A Tale of Two Trips: Disneyland and Hawaii July 2014 Long Way Home: The End 9/13 p.40

Wow...what a tour (and what a price :faint:). First, you would NEVER get me in a helicopter. I don't do helicopters and I don't do small planes.

Your pictures are marvelous from the plane, on the ground, etc.

I love that you gave a nickname to Matt...Danger Dan. Love it.

Sounds like an awesome tour, Dee.
 
This tour was really amazing.
Of course when I saw Pele's tears ...I thought...Otherwise known as Rabbit Poop. :rotfl2:
 
I am laughing at your "Danger Dan" nickname as well. How neat that you got to see Pele's Hair and Tears in the wild ... we only saw them at the Jagger Museum. What an amazing place! So glad you were able to make this stop and share these pictures!
 


Wow...what a tour (and what a price :faint:). First, you would NEVER get me in a helicopter. I don't do helicopters and I don't do small planes.

Your pictures are marvelous from the plane, on the ground, etc.

I love that you gave a nickname to Matt...Danger Dan. Love it.

Sounds like an awesome tour, Dee.

It was expensive, especially when we had to pay for 4 of us, but it was an all-day, all-inclusive tour with knowledgeable and professional staff. Worth every penny we paid for this once-in-a-lifetime experience!

The name just seemed to fit him. I think it was the hat. And all his stories. It amused me that I had to go back and look up his real name, because Danger Dan was all we used (privately) during the tour and afterwards when discussing it.

:rotfl:


This tour was really amazing.
Of course when I saw Pele's tears ...I thought...Otherwise known as Rabbit Poop. :rotfl2:

The tour was awesome!

Of course, the rabbit poop comparison would come from the farm girl! ;)

But you are so right!

:goodvibes


I am laughing at your "Danger Dan" nickname as well. How neat that you got to see Pele's Hair and Tears in the wild ... we only saw them at the Jagger Museum. What an amazing place! So glad you were able to make this stop and share these pictures!

We visited the Jagger Museum at the end of our tour, so there is no way we would have noticed Pele's tears or hair on our hike if Danger Dan had not described them to us. He also showed us samples. I was very proud of Ben when we were walking back to the van after lunch and he found some of Pele's hair on his own. Somehow, I didn't get a picture of any of the "hair" we found, though.

:confused3


Wow what an amazing adventures you had. Love travelling with you through your stunning photos and reports :)

Thank you so much! Glad to have you along, too.

:thumbsup2
 
I am working on my next update to this report, the helicopter flight back to the Kona area. Then one more chapter, our return home, just for closure.

Thanks for sticking around with me!

:cool2:
 


Helicopter Mom

After our spectacular ground tour of Volcano National Park, we still had a major part of our tour remaining. The return flight from Kona to Hilo along the scenic coastline.


Remember when Mark refused to take the camera for the first helicopter flight, even though he was almost, literally, in the driver’s seat with spectacular views? Well, I wasn’t going to let that happen again, so I foisted one of my cameras on him with the command that he take some pictures!


Unfortunately, the camera I gave him did not have much battery life left and it died after 10 photos, before we got to the coastline and waterfalls.


So you are stuck with my pictures, from a not quite as great vantage point.


Here’s our ride!


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Bye, Bye Hilo Airport!


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Some estate that just sold. I can’t remember if Cal told us who purchased it or for how much.


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It started raining, heavily, as we entered the valley with all of the tall waterfalls



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Continued in Next Post
 
Continued from Previous Post


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Pu`ukohola Heiau


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This is the remains of a temple built by King Kamahehameha I- I actually did not know anything about this National Park until I was researching it this morning. I am fascinated by sharks, along with my boys, and part of this location is a submerged temple to sharks.


