10/18/2023 – 10/27/2023
The Have-Beens: Papa and Grandma x 1
The Newbies: The Boys, me, husband
Oh, Hawai’i. This one was expensive and really stressful. We started the chaos the day before we left with the oldest boy getting covid. When I say we plan for a lot of flexibility, this proves it from the start of this trip but wait until the end…
Okay, spreadsheet completed, so many stops to try to see it all since there really isn’t a cheap way to get to Hawai’i so let’s see it all! Well, now the husband and oldest won’t be seeing Honolulu or O’ahu but let’s get started anyway and they’ll join us in Honolulu airport to catch the flight to Kona. We fly to San Francisco, spend the night (where I rent a car at midnight for the next day since there are only four of us), and head out the next morning to Honolulu…the youngest starts coughing on the plane to Honolulu. Throw a mask on him and test him as soon as we get the chance upon landing and thank goodness, he is negative so we all tear our masks off and head out to explore the island. Now that we have a car, we blow the first day’s plan and just drive around to see the North Shore, grab some poke, stick our toes in the sand, and head back for our ghost tour of Honolulu.
I typically love ghost tours or haunted tours because you get a bit of history, walk around to some back corners of a city, and have a little fun. The Ghosts of Old Honolulu Walking Tour led by Lopaka Kapanui, who really is a master storyteller, does weave together the history of Hawai’i, the Palace, the state and federal buildings, and some modern crime tales. We did not catch anything on our cameras like we did in New Orleans and did spend a lot of time trying which would be the only reason I wouldn’t highly recommend this tour. I would definitely recommend it if you want great stories about the area around the Palace and state and federal buildings. Lopaka is a native Hawai’ian with a great sense of humor and an uncanny ability to tie together the traditions and history of Hawai’i and the more modern day crime in the area. Luckily, we didn’t see any cheating men here sitting in front of the haunted well on the Palace grounds.
Day 2, Pearl Harbor and the USS Arizona Memorial. We booked ahead of time at the Pearl Harbor website to make sure we had a spot on the ferry to the Arizona. You have to book these separately. We handed our two extra guaranteed seats to someone waiting in the “if there is room” line so it all worked out. This was amazing. You grow up hearing about Pearl Harbor, you’ve seen the movies, you’ve read the history books, but it really becomes bigger than the stories when you are there and you can see it first hand. This is definitely a MUST DO if you are in Honolulu. NOTE! No bags are allowed in. There were lockers and there was quite a line to use them. Luckily someone gave us a heads up in the parking lot so we left our bags in the car. I think we gave ourselves enough time to see it all in 4 hours and were even able to grab lunch there though I wouldn’t recommend it. It’s meh. If you were going without children or with people that want to read every sign, give yourself at least another hour or two. I think we all would have loved to have more time at the memorial but you have 15 minutes from the time to unload to the time you are being loaded back up so know that this will not fill up your day.
Since we blew our first day plan, we turned the afternoon into a beach day at Waikīkī and we really could have spent all day every day here. They aren’t lying about Waikīkī. It is paradise. We walked down the beach and grabbed another pineapple smoothie for the youngest who definitely now likes to drink things out of pineapples. We ran into a beach souvenir store. We just really soaked it all in for our last night in Honolulu and finished it off with a pizza from Domino’s because it was late and we didn’t know where else to go. We tend to end up at one basic fast food meal during vacations just because it’s quick, we know it, and we don’t go to bed hungry. There is no shame in this.
On day three prior to heading to the airport, we had a free day that I mention in my tips so we could go back to see the things we wanted to see if we had the chance. We headed up to the Punchbowl Cemetery which was breathtaking and had a magnificent view of Honolulu and ran back by the Palace so we could see it during the day. Then, return the car, meet the rest of our party, and fly to Kona to start the actual Focus on the Garman Family trip to Hawai’i!
