48 Hours in Waikoloa

Trip date: May 2023

I left Volcanoes National Park and drove Hwy 11 northeast to Hilo, about 45 minutes away. I've never been to Hilo, and really still haven't as it was just a good spot to have lunch on my way over to the west side of the island. I was going to spend my last 2 nights on the Big Island relaxing by the pool in Waikoloa.

A friend had suggested Suisan Fish Market for takeout poke and it was absolutely delicious! I ate at a picnic table with a view of the ocean at Liliʻuokalani Gardens. This park is just stunning and was donated by Queen Liliʻuokalani, the last Queen of Hawaii before being overthrown by the US in their move to take Hawaii. 

I didn't have a lot of time to stroll around but the park has a beautiful Japanese garden and great views of Hilo Bay.

I had chosen to take Saddle Road across the middle of the island, which cuts right between Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea. It's about 62 miles long and hits 6,632 feet elevation around mile marker 28. Although it was a beautiful sunny day, it got dang cold at the crest!

I pulled over for views of Mauna Kea but that's all there is out here! There are no services at all on this road so plan accordingly. But the entire drive was beautiful.

I arrived at the Waikoloa Beach Marriott Resort where I had booked 2 free nights which I got when I opened my Marriott Bonvoy Boundless Card. When I checked in they let me know they had also upgraded me to a big King room with a view of the pool and the ocean. They also gave me 2 free drink coupons. Mai tai with a view, lovely!

I went down to the pool for a while as it was still super warm and sunny. The pool here is great! There are actually 3; 1 is super shallow and has a little sand beach for kids, another has a water slide, and then there is a full length pool. This would do nicely!

That evening I walked about 10 minutes to Queens' Marketplace outdoor mall and met my friend Noelle at Kuleana Rum Shack where our friend Missy was working. Delicious drinks were had while catching up with these 2 lovely ladies.

The next day was absolutely gorgeous! I started the day with a hike along the beach trail where I saw both nēnē (Hawaiian geese) and honu (Hawaiian Green sea turtles)! 

I also saw dolphins in a hotel pool that you could swim with. How is that even a thing still??? I was shocked. 

Back at the Marriott, I rented a cabana at the pool for the day. It was absolutely wonderful!

Sometimes you I just need a whole day by the pool! I had some very good Kalua pork nachos delivered to my bed for lunch, soaked up the sun, swam, read... heaven!

I did go for a short afternoon walk along Waikoloa Beach to ʻAnaehoʻomalu Beach... to the Lava Lava Beach Club for a mai tai!

And then later there was the most incredible sunset! 

I had planned to go out for dinner that night, but I was just feeling so relaxed hanging at the resort so I decided to have dinner at their restaurant as it was "Taco Tuesday". Unfortunately when I arrived I was told there was a shortage or something and there would be no tacos that Tuesday. Bummer, but I had some fine catch of the day and a wedge salad.

The next morning I woke up to a text from Alaska Air letting me know I'd been upgraded to First Class for the flight home! What an absolute cherry on the top of such a great trip!

My flight wasn't until late afternoon, and as I'm Gold with Marriott I had a 2pm checkout, so I had a very indulgent breakfast at the resort, took a few more laps in the pool, worked on the tan a bit more, and had one last poke bowl before heading to the airport for the 6-hour flight home.

Aloha until next time Hawai'i! 

All Big Island photos here.

Other posts from this trip:

Pre-Disaster Maui

Volcano Lessons on Hawai'i

Volcano Lessons on Hawai'i

Trip date: May 2023

After 5 nights on Maui, I took a short Hawaiian Airlines flight to Kona on the Big Island. In 2018 my plans to hike around the Kīlauea volcano were thwarted by the volcano actually erupting, so I was on a mission to finally do all things I had planned 5 years prior!

I had booked another convertible, thru Thrifty this time, and stood in line for over an hour waiting to pick it up. Not sure if that is normal or if they were just very short staffed, but it screwed up my plans for a late lunch at the Honaunau Poke Shop before my 2+ hour drive.

I stopped at a gas station for some snacks and drove south on Highway 11, (also known as Māmalahoa Highway or the Hawaiʻi Belt Road) top down, breeze blowing through my hair. Then it started to dump rain like only the Hawaiian Islands can do! Luckily it cleared up by the time I was at the very south tip of the island, which is also the most southern part of the United States. I stopped at mile marker 75 to take a look at the massive ancient lava fields from the eruption of Mauna Loa in 1907. 

Mauna Loa is one of the five volcanoes that form the Big Island and is also the largest active volcano on earth. She's sent lava flows across the road in this area in 1868, 1887, 1919, 1926, and 1950 also!

