Tag: adventure

Big Time in Big Island

Our 32nd state and we knew the visit here needed to be intentional, as we wouldn’t accidentally find ourselves in Hawaii. We decided to spend time really getting to know Big Island and it was an incredible trip.

Big Island, Part 1: Kona & the Coast

We arrived around 5pm on the 23rd into Kona Airport, the easiest airport arrival ever, with a fun open-air setup that immediately signals you’re on vacation. We headed to the Outrigger, formerly the Kona Surf Club, and decompressed after a long travel day. The pool is sprawling and family-friendly, home to the largest water slide on the island (Rawls thought it would be bigger). For dinner we kept it easy and stayed at Piko, the hotel’s main restaurant — open air, pretty setting. The boys loved their Korean pork chops. William and I did not enjoy our meal. Win some, lose some. We crashed quickly after.

On our first full day, we headed out for breakfast at the Coffee Shack, an excellent spot looking out over the water. We all loved the food and the view.

From there we drove to the most sacred spot in the Hawaiian islands: Pu’uhonua O Honaunau National Historical Park. The mana of many Hawaiian leaders is believed to remain around the burial site, and it was also historically a place where Hawaiians could come to be absolved of their missteps. It’s also an absolutely beautiful location.

Next stop was Ho’okena Beach Park, a mostly local beach that’s a bit of a challenge to get to. Lunch was at Shaka Tacoz, which many claim is the best fish taco spot on the islands. We couldn’t disagree. We stopped at a local market across the way before heading back to the hotel for the rest of the afternoon: pool, more slide (William and I included 🤪), and pickleball.

At around 6:30 we walked down to Keauhou Harbor for a nighttime manta ray swim. This was a truly amazing experience and as the guide was introducing us to the location where we would be stopping, a manta launches out of the water. Apparently this isn’t super common and was a great sign of the many mantas we would see — ultimately dozens of massive manta, up to 1,600 lbs. We drifted in the water holding onto lights that attracted their food source, plankton. Countless times the mantas swam inches from us, and all of us were brushed by them more than once. Will be hard to beat this. (Noting the manta pictures aren’t ours! Borrowed from available pics but representative of the experience)

Big Island, Part 2: Volcano

Quick stop at HiCo Coffee on the way out, then we were on our way to Volcano National Park, with a couple detours en route.

First, the southernmost point in Hawaii (also the southernmost point in the US).

Then, the Green Sand Beach, one of only three in the world. We thought we were walking 0.2 miles, but that turned out to be to the trailhead. The beach itself was a 5-mile hike along the coast. Ultimately worth every step for the cliff and beach setting at the end.

We stopped to recharge at a roadside stand along the way with sausages, sandwiches, baked potatoes, nearly 500 five-star reviews. The owner had moved from Seattle during COVID and is clearly proud of doing a few simple things incredibly well.

We arrived at Volcano House, the lodge inside the National Park, settled in, and walked along the rim looking out to Kīlauea. William and I had a drink at Uncle George’s Lounge, then dinner with the boys at the Rim Restaurant. Through dinner you could see the glowing lava. So fascinating.

The next morning we were out early for the Kīlauea Iki trail, starting along the crater rim, through rainforest, then crossing a solidified lava lake from the 1959 eruption. Otherworldly to walk across it with rainforest growing up all around. We made a brief stop at the Thurston Lava Tubes after.

Lunch back at Uncle George’s was great. William and I shared the somen salad, which was excellent.

After a short read around the lobby fireplace, we went out again, this time through the Steam Vents (Wahinekapu) and Sulphur Banks around the caldera edge, then directly to Keanakākoʻi Crater, where we hiked down into the outer edges of the active Halemaʻumaʻu Crater lava lake. Tired legs after that one.

We wrapped the day at our yurt in Volcano Village and had dinner at Lanikai Brewery with salads, pizza, and ramen.

Big Island, Part 3: Fairmont Orchid & Winding Down

Part 3 was more recharge with a little adventure than the reverse and where we had by far the best food of the trip. On the way, we drove around the Northeast side of the island. We stopped at a beautiful waterfall state park, had lunch with local sweet treats (Portuguese donuts) at Tex Drive In and visited Waipi’o Valley Lookout.

We rented snorkel gear from Snorkel Bob’s and hit three spots: one near Kona and two near Mauna Lani, with great sea turtle encounters at two of them.

