This wasn't a typical adventure for us. There were no tents, only a few miles of dusty roads, and not once did we yearn for the day when we could finally hop in the shower. In fact, this adventure was so vacation-esque that I had no plans to write a story, and even contemplated leaving my camera at home.
And yet, as we found ourselves exploring the big island of Hawaii - a new-to-us destination, since we've traditionally enjoyed Kauai - the things we saw were familiar but new, and as exciting as ever.
Lazying Around Town | Hawaii Vacation #1 - We've gotten quite accustomed to flying to kick off a trip. That sounds rather elitist, but I assure you it is anything but; usually we're flying Spirit Airlines for something on the order of the cost of a single tank of gas. Roundtrip. That wasn't something we were going to risk for a little more than five hours over the Pacific Ocean, so at 10:00am on Christmas morning, we lifted into the air on one of Alaska's newest planes. It was just before 2:00pm local time when we landed to sunny skies and the most pleasant 75°F temperature a Pacific…
Volcanoes National Park | Hawaii Vacation #2 - Whereas @mrs.turbodb was most looking forward to being in the ocean while we were in the tropics, I was most looking forward to seeing an active volcano. Actually, I suppose I was conceptually interested in that, but I hadn't fully thought through two key elements: (1) where to go to see said active volcano and (2) whether there was actually an active volcano. Turns out, (1) is a problem when the answer to (2) is "there isn't one." I so sad. Still, even if we couldn't see some fiery hot lava blasting into the night sky, or cascading into the…
From Sea Level to 13,796 Feet | Hawaii Vacation #3 - I'd always imagined that Mauna Kea would be inside Volcanoes National Park. Not only is it not, but it's not even part of the park. @mrs.turbodb knew this already. Having researched and planned all of our volcano visiting in a single sitting - overlooking the Pacific Ocean as it crashed against the shoreline outside our apartment - we'd learned that visiting Mauna Kea wasn't as easy as simply driving from sea level to the top of this 13,796 behemoth. In order to get there, we'd have to abide by the following rules: We'd need to stop for 30 minutes at…