Kealakekua turns out to be very kool

After our visit to the coffee plantation, sibling Lynne and her Arkansas/Oklahoma crew suggested our two-car caravan take a short trip to a little town they’d spotted previously. Kealakekua, here we came. There was only one sign that the quaint little town was as close to the sea as we were in Kona. I joked…

We find a place in Kona that drove us to drink beer

The first time we attempted to take the Kona Brewery tour, they wouldn’t let us in. It was before noon on a Friday and the darn thing was already sold out, said the woman at the welcoming hut. So my smart daughter Elisabeth went to their online site and secured us five for a day…

Let it flow, let it glow

Watching a live volcano at dusk has become a spectator sport at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. We found a bit of a traffic jam at the top of the mountain, and a uniformed ranger with a lighted wand guided us into an unmarked spot at a way-corner of the big parking lot. The Jagger Observation…

Rocky mountain way

The Hawaii Volcanoes National Park is an interesting place in our world. See something you want to see with a sign attached to it and you pull right onto the shoulder. No parking lot necessary. And so George Three listened to Scott’s veteran advice, and the five of us wandered on a lava rock bed.…

Now that’s a hole in the ground

When you get to the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park in Hilo, you can drive around and split your attention on a wide variety of craters, lava rocks and, these days, the bubbling, live volcano that’s the center of attention. A stop at the Visitors Center and Scott’s advice helped us plan our agenda. This crater…

The Shack brings you to places you can only imagine

Mack had things good in life. Lovely and loving wife. Three smart and connected children. A robust family dynamic that included curious talk and practice of faith that strayed just enough from the center to keep him involved and interested. And then came that fateful camping trip out to the woods. There are a lot…

the big win.

My great blogging friend Beth wrote this one today at her place after attending a Detroit Tigers game and witnessing a worker at field level attempt to douse the enthusiasm of a bunch of kids enjoying the game. It made me glad for the full-on Syracuse Chiefs experience GM Jason Smorol encourages at NBT Stadium…

A lush life on the edge of the sea

The Tropical Botanical Garden bursts with green life. Once you pass through those gates, you down a long flight of wooden stairs, both sides flanked with exotic plants. The backstory told us that the original caretakers found this breathtaking piece of land basically trashed as a dump. They nurtured it, loved it, and brought it…

We fall hard for the big water sight in Hilo

A few twists and turns from the Waipio Lookout, and we’d made our way closer to Hilo and at the tourist point Akaka Falls. We paid our five bucks for the car full. Fair price for a state park, I figured as I followed the attendant’s instructions at the big meter and was handed the…