When we pulled into our place to stay for Family Reunion II, Kona was very dark.

But the place my dear wife Karen had chosen in collaboration with several of her siblings lightened my spirits considerably.

That first night, we dragged our bags in from the rental SUV, put them into our bedrooms, and checked the view from the balcony. The Pacific Ocean crashed on rocks a couple dozen yards from our slightly-elevated, first-floor oceanfront suite. The four of us stood out there and beamed.

After 20 hours of traveling from Syracuse, we didn’t stay up long. My alarm had been set for 3:15 a.m. Eastern. That would be 9:45 p.m. Hawaiian. I hit the hay at 10 p.m. Hawaiian. That would be 4 a.m. Eastern … So would begin a week’s worth of figuring out what my body really felt like.

I rose at 5 a.m., hitting the balcony with my iPhone 6s. The moon was out.

I ran the coffee machine and watched our first full day greet us.

Yeah, my terrific daughter Elisabeth, her wonderful significant George Three and my dear wife Karen agreed as they joined me one-by-one, this would be a great hang for our dream vacation together.

Green and blue awaited our exploration past these four walls.

Beautiful scenery abounded every way we looked from the backyard of the property.

Beyond the second wing of the complex, lava rocks jutted toward the sea. Beyond them stood a dot of blue.

We met the family the first day morning after we’d all arrived, and everybody admired the scenery together.

Folks from Arkansas, California, Oregon, Alaska and New York mixed and mingled on the little sand beach of our complex.

A local pooch awaited as we climbed down from the pretty point. His owner treated me to the local phrase when I thanked him for sharing his cool dog with us this morning. “No worries,” he answered.

Shortly after, I caught Karen and sister Jana that way on our balcony.

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For the whole week, the pool, hot tub, beach chairs and everything on the grounds were at our disposal.

We were quite happy with the layout.

Tomorrow: Inside was pretty nice for short spells