Hazel's Hawaii bucket list item was drinking out of a coconut and boy did we deliver! As expected, only Erin and I actually liked it, but you gotta try it to know!
Our stay on the Hilo side of the island was amazing. The house Erin picked was so cool and unique. I feel like it might be the most interesting house we've ever rented, and the view was impossible to beat. We were literally on the edge of the coast! When we arrived the first night it was dark by the time we got there and the waves were so loud and so close Hazel got concerned that there was a storm or Tsunami coming. She's been nervous about storms for awhile now and I think arriving in the dark didn't help. To her defense the waves were impressively loud. The next morning when we went for a walk we talked to a local and found out that the tide was unique - called a king tide meaning, larger than usual. I'd estimate the waves were 15-20 feet tall (though if you read my post about Volcanos you already know I am not as good at guessing sizes and distances as Ryan).
We visited a few waterfalls on that side of the island and did some shopping in Hilo. Hazel found her favorite souvenir of the trip - a spirit animal fortune deck and most importantly, we didn't let the rain get us down! This side of the island gets nearly 100 inches of rain per year. To contrast, the Kona side gets about 10 inches, so as expected, we spent a good amount of time dodging the rain and making the most of it. We actually lucked out quite a bit. Of our 4 days there, we only really had enough rain to slow us down on one day.
Somehow I ended up with zero photos of the cool little zoo we visited there where we saw two tigers up close and personal. Like, I'm talking about being the only people viewing the lions and them being less than 15 feet away with only two chain link fences between us and him. It was WILD! I'm sure the rain kept people away, and the fact that it was a Thursday. But it was a pretty cool experience. They had all sorts of animals for us to view, but the lions were the biggest hit by far!
We explored a little less on this side of the island. Partly because of the weather, partly because we were running out of tourism steam at that point, partly because there's generally less to do on this side and partly because our house was so cool to just hang out at. It was a slowing down of the pace that I think we all needed before we geared up to head home.
Our last day on the island our flight didn't leave until 9pm but we needed to be out of the Airbnb by 10am so we found ourselves homeless for a good part of the day. Erin had the idea of booking resort passes back at the Hilton (where we swam with the dolphins) and it was the perfect way to use up a day relaxing without feeling like we were just looking for things to do to pass the time. On our way back to the Kona side we took the "saddle road" through the center of the island. Its the quickest way to move between the two sides of the island. While only 45 miles across it took about an hour and a half to cut over. I personally didn't love the up and over route, but I expected that. We went from sea level in Hilo to 10,000 feet as we crossed over Mauna Kea, the largest volcano on the island. It stands over 14,000 above sea level and if you included all the way down to the base (way under sea) it would be the largest mountain on the globe. Higher than Everest! I don't do well with elevation change, especially that quickly, and it was near freezing temps when we arrived at the observation lookout so we didn't spend much time there, but that was probably a miss. If we ever go back, we'll add spending some more time up there to the list. It was pouring rain and too cloudy to see anything but it sounds like the star gazing is amazing there and Dean told me later that you can see the curvature of the earth from that point. Who knew?!
We had an amazing time exploring the island but my favorite part about the entire trip was having the kiddos along. I was worried about the school they'd miss and how hard it would be for them to make up the work (admittedly, it was hard for Abby!). I was worried about the time change, and about traveling for 15+ hours, but in the end, it all turned out fine. Let this be a lesson to future me....let it go!! It'll all be fine - they are more resilient than I think. I'd do it all again (not tomorrow...I'm not quite THAT ready...but soon!).
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