Hungry Like the (Quiroz) Wolfs: Video: Hawaii for New Year's

What a way to kick off 2019 with an adventurous AND peaceful (drama-free!) vacation with my mom and Bryson.

Here's our video set to K'NAAN Wavin' Flag and Will Smith's Gettin' Jiggy with It. It's my first time using the GoPro my mom got me for Christmas.

https://drive.google.com/drive/u/1/folders/1YKFzCLdhlirq7UQXoXlT-DTObayR_1XY

So why did we head to Hawaii?
It all started with Bryson reading Where is Pearl Harbor as part of his after school subway ride home. He later talked to Lola and said, "I'd like to go to Pearl Harbor to learn more about it." And voila - we made plans to go to Hawaii a month or so later.

I spent about 100 hours researching. Here's our itin for the trip.

Day 1: Kona - Dolphin Snorkel, Pu'uhonua O Honaunau National Historical Park, Manta Ray Night Snorkel
We left Ohio the day after Christmas and spent the day traveling, arriving in Kona in the evening. Day 1 started at 8am at the Kona pier for a snorkeling adventure with dolphins. We chose Coral Reef Snorkel for their small group size (only 6 with a crew of 2). Plus, it was Bryson's first time snorkeling in the ocean, and I wanted to make sure he had some individual attention in case the experience was different from our bathtime snorkel practice. Oh, and the company is also known for their homemade brownies. Yum!

Some fun facts about dolphins. They are nocturnal, so we swam with them while they were supposed to be sleeping (gosh darn ecotourism). To deal with predators (and tourists), they sleep with only half their brain shut down and with only one eye shut.

Spinner dolphins putting on a show.

We also got to see our first humpback whales up close. A strong start to the trip!

Afterwards, we headed to a swap meet and got some fresh poke (I ate the seaweed and Bryson got a pizza)

Then we went to Pu'uhonua O Honaunau National Historical Park. This was a place of refuge for ancient Hawaiians who broke laws. I explained to Bryson that it's like playing tag and having a "base" where your frenemies couldn't tag you. Bryson looked at me blankly, so not sure if that analogy worked. At the sacred site, there were wooden images, royal fish ponds, burial grounds, and ancient royal gardens. And also the island's best snorkel reef - though we didn't have time to enjoy that before rushing back for our second, oh yes second (!) snorkel of the day. I was a bit hard core with the planning. A bit aggressive given poor little Bear hadn't really swam let alone snorkeled much. Oops. As I say, though, go big or go home...

In the evening, we again headed out with Coral Reef Snorkel for a night snorkel with manta rays. We again had dolphins escort us out to the site. There, we got on a surfboard with lights that streamed through. This is to help attract the plankton, which then lures the manta rays.

Some fun facts about mantas. They are filter feeders, which means they open up their mouths super wide and filter their food this way. Kona is the only spot where these mantas come up super close consistently to swimmers. They feed on the plankton, while we grip the surfboards, and they're supposed to come super close - like face to face and then barrel roll down to the sea floor. Which is awesome since they are 12 feet wide (and can be up to 18 feet).

Now that's the good news. The bad news is that we didn't catch much of a glimpse of one, except for one on the outskirts. I guess the plankton was everywhere so there was no need for the mantas to focus on our surfboards for dinner. That said, Lola went up early due to mask issues, and on the boat, she got to see a manta! Don't worry, later, we got to see a Manta on another (yes another) snorkel adventure that came close to our boat).

Day 2: Kona - Chocolate Farm, Three Ring Animal Sanctuary, Octopus Farm

We headed out early for a 9am chocolate farm tour. Thank goodness Alex wasn't there to counsel us on the non-vegan diet we were enjoying. So breakfast started with chocolate and more chocolate. We went to Hawaii's first chocolate farm called Original Hawaiian Chocolate. It was started by accident by a couple who was retiring from mainland US to Hawaii and realized that their land was perfect for growing chocolate. The husband and co-founder Bill did the tour himself. He showed us how they grow, harvest, and make their chocolate all on the premise. We got to see their trees, open up the fruit (and check out these green geckos who loved to lick the seeds), the drying racks, and the chocolate machinery (I'm sure there's a technical term for this and if I were my brother I'd be looking that up - but I'm not, ha!) Bryson charmed his was into getting Lola to buy him a Willy Wonka sized chocolate bar on the way out. And yet more chocolate for a snack!

A random cloud Bryson spotted, "A fish!" or "A pacman!"

