Hi friends - you know when I go quiet for a while we might be traveling, especially this time of year. Sadie really only gets about 2 weeks off the beginning of July from soccer after signing day, so it has quickly risen to the top of my list because that's when we try to get away, just the 4 of us. Usually it is somewhere tropical & this year we just got home yesterday after spending 13 days traveling to The Big Island in Hawaii:
We have taken the girls to Oahu & Maui, but none of us had been here before and I always love traveling somewhere new! We left on 7/3 & had a connecting flight at LAX:
We finally landed in Kona & it is the cutest, outdoor airport:
It was kind of crazy landing & driving to our resort because literally all we could see was a mountain & black lava rock everywhere. I am not exaggerating - it is definitely not the picturesque Hawaii we are used to! Our resort was less than 15 minutes from the airport & even though there was still a lot of lava rock, it was much prettier:
They welcomed us with leis & then showed us to our room:
We got in that afternoon, unpacked & then we were ready to check out the property! It is a large resort, which was overwhelming at first, but by the second day we had it figured out. It has 2 golf courses, with residences & then the property is broken into separate areas. They have 2 adult pools & 2 family pools where most of the rooms & restaurants are. Our room was overlooking King's Pond, which is the quietest area. The "pond" is full of fish & an eagle ray where you can snorkel anytime & it has a pool overlooking it, all in front of the ocean. Here was the view from our porch:
I say porch because the rooms were 2 story - I am sure we would have had a better view upstairs with the balcony but if you stay downstairs you get an outdoor shower, which the girls loved:
Here is the front of our room - it is facing the volcano, opposite of the ocean:
Fun fact, when you leave our room, the little cottage across the walkway was the kids club & Sophie was so excited about that because she could pop in whenever she wanted:
Here is another picture of King's Pond from the ocean looking back at our room:
and this is the starfish pool, which is the other family pool where most of the action is. It's also where we spent most of our time!
They had the cutest kids pool behind it that was full of sand & had a beach entry. It was even stocked with sand toys & cute chairs. I think the girls would have loved this resort when they were younger:
The lobby is up high when you first drive in, closer to the golf course than the ocean, but spectacular views:
This is not an official health & wellness resort, but it probably could have been! The golf courses were beautiful! You could tell they had to break through the lava rock to build it but the lava rock is built up all around it. The whole course is flanked with the volcano on one side & the ocean on the other:
Their gym was amazing! They actually had a basketball court, an outdoor kickboxing gym & then 3 separate indoor gyms for aerobic, cardio & strength and then several outdoor areas to work out in also, along side their spa & lap pool. I tried to spend most of my time outside since it was so beautiful & the weather was perfect:
Of course they also had a tennis center with at least 10 tennis & pickleball courts. We never played because it was pretty expensive. We wanted to play pickedleball with the girls but wasn't worth $30 per paddle just to go mess around:
They even had bocce ball but I'm sad to say that we never made it over there. Honestly, I think we just forgot now that I am looking at it:
We had an amazing trip and I took way too many pictures so get ready for the next week because I will probably have several posts about it. For now, I'll leave you one of my many sunset pictures - this was from dinner our first night there:
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