Top 8 Things To Do on the Big Island

Well, the 5 day countdown is on, and I've compiled some of my favorites of the Big Island (well, besides going to the beach!!)  So get ready and hang on to your shorts..!

1. Green Sands Beach - Although it takes a good 1 1/2 hour hike in, its TOTALLY worth it!! One of the most beautiful places I have ever been.

2. Laupahoehoe Point - Crashing waves and beautiful colors. Sigh.

3. Volcano lava flow at Kalapana.

3. Snorkeling at the Kapoho Tide Pools. - Crazy corals and colorful cool fish. How's that for using my c's.

4. Akaka Falls - There's some pretty nice greens all around, not to mention the incredibly tall and sweet water falling down.

6. Pololu Lookout - (North part of the Island)  To the left of these mountains is the shoreline you can hike down to.  I was lucky the first time and got to see a whale on the beach.  I guess I'm not sure if you'd call it lucky - it didn't smell too good, and you couldn't really tell it was a whale by looking at it.

7. Experience the Farmer's Market - 2 dolla 2 dolla, whatcha want?? Some of the vendors are pretty sneaky... but I know their tricks.

8. Watch the sunset in Kona - mmm.. do i even have to say.. ? Ok, I will... Sunset!   Sunset anywhere would be on my top 8 list!

Despite my attempts at getting everywhere, it didn't happen.. (...insert sad face).  Things just got too busy! However, here are a few things that I've heard are really good to do, I just didn't do them myself!

 - Hike down Waipeo Valley - Water World was shot here!
 - South Point - supposedly you can jump off the most south part of the island.  But if all goes well, I'm going to attempt to go there this weekend, along with some deep sea fishing! I'll let you know how it goes!

A Kona day with Aunt Kalila and Kayak Crasher

Well.. some more visitors I had..! It's been really nice to get to visit with everyone! Terra and Aunty Gayle (or .. I should say Kalila, her Hawaiian name which me and Terra proceeded to call her throughout the day) came this week (and are still here until Saturday).  We had a full day... us Snider's can't just stay sitting around.. we have to get out there and get busy! 

To start the morning off, we took it upon ourselves to enjoy some shaved ice. Cherry to be exact. Yummm.

Next, we took a tour of one of the Kona Coffee farms...

A berry..? I think not. A coffee bean (they call them cherry beans, I think).

This is what the little guy looks like when the outside is peeled..

That shell is peeled again!! And then there were two.

Finally, one last peeling. The more I looked at my hands in these pictures, the more I think I need to use some anti-wrinkle cream on them.

Then they're dried to exactly 11% humidity before they are processed. 

There, now you know a little bit more about the beverage you drink every morning!

They had a bunch of fruit trees there as well, of which they later gave us plenty of free samples...  This one? A papaya tree.

An orange tree...

And.. mango tree..! These little guys are just starting to come in season.

We went snorkeling for the afternoon. Terra was quite focused and swam amongst an array of  kayakers trying to get around her.  Next, we settled down for some nice Thai food.

And then, there was the incident at Walmart. All I wanted was some gum! But of course, not thinking, I threw out my receipt just as I was going out the door. And what do you know, the theft buzzer starts going off. Great.  So, here is my Aunt Gayle and I digging through the Walmart garbage just so I can keep my stinkin' gum! That's not even the worst part.  These other Walmart workers come over to us and are trying to pull away the garbage from us because they think we are trying to steal receipts so we can return things there later!! So I used my basketball moves to box them out of the area while tring to scrounge for this little scrunched up receipt. ALL I WANTED WAS A FEW PIECES OF GUM!!! And this is my story of almost getting kicked out of Walmart.

It was an eventful day to say the least! Wish I could have seen you guys longer, thanks for coming to visit!

Surfing/Lu'au - ing in Honolulu!

We made our way to Honolulu..! We decided to go to the Polynesian Center on our first day - so we drove along the North Shore, saw a surfing competition and saw some pretty different sights than in the Big Island..


Here we are posing with some Polynesian people dressed up.


Of course, they had to pick us out of the crowd to come dance with them on stage.. how embarrassing. Pretty much all we did was walk up and down the stage with the little men.


I finally went surfing!! I have been waiting my whole life for this moment.


Me and my best friend. Of course, the only thing I wanted to get a picture of while I was here - the camera had the flash on. Great.


We met up with John and Cathy, Dave, Riley and Jaden for a night of dinner & entertainment - kind of like an inside Lu'au with dancing .. and all that stuff.


Before we attempted Snorkeling at Hanauma Bay!


Back in Hilo now, we hiked up to Akaka Falls... Huge gorgeous waterfalls!