camping in Hawaii

We stopped at a coffee shop on the way to camping and I got my first blended mocha in a long time. Waaaay better than Starbucks.

Coffee bean tree outside of the coffee shop

They had eggs for sale there. Pretty colors so I took a picture. I explained to the cashier that I was a tourist.The chickens running around the property laid these eggs.

Coffee roasting house.

coffee beans

This is one of the rooms in the house that I stayed in while "camping". View of the neighbors yard where there was an all night party.Didnt get a lot of sleep there.

Room I stayed in while"camping"

Back deck, looking out into the ocean

Lava(old)outside the back deck , butting up to the ocean

Backyard. I read a book out here in the morning and then just watched the ocean for a while.

This is the house I stayed in while"camping"

Water tower where rain is collected for water.

Outside shower. The one and only shower. No ceiling. It was kind of cool to take a shower there in the morning. See...I roughed it!!!

Beach where the group camped and where we hung out during the day.

Group camp set up.

Volleyball on that beach. They are really into volleyball here. Me...not so much.

the same beach

We stopped here on the way home.

orchids

orchids

orchids

orchids

and more orchids

So about that camping trip.......

I was having a mini melt down for some reason when it was time to go camping. For one reason I didnt want to go camping and another reason was that I was so tired. I figured I wouldnt sleep there and just wanted to get some rest away from the schedule and so many people and so much activity. Everyone wanted me to go and they said it would be so much fun so I was torn about whether to go or not when one of the ladies said she was only going for one, maybe two days and that she was staying in the main house and there was room for me if I wanted to stay there too. So I decided to go.

The camping spot was on the other side of the island, the Kona side. about a 2.5 hour drive. When we got there everyone was setting up and I went down to the water where I saw 2 turtles swimming very close to shore. That was pretty cool.

After dinner (bocca burgers), we went back to house and crashed. I was exhausted. Sometime during the night a party started up next door and went on until sunrise.So much for sleeping, but I did get some rest. And instead of getting up early to go back to the camping beach, we hung out at the house until about 11. That gave me a chance to just relax and read.

Back at the beach....I went out on a Kayak to where the dolphins were swimming. I jumped out with my snorkel and mask and.....SWAM WITH THE DOLPHINS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That was about the coolest thing ever. There were 16 dolphins swimming there.We kayaked back and I just layed on the beach and rested until my ride back wanted to get on the road.

We stopped at the orchid shop on the way home. Beautiful flowers everywhere. One of the orchids smelled like lemon. Amazing!

We got home to an empty house. It is so quiet. I am pretty much the only one sleeping in this big house tonight. A couple has their own apartment upstairs and I am down on the bottom floor with no one here.The sound of quiet sounds so nice.

The rest of the group will be back sometime Monday and then they will all be leaving for home.

Aloha, Jill