Exploring the Big Island...Every Last Inch

Though, I had to return home to vacaction from my go-go-go vacation (Next time we rent a car, I'm going to make sure it has a mileage cap. Brandon has the must-see-everything traveling disposition. Endearing, but exhausting for a pregnant mama. [Oh, yes, I'm pregnant. Due in February. We are thrilled, of course.]) our trip with Anali and Brandon's parents to visit my Aunt Pam and her family in Hilo, Hawaii was priceless. I hadn't seen Pam in over a decade and a half, so her kindness in opening her home to us was overwhelming. The Big Island was big and lush and diverse and beautiful on so many levels.

Anali and Rachel at Akaka Falls, The Big Island, Hawaii.

A warm beach at Mauna Kea. Brandon though it would be "cute" to bury Anali's legs in the sand. She didn't think it was so cute. But she sure liked playing with her bucket.

A black sand beach at the edge of a 1990s lava flow.

This was one of my favorite spots on the Island, the entrance to the Waipi'o Valley, where the kings of old purportedly lived. We had to drive a 4x4 down a 25% grade to the bottom of the valley to get to the real scene. This was the kind of fun that is really, really freaky, the kind of fun that's more fun when it's over and you know you survived. You should have seen Brandon's mom, the picture of grace. Me, I was a doubting Thomas, a whiny bedwetter who wouldn't trust our Mercury Mariner its 4x4 capabilities. Despite my wussiness, I loved every minute. Most minutes. We were going to a place no rental car company would bail us out of, and I was extremely aware of that fact while we drove through streams and up a hill so steep the downhill traffic had to yield to the uphill lest we lose our grip. That said, I've seen few places more beautiful on earth...The view standing beside Anali's crib still tops it, though.