"Endless is the good that I have given you to enjoy."--Kamehameha I

How many places in America can you walk in the footsteps of a king? Where else has a stranded sailor risen up to become a great chief over an entire island? Where else can you experience the culminating event of a people, foretold from centuries past? And where else can you stand on a beach and watch as sharks pass over a submerged temple? Experience all this & much more only at Pu`ukohola Heiau!



Chasing Rainbows:


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My other boat is a yacht:


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Here is the Hilton Waikoloa Resort from the air:


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Thank you Paradise Helicopters, Captain Cal, Hawaii Forest and Trail and Danger Dan for the most amazing excursion ever!




Next Up: The Long Way Home
 
I love the pictures from the helicopter. Hilo is much more tropical than the west side of the island. In fact, it seems like there are more fields of lava than fields of green on that side of the island.
 
Fantastic excursion and pics Dee! I know Hawaii gets an abundance of rainfall but it still boggles my mind to see all the waterfalls everywhere!
 
Wow stunning scenery! Love the long waterfalls :)

It was gorgeous! I just wish it hadn't been raining when we were in the waterfall valley.

:umbrella:


I love the pictures from the helicopter. Hilo is much more tropical than the west side of the island. In fact, it seems like there are more fields of lava than fields of green on that side of the island.

That's true. We noticed all the lava fields flying in and then on the road from the airport to our resort.

I think the Hilo area gets a ton of precipitation!

::yes::


Fantastic excursion and pics Dee! I know Hawaii gets an abundance of rainfall but it still boggles my mind to see all the waterfalls everywhere!

Thank you so much. We loved, loved, loved every part of that tour. You just did a helicopter tour in Alaska, right? First time?

Really gorgeous waterfalls and seeing them from the air is a great way to view the entire falls, and the groupings of falls.

:thumbsup2
 
Oh man, what an awesome ride! Those views are absolutely breathtaking, especially the waterfalls.
Love the story of the king, especially the submerged temple!
 
Oh man, what an awesome ride! Those views are absolutely breathtaking, especially the waterfalls.
Love the story of the king, especially the submerged temple!

Thank you!

It was such a great excursion and an amazing way to see the volcanoes and scenery both from the air and land.

I'm glad I looked up the story about the King Kamehameha's temple. The helicopter pilot didn't really do into what it was, so it was nice to learn a little bit more.

:goodvibes:
 
Are these the Fantasy Island water falls? i know they are somewhere in Hawaii.

I had to look it up, but the Fantasy Island waterfalls are Kailua Falls in Kauai. Same thing with the Jurassic Park Waterfall: Manawaiopuna Falls, also in Kauai.

Bless you! hahahah

That's funny!

:rotfl:

Great update. Just amazing views and scenery. The valley of the waterfalls is amazing.

Thank you!

:goodvibes:
 
The Long Way Home

So, apparently I don’t have any more pictures from Hawaii.

That surprises me, because when we returned to the resort, we had dinner (looks like I was too tired for food porn) and we were given access to a hospitality room (but I didn’t take any pictures there, either)


We ate at Dona & Toni’s, an Italian place at the Hilton Waikoloa Village. It was easily our least favorite meal, even worse than our Red Lobster Anniversary fiasco in Waikiki. The service sucked!

There was inside and outside seating. Mark prefers to sit inside so that the temperature is controlled and so we are not bothered by breezes or bugged by bugs. That could have been part of the problem. I think all of our waitresses other tables were outside.

She disappeared for LONG periods of time. There were not many other restaurant employees in our dining room either. So when we were out of water/drinks, there was nobody to ask for a refill. I think at one point I actually went to the hostess station to let them know we needed more water. If I had found a place to fill a pitcher, I would have done it myself!

Our food took forever to get to our table.

For the record, this is what we ordered:

The boys had a Shirley temple and an Italian soda for drinks.

We ordered a small Caesar salad, $9. I can’t remember if this was any good or not. We got an order of breadsticks for $8. That's a lot of dough for some dough.

For meals, we split two spaghetti and meatball dinners ($19 each) and a small Hawaiian Pizza with Spam, 12 inch ($25).

