Honeymoon: August 9th

The Last Day...

MAP

Boooooo.

We checked out of the Hapuna Beach Prince by late morning, then headed up to the Waipi'o Valley area for one last activity -- horseback riding with Na'alapa Stables. The descent into the valley is on a road like none other, and with a grade that makes the road the steepest in the entire state. Over the next couple of hours, we toured part of the valley on horseback. Overall, both of us throroughly enjoyed this activity!

After the horseback fun, we drove through the Kohala Mountains. I looked and looked for the NWS's WSR-88D up there, but I never found it. :-/ This area is quite beautiful, however, and the drive was fun. We did realize that there was a Cafe Pesto in Kawaihae, which we certainly would have visited had we known it was there. Driving back to Kona for dinner, we tried to get a spot at Bubba Gump's, but the wait was too long. So, we ended up eating at the Kona Inn Cafe, which was inexpensive yet quite good. After one last sunset, we were off to the airport, sad to leave this lovely place.

The flight home was fine. Sometime between the time we left Kona and the time we arrived at SEA, the big terrorist plot bust in the UK occurred. Unfortunately, we found out that we couldn't take any liquids, gels, creams, etc, back onto the plane in our carryon. Hmm. I had several bottles of wine in my carryon bag, and I certainly did not pack them for the abuse I would expect for checked baggage. Well, there was little we could do, so we packed the wine bottles with a lot of paper towels from the bathroom, and hoped for the best. We were pleased that the wine survived the trip; I was a little surprised, actually.

Well, the honeymoon was over, and it was time to get back home to unpack and prepare for school. We had an excellent time in Hawaii, and it was a perfect way to spend the first couple of weeks of our marriage.

Now, some notes...

• Kim and I preferred the Big Island. There's a lot of driving to do on the Big Island, but I enjoyed the diversity and VNP on the Big Island. Again, I know some of my disliking of Maui had nothing to do with anything but bad luck (it was hot and dry the entire time), but there's just something about the Big Island...
• I preferred the Hapuna Beach Prince; Kim preferred the Sheraton Maui. I thought the decor was nicer and a little more trendy at the Hapuna, but there was some black mold in the shower and rest of the bathroom. It was also unfortunate to be stuck with a queen-size bed. The Sheraton was nice, and I like the ambiance and pool better there. There was a lot of walking to get from the parking lot to our room, however, and I was strongly preferred Hapuna Beach to Ka'anapali Beach. There was only a very small area of Ka'anapali Beach on which we could lay if we wanted to stay dry.
• We had some very good food on our trip. I thoroughly enjoyed David Paul's and Pahu i'a, and the Kona Brewing Company, Cafe Pesto, and Kona Inn Cafe were good. I have mixed reviews about Pescatore and Roy's, unfortunately.
• I think we both consider the "Road to Hana" trip as a "been there, done that" type of thing. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I'm not sure it's something we'll do again. The back side of Haleakala was very cool, in my opinion.

Pictures

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