Next stop was the Three Ring Animal Sanctuary. We took a tour with Anne, the founder. Her story is pretty incredible. She moved to Kona from the mainland and met a Hawaiian late into her years. They got married and bought this beautiful property for the wedding. That next day as she was getting the morning paper, lightning struck her face (yes her face!) and she survived. But it was brutal, and she had to relearn everything from moving her body to talking. Her new husband asked her, "What can I do to help?" And she thinks she meant to say, "Paris," but she ended up saying "Zebra." So with that, he went to get her a zebra - which was from a movie that had just finished filming (I think Tarzan?) and their home and land became the sanctuary. Soon, local were dropping off animals that they stupidly had bought and could no longer take care of and other animals that were being abused. So they ended up with feral pigs, flamingos, a bison, different monkeys, hawks, turtles, lots of birds, and ostriches. Anne told us crazy stories about the animals - like the time an owner was hacked in the head and spinal cord by her bird or another owner was pummeled by his monkey. Neither animal was doing anything but following their animal instinct. Craziness!

This cockatoo would preen when you said, "I'm going to take your photo!"

Bryson meets his first chinchilla.

Our final stop of the day was to the Octopus Farm where we got to get up close and personal with octopus. Fun facts about octopus... They have 9 brains (one in their head and one in each arm), 3 hearts, and blue blood. They are also a favorite dish for Japanese, and so the farm is trying to see if they can grow them sustainably (only 2 year lifespans) to help with sustainability with food supply since our oceans are being overfished.

Here were the instructions given to us. Put your fingers in, wiggle them around, and then the octopus if they want to see you, will come out of their little cave and check you out. I had a hard time narrowing down photos below. What would you do if this guy was looking at you and then all of a sudden took a leap headed in your direction?

Then an evening flight out to Honolulu. Whew!

Day 3: Honolulu Shark Tour (cancelled), Aloha Stadium Swap Meet, Pearl Harbor, Cruise Ship Boarding

Our action packed trip took a bit of a turn as our Hawaii Shark Encounter - viewing sharks up close in cages - got cancelled due to the storm. Maybe a good thing because I had gotten a bit of a cold on the manta ray evening snorkel and was sniffling and coughing my way through the day.

Instead, we did a more relaxing swap meet at the Aloha Stadium. Brought back fun memories of my family and I shopping on weekends when we lived in Oahu. Bryson then charmed Lola into getting him a set of Pokémon cards (the kid is a charmer, I tell you).

Afterwards, we headed to Pearl Harbor. Alex smartly gave me the advice to make sure we hit this one early since after all, he reminded me, "Isn't that the reason you're going to Hawaii in the first place?" Right, right... Lola helped me make the mad dash to buy tix online so we were good to go.

We toured the Bowfin Submarine - crazy claustrophobic.

Later, we took the headphone tour to Jaime Lee Curtis voice and listening to detailed story. Did you know that the Japanese surprise attack was almost perfectly orchestrated completely decimating our battleships and aircraft? But Japan underestimated the American spirit to revenge Pearl Harbor, and the US declared war. The American people rallied and within a year had battleships and planes headed to both Asia and Europe. Sadly, it took two atomic bombs to end the war.

We headed to visit the Arizona Memorial though didn't get to stop at the site itself.

Afterwards, we grabbed some pizza and then headed to the cruise ship for lots of stuffing our faces and shows.

Norwegian Pride of America with its own arcade and life sized chess and checkers.

Day 4: Maui - Haleakala Crater

We had planned to do the Molikini crater turtle snorkel but unfortunately booked too late and switched to the Haleakala Crater. We headed out up Mauai's highest peak at over 10K feet over sea level. We passed bikers who were headed down - and yes, I did check out that option but the Bear needs to be a tiny bit older - at least big enough for me to be able to fake it, which isn't yet close enough.

We did a small hike up above the clouds and tried to get the Bear to pose. Tough for a six-year old sometimes.

Day 5: Maui - Coconut Tour, Whale Watching, Front Street Banyan Tree, Ka'anapali Beach Snorkeling

We kicked off day 5 in Maui with a tour of a coconut farm at Punakea Farms. We got to walk around the orchard - with kafir leaves (used to make yummy Thai and Indian food), star fruit, mangos, rambutan (dragon fruit), papaya, strawberry guava. Lola was so excited to see all the fruit she almost forgot we were here to focus on coconuts :)

Fun facts about coconuts. They are actually part of the grass family - not trees - due to their strong root system which keeps them upright even in the toughest of storms. A coconut doesn't need land to grow. It is a seed with a hard shell that can be transported through the ocean and can land anywhere and grow (which is why they grow easily on beaches and salt water). A tree begins to sprout it's first coconuts in 6 to 10 years, where it grows it's first branch of coconuts and then 6 months later will grow it's next and so on. So that's how you know how old a coconut is - the ones at the bottom are the youngest, and they're ready to be harvested at about a year - before that, they are a bit young, and too much after, they start to become more meat and less liquid.

