Back From Paradise

Aloha! Five days in paradise sure went by quickly! Did you miss me?? Do you know what I miss? The views from our hotel…

We stayed at the Fairmont Orchid in Kona and had a great room with a balcony overlooking the ocean. I will never get tired of watching the sun set each night.

The first couple of days were spent mainly by the pool. We bought snorkel equipment and went into the ocean near our hotel. We were able to see huge turtles and an eel. The eel freaked me out. I swear he was looking at me….I got the heck out of dodge.

One of the amazing experiences we had was a night snorkel with manta rays. Everyone got to wear a wet suit and away we went out to sea at sunset.

Sexy huh? :)

Once the sun went down, the company had a float area with flashlights pointing into the water to attract plankton which is what manta rays eat. We only got to see one manta ray (they are HUGE!) but it was awesome nonetheless!

On another day we did a day snorkel trip to a remote area of Kona that was seriously amazing. Beautiful clear water, tons of colorful fish and some dolphins on the boat ride over! The boat had a high dive and a slide right into the ocean. My husband loved the high dive.

In action:

Thursday we decided to drive around the entire island (about 6-8 hours without stops) and to check out the volcano near Hilo.

Even though you cannot currently see lava from the volcano, it was still amazing to see! Check out the steam vents coming out the ground!

I walked into the steam for a picture and was blown away by how hot is was!

Here is a photo of the crater where steam is coming out. Apparently if you take a helicopter over it you can see the lava.

More steam vents:

We walked through the lava tubes where lava used to flow.

Another view of the steam coming out of the crater:

We ended up that night at our favorite restaurant of the trip: Huggo’s in Kona. I didn’t take a picture of anything I ate except for our dessert that night. Mud pie!

It was HUGE!!!! Macadamia nut ice cream, Oreo cookie crust, fudge, whipped cream and more macadamia nuts. It was HEAVEN!

The view from the restaurant at sunset wasn’t so bad either. :)

Friday we spent the day at the pool and then headed to Kona for dinner at Huggo’s AGAIN (we had the Mud pie again) and then we were off to the airport for our red eye flight to Los Angeles. We had a three hour layover there so we went to the Delta lounge. Mind you, we got there at 5AM. Ugh. We did have a couple of celebrity sightings in there: Juliette Lewis and Eliot Spitzer. That’s a lot of excitement at 5AM! :)

Our flight to San Diego arrived at 9:30AM and we were home by 11AM. Since then I’ve been playing with the kiddos, doing laundry and unpacking. Sleep is going to be FABULOUS tonight!

What’s the longest you’ve gone without sleep?

Are you able to sleep on planes? Me: Nope! :(

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