On the day that Darrell and his father wanted to golf, his step-mother and I planned to explore the resorts north of Kailua-Kona. On the way we saw the Hawaiian version of graffiti, names and messages written along the road with white rocks against the lava-based terrain. It was interesting to see the messages, some stated who loved who, others said Aloha, still others were the graduation year of the writer.

We arrived at the Mauna Lani Resort in time to look around a little before the guys started to golf. It's a gorgeous place with fountains and fish ponds and a nice beach where we all posed for pictures.

The guys had a beautiful course to play, the South Course at Mauna Lani. The picture below left is looking out over part of the course, the one on the right is looking out over one hole towards the ocean.

Simone and I left the fellas at the course and went to the Mauna Kea Resort, wandered around there for awhile and shopped, then we ended up at the Hilton Waikoloa Village resort. This place is huge, it has a boat that takes guests all around the grounds and a train that also transported people from place to place. There are three separate towers that housed the guests, a ballroom, a spa, lots of restaurants, a wedding chapel, pools and beaches, and shopping areas galore. I loved it there. They had a nice area with flamingos so I had to go see that. I collect flamingos and I love to see the real thing when I can, but I couldn't get too close to these. I was on a bridge that ran up over their garden area, and they were hiding behind the trees, beyond the pond and fountain. They're back there, honest.

We took both the boat and the train while we were there, to get around to all the areas we wanted to see. One of the pools we saw had a waterfall and looked just like a lagoon and the beaches were gorgeous. We had ice cream in one shopping area and then shopped our way thru that area. It was a great place, one I'd go back to for sure.

We had a wonderful day of exploring and shopping, and the guys had fun on the links, enjoying the views and the game. Jay won - he had 97 and Darrell had a 111. Not too bad for someone who hasn't played very often lately .... now if he could just hit the ball as well as he hit the dirt!

THE END OF THE TRIP

Darrell and I went back to the resorts on 8/13, the last day of vacation, to spend some time before getting on the plane that would take us home. We found an interesting souvenir coming back from the resorts, a coconut with a laser drawing on it. The artist was sitting by the side of the road and was using the sun's rays shining thru a magnifying glass to draw on the side of the coconut. It was the last thing we bought before boarding the plane.

We took off for Orlando that afternoon (from Kona to Oahu to Texas then home) with lots of great memories of the trip and a really good tan! We are very grateful to my in-laws for taking us on this trip, we wouldn't have been able to do it otherwise. Here are two parting shots from the two weeks: Darrell's dad and step-mom on the beach at Waikiki and a rainbow shining over that little bit of paradise in the Pacific called Hawaii.

INTRO/ WEBRINGS	OAHU	HAWAII/ KONA	HILO/ VOLCANO
SNORKELING	FISHING	RESORTS	LINKS

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Gorgeous Hawaiian graphics are from The Hawaiian Girl site
and I'd like to say a hearty Mahalo to her for allowing me to use them.

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