After our first trip to Hawaii and visiting Oahu and Maui, I couldn’t decide where I wanted to go on this trip. Certainly Maui would be fun for the girls, but I was probably a little selfish in deciding on the Big Island for the second half of the trip. I just really wanted a chance to see the volcanoes. This island is so big, though, everything is spread out and difficult to reach from a central location. Our resort was at Hāpuna Beach, north of the airport at Kona. The nice thing about this location is that it is one of the driest places in Hawaii, receiving only 10” of rain a year.

Big Island Resort Area

3/23/01—4/2/01

A nice greeting at the Westin Hapuna Beach. They had a beautiful open-air lobby.

On Thursday morning, before we began our first adventure, the girls hopped into the pool near our room. It was lovely.

On Thursday afternoon, we walked Hapuna Beach, where Madeline and I climbed a big rock formation and took pictures (with and without a zoom lens) of the girls below on the beach

On Sunday, we spent a little time relaxing at the pool and then going down to the beach again. Here, the girls befriended a couple of little girls, and this is another one of my favorite pictures.

 

Finally, it was time to say goodbye. We went to the open-air airport at Hilo, caught a flight to Honolulu, continued to LAX overnight, and eventually made it home on Monday afternoon.