Kona, HI - Day 6

Monday, March 29

We’ve been in Hawaii for almost two weeks now, and at this point the days are starting to run together! My Type A personality needs a bit of routine, so I drew a rough plan on the back of an envelope yesterday to make sure we see & do all the things on our bucket list on the Big Island.

First up — school on our condo’s outdoor patio this morning. Tory and Aden like watching the golfers play through while we sit out here in the mornings. The Kona Country Club backs right up to our patio.

Afterward, the four of us loaded into our rental car and drove “mauka” (up the mountain) into the Kona cloud forest. I’ve been itching to do some hiking on this trip, and this trail looked really neat.

A cloud forest receives a good chunk of its moisture from condensation and mist that collects on tree leaves and plants. It was a warm, sunny 82 degrees when we left our resort on the Kona Coast, but the climate quickly changed with the elevation. Not 20 minutes later, the sky grew cloudy with sporadic raindrops hitting the windshield of our car.

Andi parked our vehicle at the end of a road, then the four of us set off on the Jurassic Trail. I love wet, lush rainforest hikes like this one — so many amazing plants to see. The birds in the trees were chirping like crazy above our heads.

I expected to use our rain coats a lot more on this trip, but so far this is the second time we’ve worn them. We started out wearing them on this hike, but quickly peeled them off as the air temperature was quite warm. It drizzled rain on and off during our hike, but the wetness didn’t bother us much.

We took our time walking through the forest, climbing over roots and tree stumps. There were several interconnecting trails which allowed us to decide how far we wanted to walk. Andi put Tory and Aden in charge of our navigation so, of course, they picked the shortest route. Tory led us to the “shortcut” trail asking Andi all the time, “Is this the right way, Dad?” “I don’t know,” he’d respond every time. “You’re the navigator.” Working to teach the kids an invaluable skill — reading maps! In the end, it wouldn’t have matter which way they selected because the trail was one big loop, but their choices did dictate how far we walked.

Tory’s “shortcut” trail led us along an old road and up a decent mountain ascent. The climb definitely got our heart rates up! While we hiked, Tory and Aden kept themselves occupied by playing their favorite “dog” hiking game: Tory throws a stick and Aden, pretending he’s a dog, fetches it. That entertained them for quite a while. Meanwhile, Andi and I could hear wild boars grunting somewhere off in the cloud forest, but the kids didn’t seem to notice amongst their playing and Andi and I didn’t draw attention to the sounds.

Four miles and two hours later, we found our way back to our rental car. This was a great hike! I think we all enjoyed the change in scenery.

On our way back to the condo, Andi dropped me off at Target so I could grab a few things for Easter this weekend. Meanwhile, he and the kids picked up take-out tacos for dinner. We were all hungry after an afternoon of hiking in the cloud forest.

Tomorrow is an exciting day because Grandma Janie is coming to stay with us! Tory and Aden are so excited.