The Big Island

The Big Island of Hawaii was more than I EVER imagined! We stayed at the Royal Kona Resort!


The view from our hotel room on the 7th floor was outstanding!!!


Not only did you go to bed feeling like you were right on the beach, but you could even see the temple!

The sunsets were magical...this picture doesn't even begin to do justice!


The black rock, although covered in fast moving and sometimes startling crabs, fit so perfectly against the crashing blue waves!



The bright colored flowers made you happy everytime you walked past them!




Plus, it is home to the BEST Italian Ice and Gelati EVER!


While we were there we visited The Place of Refuge. It is now a National Park, but back in history it was a place where if law breakers could reach they would be able to receive forgiveness and escape their death penalty. It was also a place where women and children would live while the men were at war. It was definitely a place of peace.










Jackie and I loved it SO much that we made this...
It wasn't until AFTER making our artwork that we saw THIS...
Oops! We made sure to destroy our creation before we left:)

We hiked about 3 miles to a GREEN sand beach. It doesn't really look green in these pictures but it really was! People say there are only 2 green sand beaches in the entire world. I don't know if that is true or not, but regardless-it was pretty amazing. The hike was hot and my feet got burned, but it was SO worth it!
We also went to a BLACK sand beach!!



We went to Volcanoes National Park and sat right next to a crater volcano! We even got to walk through a lava tube!!!





On our hike to the lava tube Jackie and Hailey made me stop and take a picture next to the slow sign...by this time in the trip my legs and feet were sunburned pretty badly and quite swollen. They thought that was the reason I was such a slow walker and had a hard time keeping up...but really I was just trying to follow the rules:) They got a good laugh out of this picture

We loved seeing the volcano glow after the sun went down!


We ate at the Southern most restaurant in the United States!!! It is something cool to say, but really the food wasn't all that great. I take that back, my grilled cheese sandwich and passion fruit lemonade were pretty good...but i'm not sure the sandwich was $6 good:)

Here are just a few more pictures from The Big Island...as if you haven't seen enough already:) I just loved it SO much and wish you all could have been there with me!