The meatballs were big and fabulous.

The pizza was NASTY. Our bad for ordering Spam. But unfortunately there was nobody around to complain to.

The boys wanted dessert. Somehow, from someone, we were able to order two chocolate mousses. I didn’t know until seeing the receipt at the end of the meal that they were $12 each! OUCH! They weren’t that good and neither boy finished his.

Total bill: $113.98


I don’t remember what I tipped. As a former server it is almost impossible for me to tip less than 15% and I usually tip much more, but I suspect that this time I broke my own rule.

Dinner had taken a lot longer than we expected it to. We rode the monorail to the main lobby building to retrieve our luggage. I had packed everything very efficiently so that one suitcase contained all of the things we would need to shower, refresh and change for our all night/all day flights home.

We asked about a hospitality room. They assigned us a room way over in the building where our room had been. I think we walked over dragging our luggage.

When we got to the room, all of us were just too tired to shower and even change. And we didn’t really have much time anyway, before we needed to catch the shuttle that would bring us back to the airport. So we all used the bathroom, watched a few minutes of tv and then dragged our luggage back to the main lobby.

No pictures.


:sad2:


We had a shared shuttle back to the airport and listened to everyone talking about their trips.

We arrived at the Kona airport and our flight was sometime after 11.

Security was non-eventful. Nate was in the TSA pre-screen line. He seems to get that a lot. I suspect that the reason is that the agents do not want a teenager removing his shoes.

The airport is small and mostly outside, under cover in some places. There was nothing open that late at night and the only available food or drink was from vending machines. There were announcements that the plane we were taking was full and that they would check carry-ons all the way through to our final destination. We had some extra carry-ons we didn’t need since we were trying to save on checked baggage fees. And we were just going home, so if our luggage did not arrive, it would not be anything we would need right way.

So we took a chance and sent the bags. There were no problems- those bags arrived along with our others when we reached Boston.

Our red-eye flight from the Big Island to San Francisco was uneventful. I distributed Benadryl to everyone. I was skeptical that I would be able to sleep on the flight because I am NEVER able to sleep on a plane, no matter how tired I am. But the exhaustion of the trip must have taken over, because I did catch some shut-eye along with the rest of my family.


Our layover in San Fran was brief, and soon we were on our final flight to Boston.


I have a few pictures from the cross-country ride, but that is it.

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****************************************************************************************

I sincerely thank everyone for joining us on our trip of a lifetime!

We loved visiting Disneyland for the first time and we were able to appreciate the similarities and differences between DL and WDW, which we know so well.

Hawaii was exciting and beautiful, as we expected, and we are dreaming of a day when Mark and I may visit again.

Aloha!


:beach:
 
There was inside and outside seating. Mark prefers to sit inside so that the temperature is controlled and so we are not bothered by breezes or bugged by bugs. That could have been part of the problem. I think all of our waitresses other tables were outside.
Everyone dines al fresco in Hawaii. The breezes are the best part. But they still should have been a lot more attentive to your table.

There were announcements that the plane we were taking was full and that they would check carry-ons all the way through to our final destination. We had some extra carry-ons we didn’t need since we were trying to save on checked baggage fees. And we were just going home, so if our luggage did not arrive, it would not be anything we would need right way.

So we took a chance and sent the bags. There were no problems- those bags arrived along with our others when we reached Boston.
We've never had a problem with the bags on the way home, but the bags from home to Hawaii sometimes arrive on a different flight, especially when taking one of those small, inter-island flights.

Hawaii was exciting and beautiful, as we expected, and we are dreaming of a day when Mark and I may visit again.
I hope you get a chance to return someday. There are still more islands to explore. ;)
 
Sniff, sniff! I'm sad to see this report end! What an great trip and what a great report - I really enjoyed all of your pictures and your play by play descriptions. Thanks for sharing!!! :)
 

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