Too Much Excitement!

It's very hard to set the mood for a nice relaxing vacation for all of you when there is so much excitement going on around here.  In the last few days I have gotten a new kitten who is a little bundle of energy.  Jingle surprisingly is the more accepting of the two older cats.  He is now coming around her and sleeping when she is in the room.  I really thought he would be the one who would have nothing to do with her.  It turns out that Shiner won't have anything to do with her.  He still hisses and then runs away everytime he sees her.  Then she looks up at me with this What did I do? expression on her cute little face.  I think Shiner is just mad that he's not the baby anymore.

Then yesterday my first great nephew was born.  Jacob and Jeni welcomed Joseph Tex Meyers into the world at 12:53 yesterday afternoon.  He is precious!  He wasn't due until the middle of September so he was a little early.  But he still weighed in at 6 lbs. 9 oz.  So he is a nice size boy and very handsome!  You be the judge...

So anyway, that took me away from things for most of the day yesterday and was very exciting.  So now I'm trying to get back into a state of mind so that I can write about a relaxing place for you to spend a week or so this year and it's not so easy.  Plus Mrs. Beasley is currently rolling around on my desk trying to get me to pet her belly.  With all that said, this might be difficult.  But I am determined to present you with a great place to spend some time this winter while it is cold and miserable in Texas.  So go get a cup of coffee, sit back and prepare to be Wow'd!

Today we are going to Hawaii.  To be specific, we're going to the Big Island.  When I went to Hawaii a few years ago, we were able to spend one day on the Big Island and after having been there, I was sorry that we didn't spend much more time in this wonderfully slow paced part of Hawaii.  Also, I saw a special on NatGeo or one of those other networks in which tourists were doing night swims with manta rays off of the Big Island and I thought that would be amazing!  Plus you can go up to the observatory and we didn't get to do that either!  There is so much to do there that I decided it is worth a week on it's own.  So off we go!

First of all, I've decided that to make the most of this trip, we need to go in February when the weather in Dallas is really brutal with a possible ice storm or two.  So we'll be flying out on Feb. 22nd from DFW via US Air at 8:20 AM.  We have a stop in Phoenix with an hour and a half to change flights.  Then we'll land on the Big Island at 3:21 PM.  So we'll still have part of a day to explore or just relax with the first Mai Tai of the trip.  Now, I've booked us in the Royal Kona Resort which is a solid 3 star hotel.  I sprung for a partial oceanview room which includes a daily free breakfast.  There are specials for just about everybody at this hotel.  If you are on a honeymoon or anniversary trip, you'll get a free amenity upon arrival.  Persons 50 and over, get a free amenity and kids stay and eat free.

A taxi ride from the airport is about $55 each way. So, I've included roundtrip airport transfers, so your shuttle will be waiting for you when you arrive at the airport.  Then you'll be off to your beautiful resort where the hotel's bar has won awards for it's Mai Tai's.  Just sayin'....  The hotel bar is the kind of place that you really can't get enough of.  So I think for myself, this is where I will unwind after that long flight from Dallas.  Maybe I'll FB a photo or two from here while I'm at it just to make all the suckers back home really miserable.  Hmmmm... wonder if there is ice on the ground in Dallas....

A Mai Tai from the hotel bar.

On the first night I'll take it kind of easy but after that, I'm going to have trouble cramming all of the fun and relaxation that I want into only 7 days.  On my first full day, I think I'll spend the first half of it by the pool. But in the afternoon, I'll have to take off on my Mauna Kea Summit Adventure. The coach will pick me up at 2:25 in front of the Buns in the Sun Bakery and from there, we will start up the mountain for our sunset and evening stargazing tour which includes a 3 cheese lasagna dinner, coffee and hot cocoa.  On top of the mountain it will be cold.  So, you need to bring a hoodie or even jacket and long pants with you for this excursion. You can bring your own drinks, but no alcohol is not permitted.  But who needs alcohol when you can get drunk on the views that we will see?  The trip is 7.5 to 8 hours long depending on our pick up point and I've decided to bring a thermos of coffee for the cold night.