Up to this point, and after, the southern part of the island is so green and lush! The towns here are tiny, I drove through each in the blink of an eye. 

My next stop was at Punalu'u Black Sand Beach where there is usually a very high chance of seeing the resident honus swimming close to the shore. I didn't see any turtles though as it was crazy windy when I stopped! It is beautiful though!

30 minutes from here I reached Volcano House, the only hotel inside of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, where I'd be staying for 2 nights.

I had booked a room with a view of Kīlauea's Halemaumau crater and was so excited to see the steam rising from it right from my bed! The hotel is rustic but cute; there are 2 gift shops, 2 restaurants, and absolutely amazing views of the crater. The Visitor's Center is just across the street, so if you are there you can walk over and take a look, you don't have to be a guest to come explore the hotel and its views.

That first night I ate at The Rim, the nicer of the two restaurants. My drinks and dinner were ok and as these are the only restaurants inside of the park, the prices were very inflated. But I was happy to take my wine to my room after dinner, just steps away vs driving home.

I only had 1 ½ days in the park and I had a lot I wanted to see and do, so the next morning I was out of the hotel at 8am and off to hike the Kīlauea Iki trail. I parked at the trailhead lot across from the Thurston Lava Tube and followed the trail counterclockwise, starting through a lovely rainforest with views of the crater floor below. Kīlauea's much larger crater can be seen in the distance.   

This pit crater last erupted in 1959 and I could clearly see the trail on the crater floor that cuts straight across what was once a lake of molten lava! It was a little over a mile to the far end of the rim, then there was a 400 foot descent to the floor. The trail was very steep in parts; I followed the dirt path, stairs, and lots of volcanic rocks.

Now I had to get across the floor to the other side! It's very hard to make out the trail but I knew to follow the ahu (stone cairns) and stone markers. Even knowing that, they were hard to make out sometimes! Everything is varying shades of black with the random overachieving plant trying to break through. And the crust is very uneven with cracks that look like they can swallow you whole!

It was truly one of the coolest hikes I've done! It was like being on the moon, but with parts of it steaming! Once I got to the other side I still had to climb up another 400 feet to where my car was parked. The entire hike took me about 2 hours and was just over 3 ½ miles. I highly recommend this trail if you are in the area, it's like nothing else!

When I got back up to the parking lot, I crossed the road and entered the Thurston Lava Tube. Tubes like this are all over the islands, and once were the highway to 2000 degrees F molten lava!

It's dark and creepy and totally cool!! Maybe not for people with claustrophobia however. 

I hadn't been able to get a quick breakfast at the hotel before I left so I was very ready for lunch by this time. I drove to the Kilauea Lodge and had a really good brunch of their Volcano Loco (take on a Loco Moco) which came with house make pumpkin bread and coffee. It was a super cute dining room, with a big stone fireplace and really nice service. 

Then I was back in the convertible and on the Chain of Craters Road. It's a 36-mile round trip drive down to the Pacific Ocean and back. There are no services on the road so it's important to have plenty of gas, snacks, and water!

The craters along the road were formed after magma below the earth receded (rather than by the eruption of a volcano) and the surface collapsed. One of the craters, Ko'oko'olau, hasn't seen lava in over 200 years and is now filled with greenery, while the others are quite barren.

Past the craters the road cuts through old lava flows all the way to the sea. It's pretty incredible to see the massive flows all around and imagine how it was when it was flowing! 

The elevation goes from 4000 feet to sea level, and the road is very steep and twisty in sections. The views are just incredible! At mile marker 15.9 I came to my short hiking destination- the Pu'u Loa Petroglyph Field. There is parking on either side of the road and then it's just a short 3/4 of a mile walk out to the ancient stone carvings.

The Big Island has the most petroglyphs of the chain, and this particular field was just full of them. There's a boardwalk built around the field to keep people from destroying the artifacts. I find them fascinating!

Back on the road it was just 3 more miles to the sea. There wasn't any active lava when I visited but in years past you could come and watch the flow enter the ocean! That would be amazing! But the views of the Holei Sea Arch were still impressive, as is the force of the waves that crash against them. Sea arches like this are formed when lava is continuously pounded by the surf until it is undercut in the shape of an arch.

Time to turn the car around and head back to the hotel! Driving straight at the hills with clear sight of the lava flows was incredible!

It's just such an amazing area to explore! I spent about 3 hours on this road, taking time to stop to read about the various craters, lookouts, etc. Coupled with my morning hike, it was a long day and I was exhausted when I returned to Volcano House. Luckily they greeted me at the front desk with a complimentary mimosa which I enjoyed while I got cleaned up and ready for a casual dinner in the other restaurant Uncle George’s Lounge.

