Hawaii

Wow...Great.....So lovely.....what more can I say.
Arrived the afternoon of the 4th November, picked up rental car and short drive to Keauhou Beach Resort in Kona. As we were checking in the desk clerk looked at Don taking luggage out of car and said "he is big, just a moment". In less than a minute she said "I changed your room it was a double and he needs a king size". It could not have been a better room, 3rd floor over the turtle bay on the left corner of the building so we had a balcony on two sides with a small table and two chairs (one side you had to stand it was so narrow but you could look over the pool and watch sufers)looking down you could see fish in the water and green sea turtles, needless to say we spent lots of time sitting watching sunsets over the water and left the sliding glass door open to hear the waves wash in at night.
Took the Big Island Grand Circle Island Tour (know locally as the 13 hr tour)and yes it did take 13 hrs. Picked up at hotel and visited coffee factory, volcano, macadema nut factory, chocolate factory, black sand beach and drove through a rainforst, desert, mountian and valleys.
Included a luaua, Hilo Hatties,trip to Hilo, Greenwell Coffee Plantation (it had been in the family since 1850's), stopped at Kimura Fabrics which has a great selection of Hawaiian prints (and has been in business for 60 years), even tried our hand (body) at snorkeling...twice...loved the beautiful fish.
John & Steph and family invited us to a wonderful lunch at the yacht harbor, which turned out to be a treat from Trudy next door. Was suprised to see Pat & Jodie Schatz owners of Crane Prarie Resort in the High Lakes Region of Oregon at the next table. John & Steph also had us to their home for pupus and hang out time till our plane left at 11:45pm the last night.
Have pictures but still haven't gotten them from the camera to computer so that will be a later post.