smelling like chicken broth and a little wet. This sucks.

Redeye portion of the flight. 4+1 seating arrangement. I got a seat by myself. Ah gong and ah ma are up in business class with their lie down flat seats.

Arrived in Houston. The original itinerary that I had booked months ago had us flying straight from SFO to Austin. United decided to cancel that SFO to Austin direct and made us transfer through Houston therefore adding one more leg. Lame, but there weren’t any other better options, so we had to put up with this.

Our connecting flight is at a gate literally on the other side of the airport. Had to take a tram just to get to another terminal.

As we were about to reach our new gate, PL noticed that she left her little pouch on the airplane…..Ffffuuuuuucccckkkkk. We told her that it was too far and we didn’t have enough time until our next flight to get it and she’ll just have to consider it lost. She then started crying because she said she had left the gifts that she got in Hawaii for her friends in the pouch….Ugh…fuck. As they went to use the restroom, I decided to make a run for it. It’s probably a 15min walk and hopefully I can shorten that some by running.

Made it to the gate by running. 1. I’m out of shape. 2. My knees are hurting. 3. The gate is closed….I found another United employee working at a different gate and asked her if she could help me find the lost pouch. Told her the seat number and told her it’s for my daughter. She was nice and went into the airplane to look for me.

Success!!!!! Now, time to run back and catch the next flight. My legs are like jello…I need to workout more.

Made it! As soon as I got back with the pouch, they started boarding for the flight to Austin.

She was appreciative, I think. Gave me a big hug and wanted to sit by me on the flight. Heart.

In no time we are over Austin.

Home, sweet home. I can see the appeal of Hawaii. It is a very beautiful place that’s got all the convenience of being an American state. Doubt I’ll go back to visit anytime soon though, but sure glad I did this time and saw eruption volcano!!!