The next morning I was up early again as I still had a few more things I wanted to see before I left Volcanoes National Park. It's a very short walk from the hotel over to the Sulfur Banks to see the fumes escaping from the deep cracks in the earth produced by the magma pocket below. 

Continuing my way on the 1+ mile trail, I then came upon the Steam Vents. There are actually many of them throughout the walk and on the banks of the cauldron. These are shallower cracks with rocks underneath that are being heated by magma. When rainwater hits the hot rocks it produces all this steam.  

Most of the steam vents are clearly marked but there have been instances of people falling into them so it's important to stay on the trails around here!

Throughout this area I saw so many ʻōhiʻa trees blooming! This is the Hawaiian state tree and is generally one of the first plants to grow through old lava. They are also very prone to disease and have been dying off in past years. Don't touch the ʻōhiʻa!

After checking out of Volcano House, I got my car, and drove over to the Kīlauea Overlook for some last views of the steaming crater. This is Hawaii's youngest and most active volcano and it doesn't seem like Goddess Pele is anywhere near done playing with it!

I took a short walk from here to Uekahuna, which is actually the chosen site that Native Hawaiians honor Pele. There are fantastic views of Mauna Loa, Kīlauea, and the old Jaggar Museum and Observatory. This had been on my list of places to visit in 2018 but unfortunately it sustained considerable damage during that eruption and is now being razed. 

On my drive out of the park I decided to do one more short hike to Pu‘u Pua‘i. The parking lot is on the opposite side of Kīlauea Iki and it's just a mile out and back to see this odd mound of cinders that was formed during the eruption in 1959. The cinders were the result of 1,900 foot high lava fountains, cooling and falling back to earth, but today it just looks like a very barren hill.

And with that I said goodbye to this amazing national park and started my drive to the other side of the island!

All Big Island photos here.

Other posts from this trip:
Pre-Disaster Maui

48 Hours in Waikoloa

Santa Fe Weekend

Trip date: April 2023

I had never been to New Mexico so I asked my friend Gail if she wanted to do a weekend in Santa Fe. We used one of my Alaska $99 Companion Fare certificates and flew in Premium class after work on a Thursday. Unfortunately our flight ended up being 1 ½ hours late; fortunately we both have access to the Amex Centurion Lounge at SeaTac. 

We flew into Albuquerque and while joking with the car rental agent at Alamo about getting an upgrade, their manager offered us a brand new Chevy convertible for the same price as our basic car. Nice!

It was about a 1 hour drive to the Marriott La Posada de Santa Fe. Gail had stayed here before and was excited about returning but when we checked into our room we were in a very old room with 2 Queens and a tiny bathroom. We had been upgraded to a room with a patio but the only place for my suitcase was in front of the patio door so we didn't use it. It was really too bad as the rest of the property looked pretty nice and many of the rooms had wood fireplaces! We were both disappointed.

Because of our flight delay, it was too late for dinner but we had a couple of nightcaps in the bar, which also had fireplaces burning the local piñon wood which smells incredible. 

The next morning we had a great breakfast at the hotel. New Mexico is known for their Christmas sauce, which is both red and green chili sauce on your enchilada's. It is absolutely delicious, and much spicier than I expected! Especially at breakfast!

On the agenda was a visit to Ten Thousand Waves spa. It's about 30 minutes outside of the city, situated up in the hills. We chose to park in the lower parking lot and walk up the 90 steps to the reception. 

Modeled after a traditional onsen, they offer public or private baths, and also a foot bath. There are also meditation rooms, a sauna, and a great gift shop. We soaked in the foot bath and then the public bath before each having a massage. The masseuses each had their own little rooms they worked out of. It was incredibly relaxing and we both loved our visit here!

Back in town we hit up Coyote Cafe for a late lunch of nachos and margaritas. So good!

Afterwards we walked around the corner to Gruet's tasting room. We had reservations, and it was a good thing as it filled up right after we arrived! The tasting room is beautiful and their sparkling wines are delicious. What a fun afternoon!

On our walk back to the hotel we stopped at Joe's Tequila Bar which is inside the Inn at the Alameda. I was quite impressed with their selection and their service. It was the first time I had tequila served with orange and cinnamon and I liked it!

On Saturday we started our day at The Teahouse where I had a huge breakfast burrito. Then we made the hour drive to Bandelier National Monument. Wow! What an incredible area this is! 

We took the Pueblo Loop Trail, which is very easy and takes you past the remains of an indigenous village that had about 400 people living in and near around it about 500 years ago. Walking through the ruins was awesome but you could really see the layout once you walked up into the hills a bit.