On the food front:

  • Brown’s Beach House at the resort was excellent.
  • Lunch there was a highlight too: the Maitake “hot” sandwich, a take on Nashville Hot with mushroom as the star, was a standout.
  • Merriman’s was our best meal of the trip — all local fare.
  • The luau at Mauna Kea had a gorgeous setting and wonderful entertainment.
  • Da Poke Spot, a hole-in-the-wall near one of our snorkel stops, had delicious poke.
  • And we closed out the trip with Binchotan Japanese on our last night.

Otherwise, we just fully enjoyed

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The Dakotas

The last stops of this leg of our trip took us through the Dakotas – glamping time at Under the Canvas near Mt. Rushmore and a stay in the Theodore Roosevelt National Park town of Medora.

Top 10 things we loved about our time in South Dakota //

1. Awesome Tents – we love camping as a family and this was a first where the camping setup was taken care of. We didn’t see many other great options near the town of Keystone, so booked a stargazer tent and a kids tent next to it for the boys. The lobby area is particularly well done and the individual tents are very comfortable.

    2. Playing Dominos at Under the Canvas – each day after exploring, we sat on the decks and Under the Canvas and played Dominos as a family

    3. And then we’d sit on the deck to watch the sunsets over Mt. Rushmore in the distance.

    4. We all enjoyed the smores and snacks at the campsite. Breaksfasts were also great and dinner, mixed but for camping options, relatively solid.

      5. Exploring the Badlands – now this was incredible hiking. Definitely toasty, but one of the more interesting hikes on Notch Trail with a solid amount of rock scrambling and challenging steel cable ladder that helped us scale a steep cliff wall.

      6. Recharging at Katie’s Kantina Taco Truck – Just outside the Badlands, we visited and excellent taco truck with fried cheese pickles – yum!

      7. Hiking Custer State Park – juxtaposed with Badlands, the lush greenery of Custer State Park was a beautiful contrast. Incredible hiking and water activity opportunities at the lake.

        8. Excellent meal at Skogen Kitchen – this was above and beyond our top food experience of the entire roadtrip. This place is worth seeking out if you are remotely nearby.

        9. (Brief) visit to Mt. Rushmore – We expected this to be a real highlight – and it was a nice visit, but a fairly brief one. The natural beauty at the National and State parks ultimately outshone the visit her.

        10. * and a Reptile Gardens Visit. Have to include this as the boys enjoyed this part of the visit in the afternoon of our first day in town.

        And then we finished our roadtrip with 4th of July in the town of Medora, part of Theodore Roosevelt National Park. The town of Medora is a constructed western town experience. The boys thought it felt like an amusement park. All of the restaurants were connected to the National Park and there’s a Medora Musical we intended to see, but we were rained out. A memorable spot to end our Roadtrip!

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        Remote Nebraska

        We had our longest stretch of drive towards our cabin in Nebraska yesterday. Plains as far as you could see until we started to get up towards the Northwest of Nebraska. We stopped along the way at the “car art” spot, Car Henge for fun.

        Remember when the boys contributed to the “art” at Cadillac Ranch?

        From here we were just an hour away from our destination, aiming to hike at a pretty spot on the other side of the town of Crawford – and it was a beautiful one. We partially hiked two loops and recognized we needed to acclimate (we’re almost a mile high) to fully do. Truly a beautiful spot. At the base of the hike there were rentable officers barracks (Fort Robinson) that looked like a nice spot to stay. 

        Before we headed to our (remote) cabin, we visited the (only) grocery store within an hour, the Dollar General, an opportunity to talk about food deserts and how fortunate we are. 

        We loved the stay in Red Adeline’s cabin. Perfect space for us and the boys got to see the underground retreat space should a tornado have come through. 

        In the morning we made cinnamon rolls and chilled at the cabin until around 10a and headed to the town of Hot Springs, SD for lunch and spending the day in the area. Nice lunch at Whiskey River and walked through the interesting downtown area. The Hot Springs waterfall was a small little things across the main road from the restaurant. 

