Love for The Big Island

Today was a great last day on the west/north side of the Big Island. I have to say that when I told people we were doing Big Island and Maui for our honeymoon, a lot of people questioned the Big Island. We decided to go here because Eric really wanted to see the volcano, but upon further research I decided we should stay longer and enjoy this side of the island too. I'm so glad we did. So far the Big Island has been amazing. We have not met a single person that was not extra nice to us and I love love that each place we explore is not crowded with tourists. I'm telling you... internet research never steers me wrong.

This morning we started the day with a paddle boarding lesson at our hotel.



I didn't have too much trouble standing up on the board, but controlling it was another matter and was ultimately my downfall. After we got out of that nice calm cove I am standing in, the water was pretty rough. Around this time the instructor told me that he has never had a beginner not fall during one of his lessons. Obviously I took this as a challenge. Things were going pretty well, I was far out in the water and still completely dry (and actually getting kind of hot and wishing I would fall in, if I wasn't trying to break this record). Eventually I decided to turn around to head in. When I am kayaking I never have much difficulty turning around the boat using all forward paddling on one side. However on this thing I could not do that, I had to backwards paddle and apparently that's not the most stable plan ever and bam I "gracefully" fell into the water. Of course the instructor was pleased to keep his record alive. He did say I may have lasted longer than anyone else. I'll take that. At least it was fun.

Plus my stomach was killing me when I woke up this morning but I dragged myself to this lesson and felt a hundred times better by the end of it. I swear my stomach protests if I don't work out for 5 seconds....well, that and I eat out a million meals in a row. Oops. I need a kitchen.

Tried to get a picture of me and Eric on the paddleboards together but Eric was done so here it is haha



Eric may have been a college and arena football player and I never made it past high school JV (obviously not football), but I have him beat in balance related water sports. I know, useful, right?

After our paddle boarding fun, we headed up to Hawi, a small town (apparently filled with artists) at the very north of Big Island. We were trying to go to a bakery that was listed in our Thrifty Restaurants book, but apparently it had been closed for like 5 years...hmm maybe I need to buy more updated books? We ended up at a place called Bamboo instead. It was rated number 1 in Hawi, which is only out of like 4 places but hey. We ordered a chicken dumpling appetizer, and it was filled with peanut butter. Yup, #1 in my book.



For lunch I ordered the Fresh Fish Sandwich we ended up being Ono, caught probably down the street and tasted like it. Yum.





After lunch we drove a few more miles (and over a bunch of one lane bridges) to Pololu Beach. This can best be described as the tropical Hawaiian version of the Cliffs of Moher. At the top you have a pretty gorgeous view...



But it gets even better as you make the 15-20 minute hike down to the beach.



When we got to the bottom, we were rewarded with a beautiful black sand beach and huge waves crashing.



Eric and I saw a black sand beach when we went to Santorini, but this one was a lot more impressive for some reason (ps. If you ever go to Santorini, stay on the cliffs side of the island, much cooler).









The way back up was a bit harder than the way down, mainly because Eric stated there was no way people could really get back up it in 15 minutes like our guidebook said. Obviously this challenged both of us to do it, even though we did not discuss it until we were pretty sure we were going to make it. I think we were up in 13 minutes. A nice pointless accomplishment. Fortunately, there was a nice lady selling baskets at the top who gave out free water.

We have 3 ridiculously early mornings coming up, starting with a boat ride to hopefully swim with dolphins tomorrow morning. Then we'll be checking out of our hotel (which I'm really sad about, I LOVE this hotel) and heading to the volcano side. Apparently my next hotel has wireless, but not cable TV... interesting, let's just say I'm not holding my breath. Hopefully I'll check in again soon.