In these surrounding hills are over a thousand caves that were dug into the soft rock and used as dwellings. Many of them are accessible by ladder, all of them are super tiny inside!

As we continued along the trail there were areas with ancient petroglyphs. You barely had to search for them they were so obvious!

When we got to the Alcove trail we headed toward the large cave which is located 140 feet above the floor of Frijoles Canyon. It is believed that around 25 Ancestral Pueblo people lived here between 1250 and 1600 AD.

We decided to climb up. Eek! There are a series of 4 wooden ladders as well as some stone stairs. I'm not the best with heights (fear of falling!) and there were a lot of people but Gail was a great coach!

It was much harder coming down, for me anyway. My arms definitely got shaky and I had a little vertigo, but once you are up there, there isn't any other choice but to also climb down. I've never been in anything like it before and I was super glad we did it!

It was a stunning drive back to Santa Fe, cold and sunny, we had the top down and the heat cranked up!

Back in town we had another late lunch, this time outside at the Plaza Cafe. Afterwards we did some shopping at a few of the pottery galleries.

We decided to do a little happy hour cocktail crawl starting at Secreto which is inside the Hotel St. Francis.

Drinks were good and it's quite a fun vibe; they have a nice little patio also but it was full when we were there. We walked over to La Fonda and for another margarita before heading back to our hotel for some tacos. La Fonda is known for the bar up in their bell tower but it wasn't open for the season yet.

Sunday was Easter and we hadn't made any big brunch plans so we headed back to Plaza Cafe for a last enchiladas with Christmas sauce outside in the sun with mimosas.

We spent the rest of our day touring through some of the art galleries, shopping for chili powder, and checking out the Loretto Chapel and its mysterious staircase. Spoiler alert... it's a spiral staircase that reportedly was built by a mysterious carpenter, without anyone witnessing him. 

I was much more interested in going inside the Cathedral but as it was Easter weekend it was open for mass only. 

Before heading to the airport for our evening flight home, we drove to Happy Accidents cocktail bar in Albuquerque for one round. It's super fun, has a huge selection of tap cocktails, and a wonderfully nice staff. I highly recommend a stop if you are in the area!

It's an 8 minute drive to the airport from there. Easy peasy!

All New Mexico photos here. 

Exploring Corsica

Trip date: September 2022

The Mediterranean island of Corsica, or Corse as it is called by its country of France, is quite an unique place to visit!

Corsica is thought to be settled in about 560 BCE during the Mesolithic period. Corsicans are pretty fiercely Corsican first, French a distant 2nd! The island birthplace of Napoleon was purchased from the Genoese in 1767 and many locals still would like to see independance. They speak Corsu as well as French (and many speak Italian). They have their own very distinctive flag with an image of a (supposedly) decapitated Moor head on it, representing defeating the Moors in ancient wars. 

Corsica is also incredibly beautiful and is known for its lush mountains, pristine beaches, and postcard-worthy vistas. Forest and I flew in from Marseille and met up with our friend Nicola in the capital city of Ajaccio. We had a 3-bedroom Airbnb with some seriously fantastic views of the sea. 

We spent a lot of time on our terrace, eating Corsican cheeses and charcuterie, drinking Corsican wines, and watching the big ferries come in and out of the port. It was very relaxing and the scenery was just fantastic!

We also did a wonderful hike at Pointe de la Parata which has one of the 90 Genoese towers built in 1550 to defend the Corsican coasts against invaders. It's a bit of a steep and rocky climb to the top where the tower is but the views of the Îles Sanguinaires were a great reward!

The 2 ½ mile loop skirts around the point and has beautiful views from all sides. It's an easy hike, except for the tower!

We then drove down to Marinella beach and had a very fun lunch at KOS. The location absolutely can not be beat! It's stunning, staff was good fun, and all of our food was quite tasty. If you are around this area I'd definitely plant yourself here for a glass or two of rosé!

After a couple of days in Ajaccio, we set off for Bonifacio on the very south tip of the island. It's a 2 ½ drive so we had plenty of time for a few stops along the way. 

The first was the seaside town of Propriano; the drive through the mountains was absolutely beautiful! 

Once in town we did a short hike along the coast and down to the beach. The color of the ocean was stunning and the wind was crazy strong!

We had a quick, and not very good, lunch in a random cafe and then continued our drive to the medieval town of Sartène. I think our Airbnb host had recommended a stop here, it's a super cute tiny town built into the hillside. 

We walked around a bit and did some shopping for some local cheese and charcuterie for apero hour.

The rest of the drive to Bonifacio was just stunning! It was all mountains, cliffs, and sea!

