Hawaii - Big Island

Click here for our Big Island photo album!

From Las Vegas we headed to San Diego for the weekend to spend some time with Lisa’s brother Nathan and visit California Paulicks. We’ll post on San Diego separately as we are headed back after Hawaii for more adventures. 

It had been four years since we had been on the Big Island, where Ryan proposed on the top of Mauna Kea in the snow. This Hawaii trip was dubbed as a “girls trip” as Lisa was going to meet up with Brenda and Amy, two friends from college. The girls agreed Ryan could come along as chef, bartender and DD. He did a fantastic job filling all those roles. 

We started our tour of the Big Island on the eastern side near Hilo where Amy lives. We were greeted with a delicious home cooked meal of baked salmon, couscous and veggies that Amy so elegantly prepared for us! Hilo is typically rainy but the next day we had some awesome sunny skies. We drove south to the Puna area and started off the day with soaking in a volcanically heated pool which felt like a hot springs. We timed the tides right and were able to snorkel in some tide pools, the water was a little chilly but the fish and coral were amazing. On our way back to Amy’s house we detoured to enjoy the sights of Hilo town from Coconut island and the Japanese gardens. 

From there we readied ourselves for a killer happy hour at Karma with Amy’s dear friend Auntie Randi. Let’s just say it was an epic night. Lisa and Amy partied like college girls but realized in the morning that they were not in their 20s anymore. Brenda arrived the next day and we did some damage at the Hilo farmers market buying fresh produce and local crafts. 

Later that day we headed toward Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. We visited a black sand beach and were greeted by the local sea turtles sunning on the beach. 

On our last visit to the Big Island the volcano was very active and we were not able to visit the National Park. We hiked to a lava tube and around one of the craters.  We drove down the Chain of Craters road during sunset which was of course spectacular. As it grew darker we drove to the Jaggar Museum to get a better look at the Kilauea crater. You can see a bright orange glow from the lava lake that is bubbling inside the crater. The air temperature was freezing (relative to Hawaii standards) and it was windy but it was an amazing view! 

The next morning we were headed to Kona. Hilo treated us to some rainy weather in the morning which made the rivers gush and the waterfalls were awesome! We stopped for delicious local food at the Hawaiian Style Café in Waimea before headed to the beach. We rented a condo with amazing views at the Sea Village resort and toasted good friends with Pink Elephants (a drink from college days). 

It was Lisa’s birthday and Ryan found the perfect spot for dinner out. We dined at the Lemongrass Bistro and were awed by the owner’s love for food, family and stories about his food. It was a great find! Lisa remembers Amy’s first postcard from the Big Island was the green sand beach. We found out that Amy had not been there yet so we knew it was a must. This time we hiked (no Jeep) 5 miles round trip. 

The next day was the Brawl of the Wild in Montana where Montana State Bobcats play the University of Montana Grizzlies. It is a heated day in our world and it was 3 Grizzly girls vs one Bobcat boy. We started the day with an amazing breakfast of French toast made with Hawaiian sweet bread, SPAM, Dragon fruit, Apple Bananas, Strawberry Papaya, mango, and of course Pineapple. Humpy’s of Kona tuned in the game for us and we started the game day at 10:30 am with Bloody Marys. The Cats won this year so Ryan was happy. 

We spent the afternoon trying stand up paddle boarding with lessons from Amy. It was a lot of fun especially when we were paddling with dolphins! We topped off an amazing day with tropical drinks and music with hula at Huggos on the water. The next day Brenda headed back to Oahu to spend the Thanksgiving holiday with family and Amy had to go back to real life. Ryan and I had all the intentions to drive up to the northern most part of the island to hike however we decided to spend the day at the beach…lucky us! 

From the Big Island we headed to Maui. More to come! 

Las Vegas

Click here for our Vegas picture album.

After two nights at our quiet Forest Service cabin in SW Utah, Vegas felt like sensory overload.  What can we say, except… wow.  We stayed at the Flamingo for four nights (two nights would have been plenty).  We saw two great shows – Cirque du Soleil’s Ka and the Blue Man Group – and we ate some great food too.  Ryan lost some money on the Eagles but made it back (and more!) on the Colts.  But overall it was far more city, noise and spectacle than we were used to.  We made it out of Vegas with our wallets (somewhat) intact.

