Hawaii trip: Part 3 (final)

The final installment of our Big Island Vacation. Part 1 and Part 2 here.

Day 7:

Today was the day for our submarine tour and Izzy was super excited for the tour, despite not knowing what a submarine was. Unfortunately, we got to the shop only to be informed that the tour was cancelled due to high surf. We rescheduled for the next day.

It right around lunchtime, so we walked around the farmers market, buying a ukelele and a bracelet for Izzy before eating lunch at TK Noodles (amazing!). 

Izzy loves noodle soup

After failing to get Izzy down for a nap, CP and my MIL took her to the beach while I relaxed in the condo in order to stay out of the sun. The time alone was rather nice as I got to take a nap and take a relaxing shower to get ready for dinner that night while the three of them were gone. When they got back I heard that Izzy had a grand ole time jumping waves. My MIL stayed home with Izzy while CP and I went out for a belated Valentine's Day dinner at Holokoa Gardens & Cafe. 

The restaurant was seriously delicious- I can highly recommend the ono (a type of fish) and the lilikoi cheesecake!

Day 8:

Unfortunately, the submarine tour was cancelled again due to high surf. We decided to try out a beach about an hour north. It was beautiful but with the high surf we stayed fairly far back and held on tight to Izzy's hands (the waves would break 30-50 feet away but there would be a large rush of water coming towards us). She had a great time jumping and getting splashed. 

We ended up having lunch there and eating yet another smoothie (we sampled lots of "moothies" while in Hawaii). CP's ankle was hurting him so we drove around looking for something cool to do on the way home, but decided to take a trip to urgent care because CP was having trouble walking and we weren't sure if he got stung by something in the water.

Doctor thought that it was most likely gout so we took a trip to the supermarket to pick up steroids for CP, stopped for an afternoon snack of shaved ice, then headed home to hit the showers and head out for our last dinner in Hawaii.

Izzy and I shared a "small" shaved ice

Shaka

Day 9/10:

We woke up and decided to have breakfast on the water for our last day before cleaning up the condo. After locking up we were off to explore Saddle Road, which is the road that runs between Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa. The highest point is over 6700 ft and it was fascinating to go through different eco systems once again.

We stopped at the Mauna Kea Recreation Area for a quick bathroom break and some play time for Izzy. 

A few miles later we stopped to climb Pu'u Huluhulu (Hairy Hill- an old volcanic hill covered in vegetation). It's a good thing that CP's ankle was responding to the steroids because he was able to climb the hill and Izzy did the entire hill all by herself!

View from the top of Hairy hill

We made the final descent into Hilo, stopping for a quick lunch before dropping off our rental car at the airport. CP tried to run her a bunch before the flight, hoping that it would help her sleep later on. She was great on the first flight to Honolulu (only 45 minutes), but cried for a good 15 minutes on the flight back to Chicago (7.5 hour red eye). Luckily she was on the floor at the time so the plane noise drowned her out. She ended up sleeping for some of the flight, I feel asleep for about 1.5 hours but then woke up with swollen feet. We finally arrived in Chicago at 5am, exhausted, and took a cab home.

We arrived home to a tree limb in our driveway, I guess from high winds that Chicago had a few days beforehand. Luckily other than losing a few shingles off the roof, we were spared any damage.

Can't wait for our next adventure- although I assume it's going to be awhile!