Unfortunately that is where the day turned a bit poor. We had a hell of a time finding our Airbnb and when we finally did it was NOTHING like what we thought we had rented. It had been listed as a bungalow and apparently that means trailer home in French. Not only was it an absolute dump but the 3 rooms were so tiny I could barely walk into my room! And we were in the middle of nowhere! Luckily we had a lot of snacks and salad makings for dinner and of course a good traveling bar!

Nicola called the hosts and explained that this would not work for us, I went online and booked us a hotel in Bonifacio proper, the next day we checked out of our trailer home and checked into Hôtel A Madonetta (which was a great location and fine room but pretty surly service).

Bonifacio is a tiny and beautiful town that sits right on the Mediterranean with Sardinia just an hour away by ferry. It was super windy so we scrapped plans for lunch in Italy and decided to take the tourist train up to the citadel. Sounds very unlike me, but that is one steep climb to the top and none of us had slept well in the trailer!! The little train gave us great views of the yachts in the harbour and also the commercial boats in the port before dropping us off in the upper town, the oldest on the island.

We made our way through the tiny pedestrian only streets and found the King of Aragon's Staircase, steps build directly into the rock wall, for some more amazing views.

Because of the wind, it wasn't advisable to do the entire walk, so we decided to grab lunch at U Castille. What a great meal we had! We were seated in an old room with a stone walls and vaulted ceilings. The restaurant is known for their traditional cuisine so I had their fish soup, which was served with rouille (similarly to Marseille's bouillabaisse) but this soup was very smooth. 

I also had the wild boar stew and raspberry souffle ice cream. Yum! Highly recommend a stop here if you are in town.

We wandered around some more after lunch, exploring the little ally's and doing some shopping along the way. It's a super cute medieval town!

Nic decided to head back to the hotel for a bit so Forest and I found a little café overlooking the incredible limestone cliffs and watched them change colors in the light while having some rosé. We walked back down to the lower town at sunset and had a casual pizza dinner at one of the many restaurants that line the port.

The next day Forest and I decided to hike up to the cliffs; Nic wasn't feeling well so stayed back at the hotel. This time there was no tourist train! We walked through town, up the steep streets to the citadel and then headed left over to the trail that runs along the cliffs we had been viewing the day before. Now we could see the walled city that is perched up high.

We could also see Sardinia out in the distance. It was interesting to get closer to the limestone, it's so unique looking, and to peer down at the little coves that line the shore. There were others on the trail but it wasn't crowded at all and it took us about 1 ½ hours round trip from the port. It was really a beautiful hike! 

We grabbed some very good burgers back in town for lunch and then met up with Nicola. Forest drove us to the local Figari airport to pick up a rental car, as Nic and I had our flight out of Ajaccio the next morning.  We had a tiny Fiat which made the 2 ½ drive on the twisty roads a little nerve wracking. It also decided to dump rain for a while!

Back in Ajaccio, we had rooms at the Holiday Inn which was super close to Bonaparte airport. Nic and I went grocery shopping for some things to bring home and then had drinks and dinner on the hotel property. The rooms were very nice for a Holiday Inn!

At 7:30am the next day we headed to the airport to return the car, but really we could have gone an hour later as it took no time at all and there isn't much of anything to do at the airport except shop for local specialities which we had already done at the grocery store.

By the way, if you visit Corsica don't pass on the local Canistrelli cookies! You can find them everywhere, in both sweet and savory varieties. They are similar to a biscotti and are fabulous!

We were on Easy Jet for the quick 1 hour 50 minute flight to CDG. I said goodbye to Nicola, collected my bag, rechecked in with Air Canada for my flight home, and was in the Maple Leaf Lounge just 45 minutes after landing! 

I had booked Business Class from CDG to Montreal with points and my pod was quite nice and comfortable. Air Canada was still following COVID guidelines so masks were still mandatory which was a bit strange. They also didn't pass out any toiletry bag which is very typical on international flights. The food was great, including my foie gras! And I had a nice snooze on the 7 ½ flight to Canada. 

In YUL it took quite a while to get through customs and security; I was very glad to have Global Entry to speed things up a bit. The Maple Leaf Lounge here had smoked meat sandwiches which was very Montrealian! 

Then I was on my way home, 5 ½ hours to Seattle in Business Class on a 737, so no lay flat but still a very pleasant flight.

Corsica is absolutely beautiful so if you get a chance to go, do it! The roads are very twisty and it takes longer than you think to get around so take that into consideration when deciding where to stay. 

All Corsica photos here.

Other posts from this trip:

Paris For Free
Paris by the Numbers 
(Michelin) Stars in Paris

36 Hours in Marseille