Part II of Our Vacation to Kona, Hawaii

Here are some pictures around the fabulous pools they had at our hotel. There were waterfalls, water slides, and a great sand-bottomed pool. It was hard with all the swimming to keep Jacob "the human eating machine" filled up. He nearly ate an entire pizza himself, one day.

Part of the beautiful saltwater lagoon that

surrounds the hotel. Complete with reefs,

fish and turtles.

There were cute little boats to take you

from one end to the other.

PARADISE OR WHAT!!!

I have to tell you the funny story about the signs. The first two about the Donkey Crossings are just funny in themselves. We are so used to Deer Crossings that who would have thought you could have Donkey Crossings? Are they wild? Jacob saw some grazing by the side of the road and thought that they were deer.

Then there is the next sign! Everywhere we went close to the ocean we saw that we were in the Tsunami Evacuation Zone and it was designated by a sign with a wave on it. We came to a little outlet mall and I saw this red sign and thought it was where we were all supposed to meet. Looks like a wave and a volcano to me! Well, my kids (not so kindly) informed their stupid mother that it was the sign for Quicksilver Clothing. Duhhhhhhh!

One day we woke up early and drove up north of Kona to a place we heard about to snorkel. It's called 2-Steps locally, but I forgot the Hawaiian name. You stepped down these two lava ledges into the most beautiful crystal clear water, lined with beds of coral stacked high up from the ocean floor, tons of fish of all different colors, and great big sea turtles. We didn't see any dolphins, I think we weren't quite early enough. What an incredible underwater world! We had a great morning!!





After the whole morning of snorkeling, we were all hungry and so we drove into Kona for a shrimp feast at Bubba Gump Shrimp.

This is the oldest church on the island of Hawaii,
with its oldest portion being built way back in 1820.
It also happens to be where my Dad and his wife Susan
were married 28 years ago!

One afternoon Jacob and I walked down the trail from our hotel along the beach to look at the tide pools. It was so pretty. He made a great find of a completely intact sea shell. Quite a treasure to find one not battered and broken against the lava.

We hoped that was our yacht in the distance waiting for us!









What a beautiful place to visit! It was so peaceful and relaxing! It never rained even one day while we were there. How blessed we were to have that special time together in such a special place. We hated to see out 9 glorious days come to an end!