Hawaii 2013 - Day 5: Punalu'u Black Sand Beach, Resting, Hana Hou Restaurant, Pool Time

Cashel woke up this morning ready and raring to go! This was the highlight of our trip: Being able to see him at his goofiest laughing, smiling, snuggling in bed late into the mornings.

He thoroughly enjoyed this place as it had removable pillows on the couch that he could throw off and then jump onto. It about gave us a heart attack a few times, and we did have a few little bonks on the head, but for the most part, we made it out unscathed. It had lots of stuff to safely climb on (along with lots of stuff to NOT so safely climb on...see the pic below), and lots more birdies to watch.

Punalu'u Black Sand Beach

We were excited to head down the road to check out Punalu'u after breakfast, although I think Mark and I were way more excited than Cashel was to see the sea turtles!

It was as beautiful as we remembered it, and the sea turtles were close by! Granted, as they looked much like big rocks, Cashel didn't get too excited.

The weather was spot on as well - the warmest day we've had on the trip so far. Thankfully, it was morning, and not too unbearable just yet.

They call it "Punalu'u Black Sand Beach" because the sand is, indeed, black. It is actually volcanic rock that has been broken up by the waves. It's actually quite rough to walk on without shoes when it gets hot!

We had fun splashing around in the ocean (although Cashel's shorts got a little wet) for a bit :)

Baby #2 came along for the ride to :) It's crazy to think that I'm already at this point!

Toes in the ocean :)

After out visit to the beach in the morning, Cashel passed out for almost 3 hours. Mark joined him for a nap, and I enjoyed some priceless time just hanging out on the patio getting some sun and listening to the ocean sounds :)

Mark joined me after a while (He didn't nap as long as Cashel):

When the little one FINALLY woke up, we were all super hungry, so we headed to nearby Naleehu for lunch at Hana Hou Restaurant.

Mark went with the meatloaf special and I had the pulled kailua pork.

Of course, we had to have a little dessert while we were there - the pies looked SO GOOD!

After we got back to the condo, we decided it was warm enough to brave the icy cold pool, and well, we just HAD to try out Cashel's adorable speedo outfit. (He wouldn't stand still long enough for me to actually get a decent picture of him, though)

The pool wasn't quite as frigid as we remembered it on this sizzling hot day, so the water felt good!

We settled in for another early night, played around (or rather, Cashel did - we were too busy making sure he didn't break his head open), finished up our leftover spaghetti, and started getting our things put together in preparation for our flights home the next evening.

Wonderful, relaxing day for us :) Every day seemed to be a highlight of our trip, but this one was particularly memorable :)

Hawaii 2013 - Day 4: Easter Fun, Panewa Zoo, Punalu'u Bakery, Setting In

Our fourth day in Hawaii, we were up fairly early again and Cashel was surprised to find some Easter treats on the table (although he wasn't too interested in the Easter egg hunt shortly after).

We had lots of packing up to, unfortunately, as it was another partial travel day. Cashel took a short nap while we finished packing, and while we initially intended to try to make it to a local church service, we were running late, and the only church close enough to make it to was in a really secluded place and looked a little scary, frankly, so we decided to visit the Panewa Zoo instead. We had intended to visit the Zoo the previous day, but were just a little too worn down after all the traveling, so we were glad we still were able to visit.

Panewa Zoo

The Zoo itself was on a beautiful bit of land, but extremely neglected and run down. The main attractions were the beautiful birds (albeit in rusty cages), and there was supposed to be a white Bengal tiger, but we looked for a good long time and saw nothing. Either way, it was Cashel's first Zoo experience, and he was mesmerized.

Cashel had a bit of a run in with this birdie! Mark was holding him and he reached out towards the cage, and the bird snapped at him. It scared him, so he started crying, and that darn bird started laughing lol It was pretty comical, really, but we were laughing, so it didn't take Cashel long to start laughing as well.

The highlight was that the peacocks roamed free, so we got to see them pretty close up!

Otherwise, there were a few other animals, but nothing that just took our breath away.

Well...that's not true. You should have seen his face when he first saw the slide! His favorite part of the whole Zoo, though, was the playground we visited at the end :)

Cashel passed out in his carseat right after the Zoo, so our initial plans of doing a little hiking in Volcanoes National Park didn't work so well. We instead grabbed a little Jack in the Box before heading to our next accommodations in Punalu'u, hoping we could check in early. Unfortunately, we couldn't.

We made it to Punalu'u after what seemed like much too long a drive to find that there was nothing even remotely near where we were staying. I sort of knew that going into it, but I did recall a gas station what I thought was "not too far down the road". Turns out, the closest grocery store was severely overpriced (we're talking almost $8 for a single green pepper and $3 for a single can of Hunts spaghetti sauce, and let's not talk about mushrooms or seasonings), and we ended up buying supplies for what most definitely was THE most expensive (and most tasteless) spaghetti I've ever made. We definitely learned our lesson to stock up before heading this way.

After our short stop at the grocery store, Cashel finally woke up, so we decided to stop for some ice cream at the Punalu'u Bake Shop across the street to stretch our legs a bit.

Fortunately by the time we finished our ice cream and drove back to Sea Mountain, our condo was ready for us, so we settled in. I'd have to say that between Jacaranda Inn and Sea Mountain, we felt like we were living in paradise! (Now if only it were kid-friendly, right?)

The view from our bedroom window!

The rest of the evening, we mostly relaxed. The condo was beautiful, and the views were stunning! We spent some time visiting with other guests in the pool area (pool was too freezing to swim in), and Cashel got to try out his new swim trunks and shirt.

After we got back and cleaned up, we settled in, made some (as I mentioned, extremely bland and flavorless) spaghetti for supper and called it an early night.

As boring as the spaghetti was, however, Cashel (us as well) devoured it like crazy! I guess when you're craving something home cooked, anything will do :) But I would've given anything (well, except for the $4.80/head) for a clove of garlic and (except for $7.99 per container of) some fresh mushrooms.

It was one of our lazier days overall, but we enjoyed it nonetheless and were looking forward to Punalu'u Black Sand Beach in the morning!