From East to West...with a little South

Wednesday morning we checked out of the hotel in Hilo and started the drive along the southern part of the Big Island to end up in Kailua-Kona. We had originally planned a hike in Volcanoes National Park but it was raining so we opted not to hike. Instead, we took a leisurely drive stopping anyplace that looked interesting.

Our first stop was to Punalu'u. It was my first time on a black sand beach and it was quite a sight. I wouldn't necessarily call it sand because it felt more like tiny little rocks but it was pretty.


In addition to the black sand beach, we also saw a couple of sea turtles. The first was just chilling on the beach:

And the second one surprised Alan a bit as he was walking out on some rocks in the water. He was camouflaged amongst the rocks:
He was having a snack and wanted nothing to do with posing for me so that I could get a good photo. What you can't really tell from these pictures is the size of these sea turtles. They are huge! To give you perspective they are about the same size around as your common living room ottoman...obviously not as tall but you get the point.

We continued to head south and in fact drove through the southernmost town in the USA, Na'alehu. In the middle of this little town was this incredible old building:
It is the Na'alehu Theater.


If you look closely at the pictures above you can see the old ticket booth as well as some old movie posters. While I was taking pictures a local woman walked by and asked me if I had $1 million to save it...I wish I did. She told me that they used to have all sorts of fun in it watching movies, hosting parties, and having community dances. Sad that it is in such poor condition.

We kept heading south and actually ended up at Ka Lae or South Point which is 'the' southernmost spot in the USA. A few years ago Alan and I were in the easternmost point in the USA, Quoddy, ME. Now we just need to hit north and west...that'll be an Alaskan trip. Ka Lae was windy...and by windy I mean hard to open the car doors and blowing sand and dirt into places on your body you don't realize until you get home and take a shower. There is also some gorgeous blue ocean at the bottom of the cliffs.

From there we could only head north so opted to do so and also started heading west. We drove through quite a few quaint towns along the way. The type of towns that remind me a little of driving through the small Midwestern towns of my youth. The ones that have only one or two blocks that constitute the actual business district and there is always a post office, a gas station, and here there are typically theaters. We did manage to see at least one theater that was still open. We stopped for lunch in Captain Cook and had some amazing sandwiches...the bread was fantastic!

We ended the drive at our hotel in Waikoloa. It is actually a resort and not a hotel and reminds both of us of Disney. Not our typical choice for a hotel but it is clean and nice and we haven't been here too much. After checking in and getting settled we wandered around the grounds a bit and plopped down to watch the sunset. We chose a great night because the sunset was...well...