Our altitude will be 13,796 feet above sea level.  So we're up above a lot of clouds on this trip.  That makes for about 325 clear star gazing nights per year.  The dinner takes place before the sunset. Then you spend the rest of the evening just taking pictures looking through the high powered telescopes that the tour provides and enjoying your coffee or hot cocoa and the view as you ooohhhh and aaaahhhh.

Afterward, you might even get a nap in during the dark ride back down the mountain.  Arriving back at the hotel, there's plenty of time for a nightcap and some live entertainment in the outdoor bar before turning in.

Those are the coaches our tour is using.  The great big windows allow for some amazing views.

The next day to recover from all that stargazing it might be necessary to spend a little extra time at the pool. And with views like the one below, why wouldn't you?  In fact that might be all I would be able to make myself do after an evening of stargazing.

Later in the day, I would probably move to the sandy area with the ocean view.  Yeah, I could get used to this. Maybe later still, I'd go up to my room with it's partial ocean view and sit on my balcony enjoying the view through the trees.  But I wouldn't want to move around too much because I need to rest up because I'm thinking a night time manta ray swim is in my immediate future.

I honestly would like to get a scuba diving certification before making this trip, because I think the night swim with manta rays would be much better as a dive rather than a snorkel.  I've looked at photos of both on line.  the divers go under the rays and really get to see them from every angle.  The snorkelers look like they hold onto a ring on the surface and just watch as the ray swims by below the ring.... BORING!  I want to actually swim with them.  So for the sake of this blog, we'll just assume that I am doing the dive.  The really nice thing is that we will be leaving right around sunset which means we'll get to enjoy another Hawaiian sunset on the water.  Once we arrive to the spot where the rays do their nightly plankton feedings there will likely be several other boats there and the area is lit pretty well so that we can see the rays feeding even from the boat!  Could you ever get tired of views like that?

This is going to be another late night.  So tomorrow will probably require a lot more pool time.  Then maybe the next day we'll plan to spend the entire day up at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.  Now, I've been there before as you may already know from the photos that I am constantly sharing.  But we didn't really have too much time to spend that day hiking.  I'm thinking that you really need two days to hike the area and spend all the time you need in the lava fields.  Plus, I hear the lava is flowing into the ocean again finally so, you've gotta spend an evening or two watching that!  While we were there a few years ago, it was not flowing but we were able to see the glow from the caldera which was pretty cool.

Below are some of my photos from 2011 to Kilauea.  It really is amazing even when the lava isn't flowing.  I can't imagine what it must be like now!

Thurston Lava Tube

So after 2 days and evenings of hiking and exploring all there is to see in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, we are down to only two days of our trip left and we haven't even seen a beach yet much less a black sand beach!  With two days left we will spend all of our time checking out all the beaches on the island so that we can determine the best beach on the Big Island.  After all, I feel like it's my duty to figure this out and report back to my loyal followers... both of you.....

I love this picture of Jenny, but I need to go back so that I can get one of myself in this same spot.

You can see where the lava once flowed into the ocean.  Now I guess if you went back, maybe this location would be bright orange with flowing lava.

I guess you might be wondering what an amazing trip like this would cost to take.  Well, as I said earlier, I priced if for leaving DFW on Feb 22nd.  You'd be returning home on March 1st leaving Hawaii at 11:45 PM and making it back home to Dallas after one stop in Phoenix to change planes the next day at 1:17 PM.  Your roundtrip ground transfers are included along with travel protection, breakfasts, and of course my expert travel advice for the low, low price of $3,499.29 per couple.  Now remember, I upgraded us to that partial oceanview room with breakfast.  So the trip could be done for less.  But what's the point in going to Hawaii if you can't see the ocean.  By the way, did I mention that February is whale season in Hawaii?  You never know when you might see a whale swimming right past your hotel room.  So don't forget to carry your binoculars along for this trip.

That's all I've got for you today.  Have a terrific hump day and watch out for camels roaming your office. Let me know if you are interested in a trip to the Big Island or if you want to talk about going anywhere else!