Honeymoon Part 3

Wednesday June 9, 2010

We woke up nice and early ate our breakfast in the car as we headed off to the North part of the island...the Wai'po Valley.  We met up with a group there to have another fun adventure that Brian had planned. 

  We went horseback riding!

Sadly, Brian had the camera so there are way more pictures of me than him.  Sorry!

This is me with my horse Thunder.

There were about 8 of us in the group with 3 local tour guides, TJ, Poa, and Roy.  The guides were awesome!  They told great stories.  Poor Thunder had just gotten new shoes and his hooves were very tender.  He wanted to walk on the side of our trail where it was nice and soft.  That, meant we were a lot slower.  Brian and I were at the end of the group with Roy. Here's some pictures of our ride.

We rode up to this amazing look out.  Here's Brian's video of it.

We had a beautiful view of a 1,200 foot waterfall and a beach.  It was absolutely breath taking.

Ah, the camera man!  Too bad we can't see his horse Taro in this picture.  Don't worry here's a great shot of us with our horses and the view in the background.

After stopping we continued up the trail and Brian got some better pictures of the waterfall.

We then stopped here:

Here's another video

Here are some pictures of us here at the lookout.

Our guide Roy went off and grabbed some fresh mac nuts from a tree nearby and showed us how to break them open to eat.

Here's Brian after tasting it. 

They are so much better fresh!  They remind me of eating fresh coconut from the shell.  Fleshy, and soft.  I decided to give cracking a mac nut a try.

After this stop we turned around and headed back with TJ.  Brian and I were the only ones to do the 2 1/2 hour ride.  The others signed up for the 5 hour ride.  We think 2 1/2 was sufficient.  Our rears were pretty tired.  Here are the last few pictures.

 It was such a gorgeous day and we really enjoyed the scenery.  Plus, it was Brian's first time on a horse!  Can you believe it?  I mean...he grew up in Texas!

After we drove back to Kona we decided we wanted some more shaved ice.  We didn't have to go too far this time for it.  

We then went swimming again.  While swimming, I found out that Brian and I would be leaving the island in the next day, but I'm not going to tell you where we were headed.  :)

It was then time to go get ready for the Luau at our resort!  Here are lots of pictures and a couple of videos:

I think Brian like the fire dancer best.

The Luau was so great!  We ate yummy food (Brian even liked the poi) watched a great show and really enjoyed the evening.  When we got back to the hotel we realized that we didn't take a picture of our room, so here it is all super messy!  Ha ha.

It was a great room and we were going to miss the balcony and view that we had to enjoy.  Kona was such a beautiful and relaxing place to be.

Stay tuned for where we head to next...

Honeymoon Part 2

June 8, 2010

After that amazing but exhausting first day in Hilo, Brian and I decided to take it easy the next day.  We slept in and walked to have breakfast somewhere on the street our hotel was on.  There were tons of restaurants and shops.  We picked one pretty close because we were starving, called Bongo Ben's.  

I ordered the Macadamia Nut, Banana French toast.

Yeah, it was as good as it looked.  

Brian ended up ordering a Loco Moco.  Let me tell you about the Loco Moco.  It is a layered breakfast starting with white rice on the bottom, with a huge hamburger patty on top.  Then on top of the hamburger there are eggs (any style) and the whole thing is covered in brown gravy topped with some green onions.  Here's a picture of it.

I don't know if it sound gross to you, but Brian was intrigued.  He claimed it was good, so after I had a bite, I completely fell in love!  It is the best thing ever.  I'm sure it's a heart attack waiting to happen, but at least you'll die happy and full!  How had I never heard of this before?  I had been to Hawaii twice!

Brian loved it too!  Check out the huge biscuit too.  I sampled that as well.  My french toast was no match for the Loco Moco!

After breakfast we walked back to the hotel and decided to take a swim in the pool.  We both look pretty pasty.  Sorry!

When we finished hanging out by the pool we headed off to get a couples massage.  That was awesome.  It was Brian's first time getting a massage and he's a fan.

After, we decided to go check out the little lagoon I showed you in the last post.  We got to see some pretty fish swimming around in the water there.

We then decided to walk though Kailua-Kona some more and check out all the shops.  Here are some pictures from that adventure:

Actually, we'll start with a video.  :)

Brian found any opportunity he could to get a picture of me with the flowers.

At Bubba Gump Shrimp Co, restaurant.  Does Brian look like Forrest?  :)

I can't remember what this was for, but it was cool.

So, this place was called Keoki's Donkey Balls!  We went inside because we had to know what it was all about.  They sell chocolate covered mac nuts in a round shape (which is different than the usual chocolate mac nuts).  Anyway, they are different colored and have strange names, like... Blue Balls, Nutty Balls, Fire Balls, etc.  I think you get the point.  It was a little weird, but I'm not going to lie, they were yummy.

The purpose for our walk was really to find some Hawaii Shaved Ice.  We had seen several places on Monday as we were leaving that sold it, but for some reason they were all closed on Tuesdays, but one.  It was at the very end of the street we had wandered down.  Brian and I both got one (me Blue Vanilla, which really just turned my tongue blue and Brian got Mango & guava, and it was delicious).  By the time we walked back to our hotel we were exhausted and our feet hurt, so we took a nap!

Once we woke up we decided to go the the lobby/bar area (which is all outside at our hotel) and enjoy the sunset.

We then decided that it would be fun to order some fancy virgin drinks from the bar.

I got a virgin Pina Colada.

Brian got a virgin Strawberry Daiquiri.

He then wanted to take some a fun shot of our drinks and rings.

And then I snapped this good one.

Oh, so back to the sunset...oops

It was absolutely beautiful!  

We then decided we were hungry but need to make a quick run to the store.  Brian informed me that the next day we needed to get up early and there wouldn't be time to go to breakfast anywhere.  I was a little bummed because I really wanted a Loco Moco of my own.  Ha ha

After the trip to Walmart we picked out a Thai restaurant close by and stopped and had some delicious food.  I am a huge fan of Thai food!

We ordered Pad Thai and Pineapple Fried Rice.

We went to bed with full, restful, and happy tummys!  Good thing since we had to get up early the next day.

Come back for part 3 coming soon...