        We spent time at an incredibly interesting Mammoth excavation site. The site was discovered during a development project and unearthed the most significant Mammoth fossil site. The area was a sink hole, surrounded by spearfish shale which created conditions where Mammothe could get into the water at the sink hole and were unable to get out. To date, 61 Mammoths have been excavated, 2 Wooly Mammoths and otherwise the larger Columbian Mammoths. Archaeologists were actively working and we met a recent graduate from UCF who is from Jacksonville!

        To wrap our time, we went to a local swimming spot, Cascade Falls. 

        Felt like we had all the grandparents with us today //

        • We found a glass store called Chautauqua Artisans
        • Cascade Falls was “warmer than Papa’s pool”
        • The triple berry pie at lunch was v good but not nearly as good as Grammys, per Rawls
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        Getting out of Dodge

        After our excellent brunch in OKC, we got on the road to our next “destination,” Oakley, Kansas. William found a route that would take us through Dodge City, Kansas so that we could live “getting the hell out of Dodge”. En route, we listened to a podcast series centered on life in Dodge City in the late 1800s- Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, Doc Holliday and the like. We think that perhaps it was more interesting in their time and people are getting out of Dodge for different reasons these days. 

        Here we are passing by the Coronado Cross, marking the location where Francisco Vazquez cross the Arkansas River in search of cities of gold in the 16th century. 

        This is the “Old Stone Home” in Dodge, the oldest property on its original location, bult from Limestone. 

        A few spots in the center of Dodge where we briefly stopped to see if we wanted to spend some time. We did not. 

        On the outside of Dodge, we walked along a path to reach a spot where supposedly you can see the most prominent wagon wheel markings from the Santa Fe trail. 

        From Dodge City, we drove towards Oakley, aiming to visit Monument Rocks. Following 20 miles on an unpaved road, we found this interesting terrain that looked out of a Star Wars movie. 104 degrees, no humidity and wind off the plains was a new environment for us and surprisingly felt more pleasant than that type of heat with our FL humidity. 

        We then found our place for the night, an 1886 loft built into an old factory space and what has to be the nicest place to stay in the area- everyone gets a king bed! 

        The day ended at Tres Hermanos, a “fine” meal. The alternate option was a place called the Bluff, featuring legit Rocky Mountain Oysters. Truly a missed opportunity for the boys, but they passed on the option. Onto Nebraska this morning- seeking a hike in the Nebraska National forest. 

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        Oklahoma City Start

        Kicking off a family roadtrip from Oklahoma to North Dakota – re-engaging in our plan to visit all 50 states together. The boys may or may not have dubbed this “the Boring States” trip, but from our initial stop, we aren’t experiencing it that way. We arrived mid-day into Oklahoma City and headed straight to the American Banjo Museum. Quite the collection of Banjos from the earliest used through jazz age and current. After visiting, Steve Martin donated the banjo that was built for him in connection with his Mark Twain award.

        Afterwards we visited the Bricktown Brewery to refresh and have a snack. We then walked around the Bricktown canal for a bit. Fun area and imagine wld be great to visit in the evening.

        We checked into our hotel, the National afterwards- a beautiful bank restored to a boutique hotel. Our room was spacious and lovely. We enjoyed a drink in the lobby, a gorgeous space with vaulted ceilings and a bank vault represented as the center bar area.

        We had our special treat meal of the trip at Stock and Bond, recently appointed the top steakhouse in OKC. Shepherd opted for the filet with au poivre sauce, William the ribeye with whiskey butter, Rawls the pork duroc and me, short rib ravioli. Great setting, incredible service and delicious desserts to end the meal. Angelica our waitress was so much fun.

        In the morning, we visited the Oklahoma City National Memorial remembering those who died in the 1995 domestic terrorism attack of the Federal building. The memorial was incredibly moving – it flanks the location of the prior building with 9:01 and 9:03 captured on each side – illustrating the impact of the damage that happened at 9:02 on the day of the attack. There are 170 seats facing the space, sized for adults vs children recognizing these seats are missing from the respective family dinner tables. The boys appreciated the survivor tree, the elm that withstood the attack and is recognized as a symbol of the good that can withstand such a terrible act.

        Before getting on the road, we had brunch at Kitchen No 324- such a great spot! The boys loved their stuffed French toast, I had a great salad and William the lox and salmon roe plate. Our server was also genuinely friendly. The Midwest friendliness was fully our experience of the visit. Felt like authentic interest and kindness in all of our interactions. On the road to Kansas now with great memories of our stop in OKC!

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