Hawaii Turtle Project: Summer 2015: Kona Trip

This past week I had 4 days off, so my coworker Mackenzie and I ventured over to the Kona side of the island for a few days. We didn't have plans to do anything specific, and I don't think it could have turned out any better. We went to Hilo and picked up a rental car and some coffee for the road, and drove through the middle of the island on Saddle Road to Kona. The drive took about 2 hours and it was beautiful! It took us in-between the mountains and then along the west coast of the island along the ocean. By the time we got to the coast the sun was just beginning to set, we couldn't believe how beautiful it was.

We stayed in a little hostel 10 miles south of Kona in Captain Cook.

We checked in and dropped off our stuff, and then ventured out to Kona to find a spot for dinner. We ended up at the Kona Brewing Company, and we had some amazing pizza and tacos. Definitely recommend this spot if you're ever in Kona!

Stole Mackenzie's beer for this picture...

Then we headed back to the hostel and came up with a rough game plan for the next day.
That morning we went snorkling at a place called Two Step. It's called Two Step because there's two giant steps made from lava rock that you step on to get into the water. The snorkeling there was unreal!! So much color and crystal clear blue water.

After swimming for a couple hours we stopped at the hostel for a quick shower and then headed to the main downtown area in Kona. But before shopping we stopped at the Kona Brewing Company for lunch (yes, again, it's that good). We did some shopping downtown and checked out the local farmer's market.

A sweet old man making lei's gave us some flowers!

Had to get smoothies of course!

Got a henna tattoo…maybe a real one will be next ;)

Then, we drove around and found a good little beach! We probably shouldn't have taken out little rental car down this lava rock road….but we made it and it was well worth it!

Then we found this cool little harbor and watched the sunset.

For dinner, we ventured back into Kona and found this awesome beach front place with live music. The tables were literally in the sand and there were tiki torches everywhere, and we kicked off our flip flops and watched the waves.

We loved Two Step so much that we went back the next morning and we were in the water by 6:30am. There were so may fish and we even saw some turtles!! After that we started our trip back home to Volcano. We decided to go along the North coast, and we stopped at Waipio Valley and Akaka Falls on the way. It couldn't have been a better trip!!