Kona sits by the sunny sea.
Hilo stands next to the rumbling volcano.
That simplifies the geography of the Big Island, sure, but that’s the way it looked to our Dodge Journey stocked with tourists for a day of wandering from the former to the latter smack dab in the middle of our dream family vacation.
My dear wife Karen’s brother Scott joined us for the drive to catch as many sights as we could fit in. Born in Los Angeles like all five of the siblings, this middle child is only one who still lives in that state. And he’s had opportunity to visit Hawaii a handful of times and was glad to share his expertise.
My terrific daughter Elisabeth rode shotgun with sensational significant George Three at the wheel. My dear wife Karen took the wayback seat. Scott and I were in the back seat. We all shared great conversation in the hour-plus early morning drive around the loop to the first stop.
We looked out, and over, and down.
Great call, Scott, designating the Waipio Lookout as stop No. 1.
This is the place.
Nature did its job here.
The Long Road.
We went our own ways to investigate.
Good signs.
There was plenty to learn about the area.
Hover over a gallery photo for a description. Click on an image for an enlarged slide show.
We came together for photo opportunities, too.
Focusing.
Really, though, much more time was spent taking stock of where we were and what it meant. We noticed that people indeed seemed to live at the bottom.
Hello down there.
They got there by driving down a long and very winding road.
What a long, strange trip that must be. Sort of like the Syracuse snow …
Tomorrow: Onto the Falls
Mark Bialczak 
Aloha! Great description of your journey to Waipio Valley! It is amazing beautiful there! I shot a video driving down it once and the Discovery Channel asked me if they could use it in their 10 most dangerous roads in America documentary. We live in Kailua Kona and operate https://KonaCar.com If you don’t mind, I’d like to link your journey onto my website! Let me know if it’s OK! Mahalo!
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That’s very cool, getting your video on the Discovery Channel! That road sure does look dangerous from the top.
And, yes, you can link my Kona journey onto your site. Thank you for visiting my blog.
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I swear with the blue of the pictures I got a puff of fresh warm Hawaii air….
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My photographic job is done forevermore. Thank you so much for saying this, MBC. Oh, yeah, I had slight help from above. 😉
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He does good works….and you really captured it.
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what an amazing place this is. it seems like everywhere you go there must be stunning in some way –
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This is why we mainlanders must visit the 50th state, Beth.
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