A few Odds & Ends to Wrap up the Hawaii Vacation Photo journal

Here's a view out over the hillside from our vacation rental house....

Pretty darn amazing, no?  The airport is straight below us...and a clear view of the deep blue ocean.

 Are you aware of the fact that plants we grow here (at least in the northern climates) indoors as houseplants grow like giant shrubs/trees in Hawaii?  It's pretty freaky seeing giant poinsettias growing everywhere.  And Schefflera.  It's just amazing what grows here.  It seems that you could practically stick anything in the ground and it'll grow.

 Two rental cars....minivans.  We had asked for an economy car but were upgraded to a minivan.  :-)  We certainly made use of all the space!  Can't forget about Riley- the Golden Retriever (I think that's what he was) that came with the house.  Sort of.  At least he liked to hang out with us while his owner was gone.

Note to self for next Hawaiian vacation: make sure our rental house/condo comes with a pool!

 Aunt Beth bought a Haupia Cake at Costco for a mini birthday celebration for Ava.  Gregory turned SEVEN  while we were in Hawaii!  How exciting to have your birthday while in such a beautiful place! I think the Haupia Cake was marketed as "The Cake of the Islands".  It was very coconut-ty and very sweet.  Yummy! (Thanks Aunt Beth!)

 Annika caught a little gecko....

 Couldn't resist taking a photo of all the packaged fish at one of the grocery stores in Kona.  Wish I'd taken a photo of the price of the gallon of milk we saw at one of the markets in Kona- it was over $8 per gallon!!!!!!  I just paid $1.99 per gallon at the Costco in Madison, WI (for comparison).  Yikes!  Gas was generally around $4.25 per gallon (about $1 more per gallon than we pay here in SW WI).

  Run Little Dude, Run!

 POG- passionfruit, orange and guava juice.  A must-have drink (at least for me...not sure how the locals feel about it but I LOVE it).

I did want to quickly mention about The Guidebook I'd written about in several of my posts...

It's called Hawaii The Big Island Revealed. And you can find it >here on Amazon<.  This guidebook really is a must for if you're traveling around Hawaii (they have a book for each island).  I read so much about the history of Hawaii that I never knew before (I assume that everything in the guidebook is as factual as historians know it to be).  At first I thought that Hawaii had an exceptionally brutal and grotesque beginnings but then I remembered that my Western European ancestors weren't really any better either!  And it looks like a new edition is about to come out.  So, if you're planning a visit to any of the islands of Hawaii or are thinking about visiting them I'd highly recommend getting this book.  It gives pointers that only someone who is intimately familiar with the island would know.  The kind of stuff that tourists would never figure out in a million years. So it's kind of nice to have an insider's view.

I'm kind of sad to be finished posting our Hawaii photos.  I do believe there will be one more post with a video clip of the night manta ray dive/snorkel trip Mark went on.  Now I have to return to my dreaded task of sorting our filing cabinet.  My office looks like a paper bomb just went off.  Thank Heavens I can close the office doors and pretend it's not there for a few hours.  *grin*  Wish me luck as I delve deep into the belly of our Filing Cabinet Monster and thanks for joining me on my photo-journaling stroll through our Hawaiian vacation photos.