Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

It is 1:30 pm here in Hawaii, which means that my friends and family in the eastern time zone have alrady enjoyed most of their Thanksgiving day, probably have eaten some wonderful turkey, and it’s 6:30 pm. Crazy!

I have some photos from the past couple days, and sadly, we only have today and tomorrow left! It is hard to believe it’s been almost a week, and flying out tomorrow feels sad and premature! I honestly think we would have needed two full weeks on the Big Island to do the things we wanted to, but we’ve made the most of the time we have had, and even made time for some much needed relaxation!

Rich wandered the resort property a couple of evenings ago, and I love the shots he captured:

Our resort is not much to look at in terms of the building itself, but the grounds/property are stunning, the beach is pristine, the entertainment and dining are incredible, and the rooms are amazing. Being one of the Islands’ premiere resorts, we have been enjoying every second we’ve had here.

A Hawaiian sunset. goodness.

Some more beauty from the next day:

This is me enjoying the ocean while Rich and Leslie (our wonderful client and friend), worked on a photography lesson.

This shot was taken at Hapuna Beach Resort (next to ours, and owned by the same company).

One of the highlights of our trip came yesterday, when we all drove north along the Kohala Coast and around the northern tip of the Island. We drove through Hawi, Kapa’au, and ended up at Pololu Beach with all of it’s blank sand beauty! The photo below is Pololu Valley:

Pololu Beach (notice the black sand and the woman in the bottom right portion of the photo for scale!)

Below, the North Kohala Coastline enveloped in fog and mist!

It AMAZES me that the Big Island, which is situated in the middle of the Pacific and surrounded by thousands of miles of ocean, could have completely different climates from one side of the island to the other! The western side of the island where we are staying RARELY gets rain (the last time was eight months ago!) and yet and eastern side of the island gets enormous volumes of rainfall! As a result, the terrain is completely different and in locations like the one below, it is green, lush, and can sustain a rainforest!

We grabbed a delicious lunch at Bamboo in Hawi…

And I got some incredible Kona Mountain coffee ice cream from Tropical Dreams. Wow. And yum.

Then Rich and I found a really neat little local store called “As Hawi Turns” and got this cool wooden surfboard “postcard” for my parents and brother that they are about to see on the blog before even receiving it We mailed it from the local post office so who knows when they will actually get it!

Will be posting another blog with days 6 and 7…along with some photos that Leslie is going to take of us this afternoon so we can actually have some great photos together! Stay tuned!

The past two days have been full of fun, relaxation, sun, scenic walks, and amazing food.

We are not complaining. We could get used to this

These first several photos are just from around the resort, and I’m pretty sure we could explore this place for weeks and still not have seen it all. I love this tree that is growing horizontally through the ground, and it sits right on the coastline. Very, very cool. I sat in it while Rich took a few photos:

Then I snapped one of Rich on the crab-covered rocks:

The Mauna Kea Beach, perfect for sun bathing, swimming, walking, and snorkeling…all of which we’ve been busy doing.

This is me hanging on one of several perfect hammocks – strategically placed right off the beach for maximum comfort and peacefulness! We are in heaven.

More of me lounging!

With my mom, Amber, and Nick watching Alana back home, this trip has felt like a second honeymoon for Rich and I…

Fun hammock silliness…

Drinks and fruity concoctions served beachside:

Here are a few macro shots I took while wandering the property:

Being one of the best beaches on the Big Island, our resort (Mauna Kea Beach Hotel) offers both pubic and private (hotel guests only) portions of the beach.

Yesterday morning, Rich and I headed about an hour south to Kona to go parasailing I’d been twice before, both times off the Florida coast, but I wanted to enjoy it again – in Hawaii!

Rich had never been – though he has gone sky diving which is something I don’t know if I could ever work up the nerve to do!

Rick took these from the Kona Pier, while we waited for our parasail boat.

Super fun times parasailing!

This is what 1,200 feet looks like from the boat

Here I am getting “dipped” – which turned out to be more like “dragged”!

My sweetie – going up!

And up…

He saw flying fish, a large yellow fish of some kind, and about 10 dolphins while he was up there while I managed to see nothing at all! But it was still very, very fun and completely gorgeous. I was excited that he enjoyed his first parasail trip and got to see so much from 1,200 feet!