The end of this day was a wonderful lunch and Mai Tai at A-Bay’s in Waikoloa Village which just happened to be on the route but was much needed for the very tired two who just joined us and those that were just relieved they were here. After lunch, we checked into the hotel, became very skeptical about how much we were going to like it here, were blown away at our “basement room”, took in a beautiful sunset, drinks, and bites with an old friend of my husband. To the hotel for the moment, while our room ended up being breathtaking, it is a pretty big resort that was either a 10-minute walk to your room or a 10-minute wait for a monorail to get anywhere. Parking was terribly expensive. And you were forever away from anything other than what was available at the resort. This isn’t typically how we like to stay and we were grateful for a car but then ended up spending so much time driving everywhere we wanted to go and the Big Island is in fact very big so that was often hours at a time in the car. I do not recommend this unless you are a resort person. If you are, then this resort was beautiful. Our “basement room” opened directly onto a lawn which was overlooking the ocean. The accommodations were very up-to-date and very comfortable.
Since we knew we would be a little tired from the first half of the trip, we planned day four to just be easy sites to see the typical Hawai’i things – valley, waterfall, stargazing, spam. We did pretty well sticking to all of this! May have been the only day we stuck to a plan. We started with Waipi’o Valley Overlook, headed to Akaka Falls State Park for a very easy walk through the forest and out to the Falls, then headed to TEX Drive In for food and malasadas. I was really excited about this as it is touted as a must do. I disagree. The malasadas were very good and since we didn’t eat them anywhere else since we had more than enough to last the entire trip, I’ll say they are good but cannot compare them. The rest of the food, well, it was spam. It was all fine. I would not say it’s a must do, in fact, I’d say you can skip it. I really wanted to give a better review but I’ll be honest. If you’re driving by, sure, stop in! We were going to finish the day by driving up and stargazing at Mauna Kea. It didn’t even occur to me that my teenage son, who has lived at elevation since he was 15 months old, wouldn’t be able to handle a mountain…we made it to about 10,000 feet before Papa was feeling it in his lungs and the teenager was getting a headache. By the time we got to the visitors’ center, the teenager was saying his eyes felt like they were going to pop out of his head. We ran to the bathroom, grabbed some sweatshirts and long sleeve shirts since the same teenager forgot our warm clothes bag in the room, had just enough time to see that it would be incredible to stay up here and see the skies on a night of a meteor shower but instead, we need to head back down.
From here on out, the spreadsheet was just blown to hell and we did whatever we wanted. This was supposed to be the resort day because Papa and Grandma had a timeshare tour but Papa wanted to go to the beach so it started with a trip to Beach 69 for some snorkeling and grabbing coffee from a truck on the turn off, which was absolutely delicious. The reef at Beach 69 has definitely been badly impacted by humans and the warming of the water as most of the coral was dead but the fish and such, were still very there and very lovely. I even saw a small octopus! I would still recommend snorkeling here even if Papa wouldn’t. After a few hours, we were to head back to the room so Papa and Grandma could make it to their tour and then we’d be night snorkeling with the Manta Rays in Kona that night. My husband and I drove to get groceries for our hike to the black sands beach at Pololū Valley However, as soon as my husband and I got back to the room, we were informed that the tour was actually two hours earlier so they missed it and had to reschedule for the following day so we kissed the rest of the plans goodbye! We still made the night snorkeling and now without a tour to attend, we headed to Kona to shop and grab dinner before the snorkeling. This was actually a wonderful change of plans. We were able to spend all the money, get all the souvenirs, and had an AMAZING dinner at Kona Inn. Kona Inn was situated in a shopping center overlooking the water so I was definitely skeptical but it was absolutely the best meal we had the whole trip. The boys wouldn’t recommend the fish and chips but realized that it was time they become a bit more adventurous with their ordering since we shared a lot of ours. Another beautiful sunset and then to the boat to drive out into the Pacific ocean to jump in the rather chilly water and have our chins brushed by manta rays. Papa still says that diving is better but after reading all the reviews, all the comparison threads, I chose to snorkel with everyone instead of the two of us breaking off to dive without them. I definitely squealed through the snorkel the first time one of these gigantic beasts came up under the board! We all highly recommend the Manta Ray Night Snorkel* with Bite Me Sport Fishing. The guides were funny and helpful and the experience was really a once in a lifetime.
