Hualalai

My big girl relaxing over a morning cup of coffee

Lava bed during the day-it glows at night

We toured the volcano and lava beds.  It was freezing.  We vowed never to leave the Four Season again!

Interesting lava

The lava bed glowing at night

Beautiful flowers in the lobby

This guy runs through the resort every night lighting all of the torches and blows his conch shell

We saw whales on our last night but I did not get a photo

These little monkeys fell in love with K

Tesla parked at our hotel one night

Love our turtle friends who sunned themselves every morning

K having a Bento box on the beach

We had a couple of very windy days

We miss you Hualalai!

Magical last day

Every morning while we were in Hualalai K and I took an early morning walk looking for our friends the giant sea turtles. Last time we were there we saw them every morning, sunning themselves at that time of day when the light is just right. This year we looked for the turtles every morning but the water was so rough they could not come up on shore. But on our last day we saw whales while we were eating breakfast and a little later the turtles were up on the rocks. K spent the entire day exploring the tide pools, swimming and playing in the sand.

King's Pond

Our hotel has a large salt water pool that is carved of out natural lava rock. It is stocked with 3,500 fish. There must be at least 50 different kinds of fish in the pond. Our favorite is the spotted eagle ray. In the morning kids can feed the fish and in the afternoon there is a special feeding for the eagle rays. They come right up and eat out of your hand. This is also a great, very safe place to snorkel. K spent hours and hours snorkeling.

Can you see the flowery flounder by K's foot?


Here are 2 flowery flounders-they really blend in with the rocks

Tide Pools

One of our favorite things we did in Hawaii was take a tour of the tide pools. Our guide grew up in Hawaii and was very knowledgeable. She told us when she was little that she and her friends used to chase each other with sea cucumbers and use them as squirt guns. They would squeeze the sea cucumbers and water would spray out. We didn't try it.

This poor sea cucumber was stuck in this crack but when we went back to check on him the next day he was gone so he must have gotten out. Sea cucumbers are very heavy!

There were pink and black spiny urchins. You can pick them up if you are careful.

Tsunami!

With the way things have been going in my life recently it came as no surprise that there was a tsunami warning the first day of our trip. The hotel was evacuated to a golf club in the mountains for the day. Everyone was entertained and well fed and returned safely to the hotel in the afternoon.

K loves the lei greeting

Very early morning beach walk

Spring Break

A needed break from weather in the 20's. Here is where we will be!