Visiting Kona

Dan: Today we arrived in Kona for our first trip ever to the Big Island. We arrived to beautiful 80 degree weather and clear skies. It was the first truly outdoor airport I've seen. On the other Islands they are semi-outdoorish, but still really a building with few walls. This airport is a bunch of small buildings with most space open and exposed to the beautiful Kona weather.

The Worldmark Kona condo's we are staying in nice. We are aren't right on the water but the water is across the street. There's a nice little beach a few blocks down the road. We walked down there after dinner and watched the girls play in the surf and the sun go down. The girls also played in the pool for a few minutes while I was BBQ'ing dinner tonight.

I'm looking forward to hitting the beach tomorrow to do some swimming and snorkeling.

Emily: Long travel day and I'm still a little snuffly from my nasty cold, but after dinner we walked down to the beach and I sat in the sand with Dan, felt the soft breeze, smelled the luscious Hawaii smells, and watched the girls play in the water while the sun set. Bliss!

Laura: When we landed it was really hot. We got to go to the beach and we waited for the big waves to come and we body surfed to the shore. I got a bunch of cuts and they hurt a lot, especially the one on my heel, but I had fun anyway. (parent note: Laura managed to slice up a leg, an ankle, and the bottom of a foot on the rocks in the water. We're still trying to figure out how to get the sand out of the foot. She didn't even realize she'd been cut until she got out and Alex pointed out she was bleeding. Only Laura!)

Alex: The plane ride was long and boring (2 1/2 hour delay), but we got to the beach and saw a big crab (note: it was described as HUGE at the beach. Dan investigated and reported that both huge and big are exaggerations) and a big piece of coral. There were big waves but we couldn't go out that far because there were lava rocks.