Hawaii - Day 11

We left the rain forest behind and drove to the other side of the island today, where we will finish off our vacation.  I loaded up the van in a downpour and then we drove to the Moana Loa macadamia nut factory just outside Hilo.  They have a pedestrian walkway that lets you look in the upper windows and see the factory in action, but as it was the first day back at work after the Easter long weekend, nothing was happening when we arrived.  We did buy a bunch of macadamia nuts before we left.

Our next stop was an orchid nursery for Grandpa, before we drove back to the black sand beach and stopped for lunch.  It was extremely windy, but there was a sheltered picnic table area that we ate at.

We then headed to the most southern point in the United States, which takes you through a very narrow road - you have to drive off the road in order to pass cars.  The road ends at a very rocky area, where I imagine many a rental car has met its demise.  We found a somewhat OK place to park and walked down to near the edge of the cliff, where a bunch of crazy people were jumping into the water.  No one in my family went near the edge, though we had to fight Evan to keep him away, but Grandpa went and looked and said it looked to be about a 40 foot drop into the ocean.

Near the southern point is a green sand beach, but it is a 3 mile hike to the beach, so we did not plan to go out there.  Luckily some locals were selling jewelry made from the rocks that make up the green sand beach.  I bought Jonathan and Evan necklaces made out of the rocks with sea turtles on the end of them.

That was the end of our fun, as we had to drive another couple of hours into Kona and then on to the resort we are staying at.  The resort is a resort.  It's a bit out of the way, but it makes certain to provide all the amenities you need.  There is a mall with a supermarket and a food court, a mall with all the expensive shops, various hotels and places to stay, a beach and a golf course.  We are staying in a very large townhouse - two stories with three bedrooms and a patio that looks out over one of the golf holes.  At this point I'm content to sit around here and do nothing for the rest of the trip.

We went to the food court for supper and then took the kids down to the beach to do their Easter egg hunt before the sun set.  It all went well, except for one egg that opened in the sand, so we had to clean a bunch of sand off of Evan's jelly beans.