Today in Hawaii

Today was a very busy day with lots of driving. We started out just about 7am and drove to the Hilo (east) side of the island. The first stop was Akaka Falls.

Then we stopped in Hilo for brunch at Ken's House of Pancakes. Yummy food. As you can see Alex was loving the hot chocolate.
After Ken's we headed out to Kilauea. We didn't see any active lava flows but the view was amazing. There were craters, steam vents and old lava flows that were amazing.
Some of us took naps in between stops.
We took a long drive on a curvy one lane road to take a short hike to see... well not much. We could have skipped this drive. It's a "you had to be there moment".
We hiked a lava tube.
We stopped at a black sand beach and saw a few sea turtles (Honu) sunning themselves.
The final stop was at the Kona Brewery for pizza and beer. Deliciouso!

Yesterday in Hawaii

Yesterday we went sailing to see some whales. And whales we saw. I don't have any pictures of them but plenty of video which I'll have to upload later. The tour was courtesy of Red Sail Sports who did a great job. If you come to Hawaii I recommend them. They didn't just show us one whale they took us around and we saw tons. Literally. Momma whales with there young, playful whales, slow moving hard to see whales, waving whales, etc.

Here are some photo's of the fam enjoying the tour.




This was the catameran that we were on.

Afterwards we hung at the beach and swam and snorkeled. Later that evening Kathi & I took Jim & Susan out for dinner at Huggo's. It was very yummy. I had the crab crusted Ono and the wasabi macadamia mashed potatoes. The atmosphere was open air and right on the water. Very cool. Very Hawaii. Portland could do the food but not the atmosphere except maybe in the summer.

It's rough when your day on the beach ends with a picture like this.

Hawai'i. I Recommend It

If you haven't been, you must come. They've got...

Great Coffee!
Interesting History!
Fun Wildlife!
Places to Explore!
Restaurants with Amazing Views!
And Tons of Places to Relax and Enjoy!

West & Relaxation

So I've learned that the west side of the island is the side to be on for the weather. On the east side it has been raining everyday. On the west side we are enjoying sunshine everyday. Although yesterday we were subject to some pretty serious winds. The first beach we went to we left immediately due to the sandblasting. The second beach, just south of Hapuna, was more sheltered so we camped out there.Alex and Brianna floated out on the boogie boards patiently waiting for the elusive waves.



Despite his injury on the first day out snorkeling Alex has been a real trooper.

He slipped on the rock and gashed his heel. The lifeguards were very helpful in bandaging him up. Now it is my duty to doctor him.

This is the sunset from our first night at Jim & Susan's house (taken off their lana'i).

More to come...

Aloha

We made it.

And Vacation Begins

Officially at 5:30PM today!!!

If you didn't know, the Bonham family is heading to Hawaii. It will be our first time there. We will be on the island of Hawaii in the city of Kona. For ten days we will take in as much of the island as we can.

Since we've been married the only full vacation we've taken that hasn't been to see family, do a mission trip, or take part in a youth trip has been our honeymoon. This trip is no exception. We will be meeting up with my in-laws at Kathi's sisters house in Kona. Don't get me wrong, this isn't a bad thing, we love to see family. I've got great in-laws and look forward to seeing them. We haven't seen Kathi's sister and her husband for a lot of years and look forward to catching up with them since their move to Hawaii. The advantage of this trip over all the other "going to see family" trips is the location. Sorry folks but Hawaii beats out Illinois any day of the week.

Many of our vacations are long weekends camping. Since it isn't a full week I don't count these as full vacations, they are mini vacations. We enjoy these very much and plan to do more of them this year. One of them I will be booking while we are in Hawaii, a trip to the Redwoods with the Villa's (cool peeps). We also have a mega-multi-family camping trip at Detroit Lake to look forward to. There is a possibility of another full vacation in the fall to SoCal. I'd like to take the kiddo's to D-land before it loses its magic.

As modern day cool peeps we'll be bringing the laptop and cameras so we can keep you up to date on our island shenanigans.

More to come...

Still Living

The past two weeks have been rough. This being sick thing has thrown me off my game. But I am glad to say that I am still amongst the living.

Two weekends ago I had the pleasure of going snow camping for the first time with my friend Mark and his son Jared. We had a great time. I think the combination of this trip and being around sick people the week before was the catalyst for how bad I got this cold.

On the trip we hiked up White River Canyon on Mt. Hood for a couple of miles and then made camp. I was dying on the hike in. I knew I was out of shape but didn't realize how bad. The weight on my back combined with the altitude did not help the situation.

Camp was beautiful.
Here we are all warm, cozy, & tough.

On Saturday Mark & I snow shoe'd a bit further up the mountain. It is so quiet and picturesque on the mountain. My camera was giving me fits so I didn't get a lot of good photos or I'd show you how lovely it is. I learned that in order for my camera to work it had to be warm so the shots I did get I got after holding the camera in my armpit for a while.

I believe we got a total of 20" of snow while we were out.

I would like to do this again but before I do will need to get in a little better condition.

Being Sick Sucks!!!

I've felt shitty all week. The amount of sick days I took in the last three years (sans the two bike related ones) can be counted on one finger. In other words I don't get sick very often. This illness is chalked up to co-workers who came in sick the week before I was sick followed up by a snow camping trip. This combination does not work well.

"Brian, oh my you used a cuss word!"

Yes I did.

"You must feel real bad then"

Yes I do.

Do you want to know how bad?

"Yes we do."

I feel so shitty that:

• I've owed people an email or two for a week and haven't sent one.
• I've not returned a single phone call.
• There are conversations that need to happen with a few people that haven't.
• Adobe CS3 Master Suite Collection has been on three of my computers for a week now and I haven't touched it.
• I can't sleep for any lengthy period of time because I wake up coughing.
• This blog post is the most complete thing I've done all week.
• I am going to lay down on the couch and watch Alex play his Star Wars Lego game on the PS2 and I'll enjoy it.
• Last night I coughed so hard I threw up my dinner. Shortly followed by Brianna saying "Wow, I've never heard anyone throw up before."
• I've lost my voice from all the hacking and I found out that when a man has his lost voice it isn't as sexy as when some women get that Kathleen Turner sexy voice when they are sick.
  

I'm not looking for sympathy. I just wanted to bitch a bit.