Big Island Bad Idea
Our second leg of the honeymoon was schedule for the Big Island. Our hotel was the Outrigger Keauhou Beach Resort in Kailua-Kona. Originally, I was excited to visit Volcano National Park and Mauna Kea Summit. I didn’t see either.
We flew Hawaiian Airlines from Lihue on Kauai to Kona on the Big Island. We connected through Honolulu. They lost our luggage. Apparently, this happens all the time. How could this happen? Its a short flight made 8 times a day. Can’t the luggage guys get their act together? We had to wait a few hours for our luggage to show up on the next flight. This was just the first bite in the sour apple.
As we landed, you could see fog permeating the landscape. We’d heard about the volcanoes affect on the island’s weather, but you can’t understand until you experience this fog. Unfortunately for us, Mauna Loa had been erupting at its greatest rate in many years. The fog was worse than normal. As we waited for our luggage, the sun began to disappear under the fog. We drove down the coast to our hotel and only noticed fog. The landscape is stark and foreign. The volcanic rock resembled pictures I’d seen of the moon. Its an eerie place.
Our hotel was OK, but we couldn’t get a read on the nearby beach. How could you sunbathe with the fog? It just didn’t feel right. Plus, we were tired. We’d had enough adventure and just wanted to sit on the beach. I tried to keep spirits up beat by suggesting dinner at the Kona Brewing Company. The apple still wasn’t getting sweet…
We tried to find the brewery, but it took over an hour. I kept on making the wrong turns. Finally, we found it way back in a industrial park. We couldn’t even eat outside because of mosquitoes. At this point, it was time to throw the apple away.
On the drive home, we called the travel agency. For the first time in my life, I’d used a travel agency. It was the right move for this vacation. I felt too much pressure to plan a honeymoon. They offered trip insurance, and we took it. In hindsight, this was the best decision. An agent worked with us through the night to secure changes to our honeymoon. We thought about going back to Kauai, but we had to sleep on it. We couldn’t book plane tickets until the AM. We woke up around 5AM; I don’t think either of us slept very well. We flipped through our travel books looking for an alternative to Kauai, and we settled on Maui. It seemed to have exactly what we want: sunny sandy beaches. We could start booking plane tickets at 7am, so we called the travel agency right at 7am. Before I knew it, we had our trip re-booked to Maui. We secured a waterfront room in Lahaina and even extend our stay another day! Our flight left in a few hours. Good thing we already packed up our bags between 6am and 7am.
The flight was around 30 minutes direct from Kona. As we touched down into the bright sunshine, I felt a huge weight lift from my shoulders. Literally, the honeymoon was saved. Maybe the Big Island would be a good destination for another vacation, but not this one. I had a good feeling we made the right decision.