And I was happy not to have dropped our camera into the ocean! The speed boat was racing along while I gripped the camera (with the 70-200 mm lens) tighter than I’ve ever held it before! I’m stunned that any of these photos are in focus – it was so difficult to steady my arms!

Funny Kona street signs…

Once we got back to our hotel, we took a few photos of the area. It is just sheer beauty everywhere we look, and honestly, it’s hard to know how best to document it.

We can’t believe we are staying here:

Then, last night was an adventure all it’s own. Rich and I decided to drive to the summit of Mauna Kea Mountain to watch the sunset. The drive would take us about two hours from our hotel, and we really, really wanted to go. We had read about the mountain and knew it was the highest elevation in all of Hawaii and the summit houses the largest (astronomy) observatory in the world! We knew that it would be cold, but we’d been told that it was an incredible experience because at 13,796 feet, we would be both above the clouds and below them.

And an incredible experience it was. All along the steep and winding road up the mountain were views like this one: beautiful clouds as far as the eye could see!

And the largest, most amazing, mind-boggling telescopes and astronomical equipment:

Note the size of the telescope with the truck parked next to it. Talk about an example of scale!

Yes, snow. In Hawaii. Crazy.

A couple photos from the summit, freezing to death.

I love this photo of Rich with the sunset in the background, but I cannot even imagine how cold he was. He was literally the only person on the mountain (other than myself) who was not bundled up in a parka, boots, hats and gloves, etc. A group of Japanese tourists even asked to take a photo with him because they thought it was so crazy that he was wearing short sleeves up there. There goes my hope that we’d have the clothes we’d need for our various activities. Didn’t see this one coming! That’s what I get for reading the Hawaii book on the plane and not beforehand

Rich captured the sunset brilliantly!

It was incredible! With clouds below us and clouds above, it felt like we were halfway to heaven.

We had originally planned on staying at the summit after the sunset in order to do some stargazing, but we had no idea just how cold it would be, so we quickly decided to forego it in order to stay alive We were disappointed but also hungry and tired and knew it was going to take a long time to get back to civilization, so we began our downward trek.

The last lines of color disappear from the horizon!

And this is a HORRIBLE photo of Rich and I, but it just happens to be the only photo we have from the summit, so there you have it!

Gas prices: very expensive (along with everything else here!!!) but not actually quite as bad as I’d expected!

Stay tuned for the next couple of days as we have a chance to blog!

Hmmm…how do you begin a blog post about one of the most amazing experiences ever?

I suppose by saying that we are having one of the most amazing experiences ever.

We are in Kona, on the Big Island of Hawaii, for an engagement session and photography workshop with our incredible friend and client, Leslie, and we couldn’t be more excited to be here!

We arrived to our resort (Mauna Kea Beach Hotel) after dark on Friday night, so we were not completely aware of it’s beauty until this morning when we woke up to the sounds and sights of the Hawaiian coast, the plentiful, statuesque palm trees, and the sheer and utter peacefulness of this place.

We took a few photos early this morning while it was still a bit cloudy. After breakfast, the sun came out and the rest of the day was completely beautiful!

There are so many beautiful and unique trees, flowers, and foliage!

These are the lei’s that we were given by our resort greeter, along with an “Aloha” and kiss on the cheek. They are made of real flowers so they will last only a few days. We made sure to take a photo in them while they are still beautiful!

And here are a few details of our day as we relaxed, explored the resort, and got settled in. There will be many more photos to come as we go on excursions!

Our sweet rental ride while we are on the island! A 2010 Mustang Convertible More photos of this to come!

Details in our room:

Here is my reading material for the trip. This is only a point of interest because I rarely get to look at magazines It’s the first time in a while that I’ve actually sat down, uninterrupted, and enjoyed this activity!

And this is the awesome Hawaii book that I am using to learn all about the Big Island I’m convinced that one week will not be long enough to do all of the things we are interested in. Hopefully I will soon be posting photos of a volcano trip, a waterfall hike, a parasail trip, and plenty of beach photos.

While I rested in the room this evening (my body is so confused because of the five hour time difference), Rich grabbed these shots of the sunset. This is the view out of our room balcony I think it’s gonna be a good week