The next day, the plan was to head to Volcanoes National Park, hit up the Volcano Winery on the way if we could, Papa had a colleague who lived in Hilo so we’d meet up for a minute. But first, they had to go to their rescheduled timeshare tour. This took far longer than it should have since Papa hasn’t met a timeshare he could say no to. We didn’t leave until very late, so we decided to meet the friend at Volcano Winery which was when the rain rolled in. Quick review on the winery, the Volcano Red and the Volcano Blush were great and we ordered a few bottles to be shipped home. The rest were very sweet and we didn’t even finish the tasting. The volcano artwork on the walls is absolutely gorgeous and the bacon cheese ball was a great snack! By the time we got to Volcanoes National Park, it was foggy, cloud covered, and getting dark very quickly. (At this point, Papa has also been coughing the entire way over and I grabbed him a mask at the national park’s visitor center. About this time, he’s starting to get the chills and not feel well but I’ll get to that in a minute…) We made it to the first stop on the loop as the sun was setting and the fog was so thick that you couldn’t see anything. Grandma, my husband, the boys and I did the little hike through the Devastation Trail where the sun set, we couldn’t see anything anymore and headed back to the car to decide what to do. Decided the lava tunnel could be done and maybe there was a glow from Kīlauea. There was not, we just looked into the dark at where we guessed there was a crater. We wrapped it up. Headed to the gift store to get an ornament, water, bathroom break, and headed out. At this point, Papa is going downhill quickly and we are suspecting he has covid which we have all been dreading since the very beginning as he has pulmonary fibrosis and this could be devastating. Grandma and I were dropped off at Walgreens to make sure that we had supplies for him before everything closed and the boys all headed to pick up McDonald’s and we started the trek back across the island.
We get home, Papa tests, it looks negative and we finally take a deep breath and go to sleep. Going into our last day, we decided to try to hit the Black Sand Beach down south and Puʻuhonua o Hōnaunau and Two Step Beach which is called Two Step because it is two steps into the water and onto the reef. But the morning wasn’t going to cooperate. I didn’t trust the test the night before but decided I was overreacting. In the morning, Papa decided to test again and he was positive. Everyone slapped on their masks and started sanitizing everything. Whatever tiny scrap of a plan we had before gone. But Papa loves the ocean and feeling a little better than yesterday, he wanted to go snorkeling while we tried to find a way to get covid meds called in for him. Thank you, UnitedHealthcare’s virtual care, for getting the meds ordered and we did a little snorkeling at Two Step while we waited for it to be filled. This was a really good call. It was choppy but the sea life was wonderful. At one point, we were worried that Papa had swum out to the ocean to call it a life because he was enjoying himself for so long we couldn’t even see him anymore. In the midst of all this, we are also trying to coordinate new flights, find places for them to stay since their return would now be delayed. Everyone took a big sigh and tried to make it through. We grabbed food at an outdoor restaurant which isn’t really worth mentioning – Papa masked of course. My youngest decided that he really doesn’t like the ocean. Everyone is just over everything at this point.
After dropping three off at home, my husband, Grandma, and I thought we’d try to head back up Mauna Kea to go see those stars. We made it about 20 miles from the resort when we realized that we forgot to get gas. We talked about it! But we didn’t do it. We had enough gas for the miles but we were headed up the mountain. While we were deliberating – go back and get gas, risk it? – Papa called and thought that we still had his meds in the van. We gave up. This vacation is over.
It was finally time for four of us to head home and keep our fingers crossed that Papa was going to be okay. They booked a car, found a place, and rebooked flights. I promised I’d be back if he took a turn. He didn’t and they actually ended up going back to Volcanoes and seeing everything, making it to the black sand beach and snorkeling with the turtles, and it went pretty well until the day before they left. He was testing negative but started getting really sick again. They never really figured out what that was but put him on a steroid and antibiotic and it cleared up. Maybe too much snorkeling with covid!
This was a test. The vacation where all the things went wrong. The vacation that really lets you know that all the planning in the world can’t do anything for you sometimes so just sit back, take a deep breath, and roll with it. With all the chaos, we still had some really bright moments and all liked Hawai’i.
Maybe we’ll be back, maybe we’ll just say the Polynesian gods are not in our favor. Hopefully the links above can help you and the gods will be on your side.
Focus on the Garman Family Travel 