Fall and Winter season 2017-2018 at Happy Trails and beyond


 Great Thanksgiving with friends at our place.

We headed to Kona in Hawaii.  Great trip with hiking, snorkeling and sight seeing.

View from our window.
 We stayed at the Royal Kona Hotel.  Beautiful views and in the center of town.  Could walk to the beach and to town for dinner. 


Got there on the 14th of Dec. and of course had a couple of relaxing Rum Punches and walked into town for dinner.

The next morning, we headed to hike down to Captain Cook's Monument.  Only 3 miles down and then of course 3 miles back up (1500 ft. incline)  At the bottom,  we snorkeled in the small bay there.
Clear water with lots of fish

Another fish

Captain Cook's monument

Small cove by monument
Did great, but on the hike back up, I really got sick.  It took an hour to go down, but 4 to come back up since I had to lay down every 50 or 100 ft.   I guess with the travel, the drinks the night before, and the snorkeling in cold water, it just didn't sit well.   We had plenty of water, poured it all over my head and everything, but no snacks.  The next morning I was fine.  We took a whale watching trip on that day.  Saw about 5 whales, but couldn't get any really good pictures.  A little early in the season for whales.

We had a car, so the 17th, we went exploring for a good snorkeling place.  Just down the road was a city park with great snorkeling and sea turtles.

On the evening to the 17th, we took the Manta Ray Night Snorkel.  It was a great time and the manta rays were performing just under us.  Since it was a night, pictures were hard to get, but did get a few.  They had a surf board with a light attached to it to attract the rays.  We hung on both sides with our cameras and our snorkels to watch.  It was really fun and different.



On the 18th, we took an Island Tour of a Coffee Plantation, Black Sand Beach and the Volcano National Park.  Ended the day with a dinner at the Volcano Park Restaurant to see the lava flow at sundown.  Interesting day.  Didn't get to see the lava flow as close up as we did when we were here in 1999.   Spent the day with friends from Happy Trails, Tom and Becky Wells,  that were also in Kona. No really planned, but was nice. 



The next day was rainy, so we drove to the other side of the island just to get to see some different areas.  It's really a beautiful place, but with the rain, the views were not clear.
On our last day, we decided to snorkel at the 1st beach since it was so good.  This time, we had numerous sea turtles that swam with us, paying no attention.  You're supposed to keep a distance, but if they swim to you, how do you do that.


Since we had a late flight out, we also went to the Sea Horse Farm.  Very good, we even got to hold a sea horse.  Great ending to a great trip.


On the return from Hawaii, we spent Christmas with friends, Geoff and Nancy Justiss,  in their new house, and took the rig out with other friends, Ron and Donna Daly and Lynn and Linda Laymon, to Lake Pleasant for New Years.  Great warm weather, got some hikes in and even went kayaking.  Donna had her Paddle Board, and went out with us. 

Even saw some wild burros
Then off to the New Year.  We're working hard taking care of our bodies. Bob's back into swimming and swimming competition with a Master's Swim Team at The YMCA in Avondale.  So that's 4 days of intense swimming.  I'm doing my walks, playing some pickleball and eating better.  It's between 5 and 7 miles a day for me doing around a 17 minute mile.   Feeling great and ready to get on the road again.  We're leaving next week heading to Houston and the beginning of the summer season.

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