Hawaii 2014

True to our tradition it was Hawaii time! This year we decided to go to Molokai, one of the smaller islands. We had done our homework and had come up with several great things to do:

08/03: Arrival and checking out the neighborhood. 

Here we are in the (tiny!) plane from Honolulu to Molokai. It had just enough space for 10 passengers. 

And here's the view from the plane: Honolulu and Molokai, respectively:

Our condo is super-comfy. Others have repeatedly called it "home away from home", and it does feel like it. There's a lot of this-and-that in the condo, just random things you'd find in your home but not necessarily in a vacation home. There was even chicken, fish, and beef in the freezer!

Living room and part of the kitchen:

 Kitchen:

 Bath room:

And here's the view from our balcony:

Could be worse, eh ;)?

There wasn't much of a beach outside the condo, so we took the car and explored the east of Molokai, including several fish ponds and beaches. The nearest nice beach (although with pretty coarse sand) is One Alii Park where we stopped and went for a walk on the beach (until several coconut trees and the strong wind made us turn around - don't want to get hit on the head on the first day of vacation!):

We then continued driving toward the east all the way to Puu O Hoku Ranch (that's the place where we almost rented a cabin). Here are just a few impressions of the island:

Before heading back to the condo we stopped in Kaunakakai, the biggest town on the island, to stock up on everything we'd need for the week. The biggest grocery store was closed (Sunday), so we just ended up buying some frozen veggies, fresh bananas and mangoes, and some milk. First dinner (fish, rice, veggies) on the balcony:

08/04 (Monday): Today we drove toward the west side of the island. Unfortunately, several of the nice spots are inaccessible with a regular rental car (you'd need a 4WD), so driving all the way around the island is not possible. But, we ended up at a very nice beach with super-fine sand (Papohaku Beach Park). 

The sand was very interesting: Regular consistency far away from the water (soft and regular sinking), regular consistency close to the water (pretty solid), but feeling like quick sand in between:

08/05 (Tuesday): Scuba diving for Jan! Just as every year Jan had booked a scuba diving trip while I had a lazy day at home (with lots of reading and napping :)). 

I can't really say a lot about it since I wasn't there - maybe Jan can fill in some more details later.

During that trip he also unfortunately learned that there are two hurricanes (Iselle and Julio) heading for the island. Iselle was forecast to hit the Big Island (probably as a tropical storm) on Thursday, with rain and wind in the forecast for Molokai starting on Thursday and all the way into Sunday (when Julio was forecast to hit). All our activities for Thursday (Halawa valley hike) and Friday (snorkeling) were cancelled. So while we could have stayed for the mule ride into the former leper colony on Wednesday, we decided with a very heavy heart to head out early and booked a return flight for Wednesday morning. Very sad...