We stayed at the Flamingo

We loved the fountains at the Bellagio!

Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill

Zion National Park

First of all, here are our photo albums for Zion National Park and the Pine Valley Guard Station.

Thankfully we arrived to much warmer weather in Zion. Staying true to our tradition, the day we arrive at a new national park we make sure to get at least one hike in. Our first trek was to Emerald Pools: lower, middle and upper pools. We encountered fall colors and some nice but small sized pools. Our campsite in Watchman campground had great views of the surrounding towering sandstone walls.

The highlight of the trip was hiking the Narrows. The Narrows is a 16 mile long slot canyon carved by the Virgin River. A shuttle took us up a long, winding, bumpy road to the start. Our fishing waders would keep us warm as we hiked our trail, which was almost entirely through the Virgin River. We took two days to do the hike, although some people burn through it in as little as 12 hours.  It was an amazing place! Hiking through the river was not easy. The water level was nice and low and created some side trails along the bank. The deepest sections were waist high but typically the water was mid shin to knee high. We must have crossed that river hundreds of times trying to find the best route.

Huge walls!

Narrows fun together!

Massive walls and our trail - the Virgin River

Our campsite along the river

At times if felt surreal being surrounded by 2,000 foot high walls only 30-40 feet apart.

at the end!

The water and air temps were cool and there was no need for sunscreen. The Narrows is notorious for crowds of people in the summer. We found out the time to do it is late October and midweek. The only people was saw the first day were two guys who rode the shuttle with us. On the second day we started to run into day hikers and photographers over the last 4-5 miles of the hike. It was pretty cool that we went so long without seeing anyone else. It was an exhausting but epic adventure. We celebrated with burgers at the lodge and cheered Happy Halloween with pumpkin beers.

We spent the next day recovering and took a short bike ride from our campground along the Virgin River. On our last full day we woke up early to hike Angels Landing. The trail consisted of two sets of switchbacks to get to Scout’s Overlook. Then we hiked and stair stepped up and along a narrow spine of the mountain with chains to hold on to. It is quite the quad and butt burning trail! A shout out to Lisa’s Uncle Dave from NJ who told us it was a must do when visiting Zion, and we agree! We were amazed at the spectacular 360 degree views of the Zion Valley from the very top.

Our goal - Angels Landing

The trail was a thigh and butt burner

Lisa: "we're not going up THAT are we?!" Ryan: "yep"

Amazing views of Zion and the Narrows from above

We spent five wonderful warm-ish (but really windy) nights in Zion but we were ready to move on to the next adventure. From Zion we would head back to St. George to resupply. From there we headed north to the Dixie National Forest for a rest weekend at the Pine Valley Guard Station before Vegas!

Pine Valley

If you haven’t looked for forest service cabins in your area you must (check out recreation.gov). We found this great one bedroom cabin with electricity and a wood burning stone near the Pine Valley Recreation area about one hour north of St. George, UT. The recreation area and surrounding wilderness is big with hiking trails, lots of camping spots and a small reservoir to fish in. We were pleasantly surprised to find the campgrounds closed and the place practically deserted. Our joints and heels were still sore from hiking in Zion so the first day we took it easy and biked around the area. We cooked, baked, read and relaxed in the rocking chairs on the porch. We went on an 8 mile Sunday day hike to the top of ridge with views of the Pine Valley, reservoir, the small town of Pine Valley and the surrounding area. It felt like we were living in the lap of luxury with four walls, a roof and a lighted warm place to spend our evenings.

Pine Valley Guard Station

Making coffee - for Ron Bibler, who is complaining that all our pictures look the same 

We hiked to the top of those rocks

Our wood burning stove kept us nice and toasty 

The next three weeks are going to be filled with lots of fun…Vegas, San Diego and then two weeks in Hawaii! We’ll keep you posted!