Hawaii with two preschool aged kids (Part 2- Big Island)

First let me mention I am not sure why some of my picts are so huge in this post. I am linking to them from a picasa webalbum which I know is the reason why it happpens. I just don't know how to fix it... sorry!

Ok.... so as mentioned in my previous post we didn't visit the volcano national park. So was the trip to the Big Island worth it?? Well the jury is still a bit out on that. It really is something to land in the Kona side of the island and just see fields of black volcanic rock as far as the eye could see. Or the "grafiti" which is basically people taking white coral and lining it up in form of letters or whatever else they are "writing".

However from the kids perspective all they really needed was a beach, a pool, a small luau and a good snorkel company... so really any other island would have done and in some ways Maui would have worked out better.

1. Marriott Resort- So there are three general areas you can stay on the Big Island... Kailua-Kona, Kohalo Resort area, or Hilo.

• Kailua-Kona- this is a more commercialized area lots of restaurants but beaches aren't all that
• Hilo- people generally stay here to be close to the Volcano National park or Akake Falls (usually one or two nights here then they move to the other side of the island).
• Kohalo Resort area- this is where we stayed.

Ok so we had decided on Kohalo resort area and the question was really... Marriott or Hilton. Hilton truly is a monster of a resort. They could not guarantee that we would get a room in Lagoon tower versus Ocean tower and that was the deal breaker for me. This resort literally has its own monorail and ferry boat service just to get around the place. It is just that huge. With little kids it really wasn't practical and for us. In that regard Marriott really did work for us. Marriott had a nice pool area with water slide and was situated on Anaehoomalu Bay (known as Abay). In Abay the beach is much bigger than the lagoon beach at the Hilton and was much nicer than where we were on Waiikiki beach inn Oahu (definitely not as rocky). So this really worked for us. There is also a water activities vendor (they had specials on tuesdays and fridays) and a small food shack located right on the beach (so you didn't have to treck back to the hotel for food).

I will say though Hilton is really nice, maybe when the kids are older and can tolerate more of a walk I would be ok taking the chance with Hilton. We did go there to hang out one evening and it really is nice to have dinner overlooking their Dolphin quest attraction. They had two baby dolphins only a few weeks old and really my husband and I could have sat there for hours watching these dolphin families with their new babies. Their are ancient fish ponds and hawaii ruins located on the marriot resort... which are nice to walk through.

The other clear advantage for the Marriot above all the other Kohalo resorts including the Hapuna Beach hotel and Mauna Kea beach hotel (which are on really really nice beaches), is that the Marriot is walking distance from the Queens marketplace and Kings shops. These are basically outdoor shopping malls, that cater to the resort area. These are really the only other shopping/restaurant options in this part of the island. So if you don't want to eat resort food 24x7 (which we don't do)then this is your only other option in the Kohalo area.

This is the sunset view over the ocean and fishponds from the Marriott.

2. Fair Winds II snorkel cruise- Seriously this was the absolute highlight of our trip (for me at least). This was the one excursion where ALL FOUR of us could experience something together. My husband and I like to snorkel (ok he likes to scuba dive... one day I will do this when I am not pregnant or have two young kids in tow). One of the things on my bucketlist is to learn scuba diving and one day visit the great barrier reaf in Australia (my husbands done it). Snorkeling is the one thing I really wanted the kids to do (they love aquariums and fish and this is real deal not viewing fish through a glass tank).

Let me say a few things about the location... from everything I read I really wanted to go snorkeling on Kealakekua Bay. This bay and the captain cook monument, is difficult to access from land (impossible with two little ones) and then to actually go in the water you need a permit to take a kayak. The ONLY other way to see this is by using this snorkeling company. They are the only ones with permission to actually moore in the bay itself. The bay and the snorkeling there is beautiful.

This snorkel company really truly caters to snorkelers of all abilities. The "see-thru" boogie boards were perfect for my kids. They barely touched the water, because they fit completely on the boogie board... then they could just lower their heads into the built in mask and see the reef and fish below without having to fuss with the breathing tube. Really I should have looked into this type of thing for Hanauma Bay. They don't have this type of thing at the rental shop at Hanauma bay (I did ask) but I would imagine a local shop may actually rent these see thru boards, it would have been worth it. They also have a kind of "view finder" for adults as well who can't deal with traditional snorkel gear (I can see people who are poor swimmers really being ok with this).

Next I will say that their staff is super friendly and really great. My son had some anxieties about going out on the boogie board in the water (it didn't help that I nearly dropped him in the water). The staff gave him a sponge ball which he held the entire time while he was snorkeling and it seemed to help him with his anxiety. The best part of the trip was when my son said "can we come again tomorrow?"

We had so much fun.... really one of those things I don't think I'll forget.

3. Roy's Waikoloa Bar & Grill - This was a upscale restaurant that really did a great job of catering to children... seriously I could just stop at that. But of course I won't :). A bit of background... this was a day when my husband was working on another island and he had left very early in the morning and didn't get back till quite late at night. We headed out for dinner, the three of us... first off the staff here was very nice. Second, their kids menu is so incredibly well thought out.... the kids meal was divided into four kid sized courses spaced out at regular intervals which worked really well for my kids. (usually we have to ask the restaurant to bring out the kids food first) The second course was a fruit and vegetable so the kids ate them at the beginning. (the plating was fancy which the kids got a kick out of ). The adult food is Hawaii Fusion and really is out of this world. (I had a sushi roll and their Poke dish... it was so delicious.) This was by far the best meal of the trip for me on so many levels it was too bad that Diva couldn't enjoy it with us.

4. Luau- This luau was located at our hotel on the big island... of course this worked so well for our kids. I mean seriously music and dancing... what preschooler doesn't like to dance. The buffet was just ok for the kids. The Imu ceremony was nice and both my kids asked SOOOO many questions about that pig! It was great though, b/c my daughter noticed that the IMU smelled like bacon and we explained why and so she actually ate the pork (score one for mom trying to make her kids eat a variety of foods). One thing I will say is that this luau company was really great. Definitely better than the one I saw on Maui years ago. They seemed to have updated them so they are not these cheesy luau's. Their really was a family feel to this production. Their dancers included a hula champion and the fire dancer was the MC/narrator's son. They did the normal thing where they show the different polynesian styles of dancing but they also reenacted an ancient Hawaiian story and explained how a real authentic Hawaiin luau today works. The kids loved the music the dancing and the open dessert buffet. They wanted to go to another one! :) On a personal note I had poke for the first time. I can't understand why I had never tried poke before... its like gaspacho... it was delicious then the next day at Roy's Restaurant I knew to order it on their menu. YUMMM....

So I'm including more picts of the luau below but let me just end this post by saying, we had such a great time. By day 10 the kids were ready to go back home but I will say that even now randomly they ask to go back to Hawaii. Little things trigger their memory. At the end of the day I was so glad that they got so much out of this vacation.