{"id":6942,"date":"2025-12-30T23:16:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-31T06:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/?p=6942"},"modified":"2026-02-03T00:41:40","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T07:41:40","slug":"big-island-with-the-parks-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/2025\/12\/30\/big-island-with-the-parks-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Big Island with the Parks"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a>We had long considered a joint trip with Melody’s friend Lisa, and this holiday season gave us the opportunity to make it a reality. We drove to San Francisco a day before our Hawaii flight to explore Chinatown. After slurping noodles and wontons at Chong Qing Xiao Mian<\/a>, we lined up for fluffy egg tarts<\/a> and pineapple buns<\/a>, then wandered Portsmouth Square<\/a> and nearby shops. Parking was pricy at Fisherman’s Wharf<\/a>, so we quickly learned about lockpicking at the ISS<\/a> and eye surgery at the AAO Museum<\/a> before checking into our hotel<\/a> for a nap. We skipped the lines at the Nintendo Store<\/a> and Pop Mart<\/a>, then passed the Christmas tree at Union Square for R&G Lounge’s<\/a> signature Peking duck and salt-n-pepper crab. Our evening concluded with Stephen Sondheim’s delightful Into the Woods<\/a> at the SF Playhouse<\/a>, where a cow-costumed actor stole much of the show. Our Sunday morning flight to Kona was smooth, leaving plenty of time to pick up our Hertz<\/a> minivan, enjoy Umeke’s<\/a> fresh fish and poke, sip Big Chocolate Island’s<\/a> frozen hot chocolate over MTG<\/a>, and shop for cookies and sunscreen at Costco<\/a> before picking up Lisa’s family to check into our boho AirBnb<\/a>. We enjoyed the beef stew and spam musubi at Pine Tree Cafe<\/a> so much that we returned next morning for breakfast musubis to kick off our drive to Volcanoes National Park<\/a>, with stops along the way at Ka Lae<\/a> for the southernmost viewpoint of the U.S., Punalu’u Bake Shop<\/a> for plate lunches and malasadas, and Punalu’u Black Sand Beach<\/a> for tide pools and sea turtles. With nowhere to park for hiking, we checked in early to our B&B<\/a> and split up for dinner at a nearby bar<\/a>, where live cams<\/a> of the recent Kilauea<\/a> eruption inspired us to return to the park after dark to see the splurting lava in person. We were greeted next morning by a dense mist obscuring our caldera view, which eventually burned off after we crossed the Nahuku lava tube<\/a> and hiked the Ha\u2019akulamanu<\/a> trail down to the otherworldly Kilauea Caldera<\/a>. After lunch at Volcano House<\/a>, we passed the Steam Vents<\/a> to get Westley’s Junior Ranger badge at the Welcome Center<\/a>, then ventured back through the Sulphur Banks<\/a> to rejoin our group for dinner at Ken’s House of Pancakes<\/a> in Hilo under pictures of The Rock<\/a>. We introduced our friends to Fluxx<\/a> in our B&B living room, then headed to bed as we prepare to complete our circumnavigation of the Big Island.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We had long considered a joint trip with Melody’s friend Lisa, and this holiday season gave us the opportunity to make it a reality. We drove to San Francisco a day before our Hawaii flight to explore Chinatown. After slurping … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6942"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6942\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6954,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6942\/revisions\/6954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}