We got to taste test coconuts at the different stages from young to mid to mature and later got to make our own coconut milk - perfect for oatmeal in the morning, yum!

Pink blossom (yes, I forgot the name...)

Afterwards, we headed to Laina for a Whale Watch tour with Ultimate Whalewatch and Snorkel.

Fun facts about whales. They travel from Alaska to Hawaii (about 3,000 miles) just to mate and give birth. There isn't any food for them in Hawaii, so after the season, they head back to feed. They return to the location where they are born to give birth. They also can communicate with other whales over 3,000 miles away. They also have a song that evolves over the season, and then when they leave and come back the following year, the song picks up where it left off. Even across the world, they will sing the same song and even change key/tune at exactly the same time - woah!

We got really close to whales. One set had four or so - three males fighting over the female (which is larger). Then another set with a mama and newborn baby.

We then headed to Front Street (apparently one of America's great streets). We had shaved ice AND ice cream (we're on vacation, yeah!) and walked on the beachfront street. We also checked out the banyan which are a series of trees that are all part of the same tree.

Afterwards, we headed to Ka'anapali Beach. Bryson impressed me with not only snorkeling but wanting to snorkel and pointing out the cool wildlife like a puffer fish, scorpion fish, and trumpet fish.

Day 6: Hilo - Big Island Aina Tours, Volcano National Park

I decided to try out a tour with Big Island Aina Tours. We were a group of seven and visited a bunch of sites: Macademia Farm (more ice cream), Black Sand Beach, Akala Falls, Rainbow Falls, banyan tree, and Liliuokalani Gardens. We also got to see a Lava Tube up close - complete with flash light.

Black sand.

Lava tubes.

Afterwards, we met up with an old friend from the Air Force named Shirley who took us on a tour of Volcano National Park. It had just erupted back in May and the park was not fully open, but we got to see the sulpher vats up close (Bryson got his first whiff of old eggs - yuck!).

Day 7: Kona - Fair Winds Snorkel Tour

We were back in Kona, this time to do a snorkel tour with Fair Winds. I hadn't been doing the best job getting the Bear to bed in time, and he passed out on the ship on the way out there. He was not a happy camper when I woke him up to jump in the chill water. But later, he told me this was his favorite part of the trip snorkeling close to the corral and spotting lots of Butterfly Tang, a moral eel, and schools of fish. We even got to see a manta ray up close by the boat. Bryson and I both went of the slide and I jumped off the high board from the ship.

Day 8: Kauai - Helicopter Tour, Poipu Beach

My family used to have a timeshare in Kauai, and so we've traveled to Kauai for most of my childhood. So it was surprising to find that there is so much more that we haven't yet tapped.

We headed out on a helicopter tour with Island Helicopters. It was tough to narrow down where to do the helicopter tour, but I finally landed on Kauai because of the diversity of scenery and because Jurassic Park was filmed there. This was my mom and my favorite part of our Hawaii trip - dramatic scenery that the GoPro does not do justice.

Check out Rainbow Falls from the top (this is a window at my feet).

Afterwards, we headed to Poipu Beach. Mom tried to snooze a little while Bryson and I cut ourselves on the coral (but the Bear still impressed me with his snorkeling in the very rough waves). We also checked out the monk seal and tossed around his football.

Day 9: Kauai - Mountain Tubing

We headed out with Kauai Backcountry Adventures for a tubing ride through mountains. We first took a van out to Mount Waialeale which has the record for the wettest place in the world. In 2018, it surpassed 1,000 inches! They have tunnels in the mountains created by man to irrigate the sugar plantations. Unfortunately, the sugar plantations closed due to lack of profitability. But perfect for mountain tubing. We went through five tunnels and took the entire fourth tunnel in the dark - woo!

Afterwards, we returned to the ship where we enjoyed the spectacular view of the Napali coast.

Mr. Bear, who had been doing Splash Academy (aka free babysitting on the cruise ship) each night, joined his peers for a circus performance. Mr. Bear wowed us with his lassoing skills, his feather balancing skills, and his singing of Ice Cream.

Day 10: Last Day of the Cruise, Bishop Museum

We spent our last day gorging on yet another yummy breakfast (I think the Bear had pizza every day, maybe every meal?) and then headed out to the Bishop Museum. I was worried that there wouldn't be enough to do for our 3 hours before our flight, but there was so much to explore. We saw a show at the amphitheater about navigation (old school navigation used just the stars and the waves), checked out the Hawaiian Hall where we saw Kamehaha's cape (made of 4 million feathers - woah!), watched the lava demonstration and the science hall, and visited the Easter Island Rapa Nui exhibit. I also caved and got the Bear a Humuhumunukunukuapaa doll (a first in his almost seven years).