#Gates50States

Every two years, Jenn and I have to demonstrate at least 30 hours of continuing education, and our favorite place to obtain this education is at Western Veterinary Conference in Las Vegas. There are a couple of reasons for this. First, the lineup of lectures and speakers is unparalleled. Second, Las Vegas is a fantastic launching point to travel to Zion National Park, Death Valley National Park, Phoenix, etc. We love to hike, and we love to get away, and the west has beautiful weather compared with northeast Ohio in February (or whoever they decide to hold the conference), so we jump at the opportunity.

This past year, we decided to hit Hawaii first, then hit the continuing education on the way back. First, to break up the jet lag, and second to scout out the state for when we take the kids. Yeah. That’s what we told ourselves.

I’ll get the negative out of the way first. We decided the only reason we’ll go back to Hawaii is because we told the kids we’d take them. Seriously, after two trips and three islands, we’ve found more we don’t like than stuff we do like.

For the purposes of this post, I’ll now stick to the positive.

We started on Maui, and stayed in a very pretty part of the island with good access to beaches and resorts and restaurants, Kihei Beach Condominiums.

We prioritized visiting Haleakala National Park at sunrise, and obtained the permit to get in the park for the event. We were disappointed, as it was way too cloudy. We got some decent photos coming down from the summit, so it wasn’t all a loss, but the majestic Instagram photos were not meant to be for us.

We ventured over to the north side of the island, to Kahului for hiking and shopping, but parking for hikes on the Hawaiian islands is a joke, and it was a giant waste of time, and I said I’d stick to the positives, so… moving on.

You may have read about the whale migration up and down the coast of Maui. We joined a boat tour to see the whales, and my oh my, did we get our money’s worth!

We enjoyed our time at Maui Gold Pineapple. Their vodka, and especially their gin, was very good. It was definitely worth taking the tour, tasting their product, and shopping from their goods.

And right next door is Makai Glass Blowing, which is absolutely beautiful, both watching the artists work and moving through their gallery.

We don’t have photos from our dinners, but from experience, when you’re ready for dinner, take a walk down the street, find a place that looks like a hole in the wall with a line of people streaming out the door, and get in the line. You’ll be glad you did after your meal of some blackened fish and a local beer. Any blackened fish and any local beer.

Then there’s the Road To Hana. Visit any travel blog on the subject , and you’ll find this is a must do. We found it pretty, and a neat experience, but overrated. But you do you.

What you have to do is stop at Mama’s Fish House before starting the Road To Hana. This is one of our top three meal experiences of all time. Reservations apparently book out months in advance, but from experience, if you arrive at the opening, and you’re well dressed, and you ask nicely, you’ll get a prime table and absolute first class service.

Our next stop was the Big Island and Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. Trouble was, while we were traveling, a big Kona storm system was settling over the islands… all of them… and bringing a lot of rain with it. By the time we looked at the forecast, we determined we had to get to HVNP… right now, and it was two hours away.

The weather wasn’t great for us while we were there, but it proved to get worse after we left, and over the next several days. In fact, portions of the park closed for flood risk, and given our small rental car, we’d not’ve made it. But we got to see the lava at night from a real, live, active volcano.

Jenn found a great VRBO condo rental right on the coast southeast coast, and while we endured worse weather than Ohio was experiencing at the time, our view was pretty, and our time relaxing.

While Jenn has been a coffee drinker for quite some time, I’d never had a cup of coffee. You read that correctly. So when we visited Heavenly Hawaiian Kona Coffee Farm for a tour, I enjoyed my first cup. I’m told it is some of the best coffee out there. We even got to roast our own batch!

Captain Cook is a major historical figure in Hawaiian history, at leas as it relates to the West’s contact with the islands. We joined a tour out to his monument for snorkeling and sight seeing, and got to see some Spinner dolphin on the way. Our weather wasn’t awesome, so I don’t have great photos to share, but if you’re on the Big Island, you may want to check that out for something off-shore to do.

We’ve enjoyed visiting distilleries on our travels, and it turns out there’s one on the Big Island in the 12th Hawaii Distiller. This one man operation is extremely cool! He’s got clever offerings and very good taste.

But we could only take crap weather for so long, so we adjusted our travel arrangements and flew to Las Vegas a day early. See ya next time, Hawaii.