I had three goals on this vacation: 1) Not to put on any weight, 2) Not to over spend, and 3) To have a really great time. I certainly managed to have a much better time than I had ever hoped for! And I didn't over spend either. In fact, I didn't spend much at all, nor did I buy anything that I really don't need. I started off really well with the not putting on weight goal. On our second day I again went to the pool and swam laps before we headed out to Kona. But that was the last of me hitting the pool for exercise purposes. Our trip was quite physical, so I figured I'd be fine. But... at some point I declared ice cream as a calorie neutral food and allowed myself full indulgence.
I shouldn't be surprised. Ice cream is possibly the thing I miss most about North America. So I put on a bit of weight. For the record, I have no regrets.
On our second day, we headed in to Kona to do a bit of exploring and to also figure out what sort of activities we would like to do on this trip (basically, all of them). Enter Jill. Jill informed us of all the best tour companies to go with (I don't know if they are the best, but they were all very, very good) and how we could get a discount on all of them if we had a Diamond Card. How does one get a Diamond Card? One goes on a tour of a resort and listens to a sales pitch. After much hemming and hawing and showing of the discounted prices, the parents agreed to go on a tour the following morning.
As all this logistical stuff was taking a lot of time and no final decisions were going to be made on activities, it was quite boring and soon the four of us started wandering off through the little shopping village we found ourselves in. I emerged with a rather awesome t-shirt and new sunnies, miracle sunnies, but I'll get to that later. And we discovered some strange fruit. Strange fruit that bounced when the boys threw it on the ground trying to crack it open.
Once the parents had finally finished making their arrangements with Jill, we gathered the troops and headed out for lunch. This was my first time ordering fish at a restaurant (if we don't count Korea, which we won't). I had spearfish, Cajun style. It was delicious! Tasted just like chicken. And yet, the thought of eating chicken still makes me gag.
After lunch it was time to gather up supplies. I was worried that we'd be eating out at restaurants all the time on this trip, but our condo had a fully functioning kitchen, so we only ate out when we actually were out. Feeding a family of six takes a lot of food, especially when that family includes a 16 year old football player! A trip to Costco was in order. Actually, multiple trips to Costco were in order.
Once we had unloaded our groceries back at the condo, we decided to head out to the beach nearest our hotel.
Later in the trip my Dad would claim that this beach was a black sand beach, so there wasn't really any need for us kids to pester him into driving to some unknown destination with sketchy directions from a local to see a black sand beach. Everyone's glad he didn't win that argument.
The Big Island has all sorts of different kinds of beaches, but they tend to be pretty rocky. This makes them good for spotting ocean life, and not so good for bare feet. Of course, we found this out the hard way. Now, no one can claim that my baby brother John is not committed. This is a man who follows through! Off he went into the water, excited for his first ocean swim. Being under the impression that he was clear of rocks, he started to kick, and... smashed his foot right into a jagged rock.
And that was the end of John's ocean adventure, for a few days anyways. As he was gushing blood, Dad had to take him back to the condo, and then get some supplies to bandage and clean his foot, leaving the rest of us to enjoy the water as the sun set and the moon rose. This beach was cool though, because it was a favourite of sea turtles. They were mostly basking on the far edge of the beach, but every now and then you'd see one swimming in the water on the main edge. In fact, while Maya, Pat and I were goofing off in the ocean, one swam right through us!
Eventually Dad came back for us (the beach being a good 5 minute drive from the condo) and we returned to a sulky John who was positioned in front of the TV, watching college football (for the rest of the trip). The parents had an early morning tour of that resort the next day. John opted to stay home on account of his foot, but Pat, Maya and I decided to get up early and drop the parents at the resort so we could check out a nearby beach that was meant to be great for snorkelling. More on that next time!
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