Pictures and more from Aloha Friday

It's Saturday morning, and in about 4 hours, Brad, Summer, Victoria, Madeline and Travis should be arriving at the airport! We're all excited!

Meanwhile, this is what we did with the rest of yesterday...

On their walk to town, Laney and Elliott came across Mary who showed them around a bit. When Laney and Elliott returned, they went to the swimming pool and hot tub for a while. Not being a morning swimmer, I joined them a bit later just to chat.

After lunch at our own condos, and a rest for Laney and Elliott, we hit the road once again in the Ford Expedition. The day before we had headed south, so yesterday I had decided we should head north. However, I drove south a bit to do that in order to take the drive to the top of the mountain (Hualalai) behind us to Holualoa, which is a beautiful area full of flowers and trees, almost rain forest like. Then we followed the 'upper road' north through the Parker Ranch territory and Waimea. The road is basically straight but has many ups and downs due to volcano vents, and the vegetation is just the opposite from the vegetation of Holualoa.

Just past Waimea, we took the steep winding road down to Kawaiihae to the 'lower' road, and then drove to Hawi, the northernmost point on the Big Island. Actually, we drove past Hawi by just a couple of miles to Kapa'au, in order to see the statue of King Kahamehameha The Great. Kapa'au is his birthplace, and this statue has an amazing history.

It was ordered from an artist in Paris in the 1880's, shipped, and was supposed to go to the island of Oahu to be put on display. But the ship caught fire and sank in the Falklands. Another statue was ordered, a copy of the original, and sent, and that one is on display today at the Iolani Palace in Honolulu. But, some people from the Falkland Islands found and rescued the original statue, the ship captain bought it, and for a low sum of money, sold it to Hawaii, and since it was not needed in Honolulu, it was sent to Kamehameha's birthplace and erected in 1912. Due to deterioration from all the years of lying on the bottom of the ocean, the locals decided to paint it, and that is how it is still being preserved today. It is interesting and fitting that this statue ended up where it is today. Kapa'au is a very small rather isolated place, and Kamehameha means 'the lonely one'. King Hamehameha Day is June 11th, not far from now, and this statue is decorated with massive leis on that day by the locals. As a matter of fact, there are pretty much always some leis placed on this statue.

After seeing the statue, we went back to Hawi and checked out a few of the local shops and galleries. Hawi used to be a large sugar cane growing area, but sugar cane is no longer grown commericially on the Big Island. The area has become something of an artists' colony.

We returned to Kawaiihae, a large shipping port where barges go in and out, and we were just in time for dinner at the Cafe Pesto. Always good food there!

After dinner we headed back on the 'lower road' but took a decent length stop at the beautiful Hapuna beach just to have a look. It truly is a lovely beach. About 1o minutes before the sun set, we were on our way home on the 'lower road' which passes the Kohala coast large resorts and the airport. And, that was pretty much the rest of our day! Aloha all -- see you tomorrow!