We had the wonderful good fortune to take a trip to Hawaii and escape some of the Spokane winter cold blues for a bit by soaking up some sun on the Big Island. I’d been to Hawaii about 5 or 6 times, but never the Big Island, so I was pretty sure I knew the drill. It was Devon’s first time in Hawaii and I thought we could laze on the beach for days, soak up sun, go snorkeling, hike a bit, star gaze, look at lava flowing into the sea, and generally come back perfectly rested and more than a little sunburned. I was so excited to show him this utterly magical, sunny place that meant so much to me.
Life had other plans. We had maybe one day of sun the whole time we were there, we battled flight delay after flight delay, rainstorm after rainstorm, the sea entry for the lava from Mauna Loa randomly drying up, surprise period cramps, power outages at our Airbnb, cancelled snorkeling, crazy thunder and lightning at an open air airport, and huge, sand dollar sized blisters on my feet that kept me from going into the ocean and walking anywhere for almost the whole trip.
BUT. It was also a glorious trip as well. Once we officially decided that our plans were pretty much unsalvageable by that point, we just embraced the crazy. We had a 1 in a million chance to see the stars at the top of Mauna Kea, one of the clearest and best star gazing spots in the country, and the clouds (despite the fact they were *smothering* the rest of the island) held out long enough for us to make the trip. We travelled on out of the way by-ways and trails, abandoned tripadvisor, and just decided to drive wherever we thought we saw the sun shining. We saw lava flows against the stars, sea turtles napping on a beach, whales playing in the ocean, a green sand beach (there are only 4 in the whole world!), and beautiful hidden valleys and waterfalls. We bumped into some super kind folks who saw me limping on a trail and offered us a lift in their Jeep and turned out to be from Spokane (!!), geeked out about ancient Hawaiian culture, drank our weight in pina coladas, and got a night in a 4 star resort paid for by our airline after they cancelled our flight at 2 am.
So I tell you this, lovely people: Hawaii is always wonderful, and always keeps you guessing.
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