Hawaii's Big Island is an amazing, diverse place to travel. There are 13 different climate zones in the world. While we were there some people told us they had all 13 on the island, but I am not sure about that. But I know it has a lot-rain forest, active volcano, deserts, beaches, etc. They even get snow and have winter sports in the winter! That makes for a pretty diverse vacation spot. To do it all, you would need FAR more than a week, but we tried to pack in as much fun as we could! 

Here's a summary and a few notes on the activities we did each day:

Saturday July 22: Travel Day

Our flight left Seattle at 3:30PM local time and arrived in Hawaii at 6:30pm Hawaii local time. My 13 year old son had to sit alone on the back of the plane. Here he is coming off the plane in Hawaii:




We got our cars (Well, as I mentioned in the last post, ours was more of a bus LOL): 




Then we went to Walmart where we purchased some snorkeling gear, some food, and a booster seat to replace the one we left in my car is Seattle. (***Good tip here-buying a booster at a local Walmart costs less than ONE day renting one from the car rental places...even in Hawaii!!!***) Then we ate a late dinner at Denny's (because it is right by Walmart, it was late to us, and it could accommodate our huge group). AND late that night we finally checked in to our condos at Halii Kai 



Here's a picture my dad took from my condo balcony:




Sunday July 23: Rainbow Falls in Hilo, Laupahoehoe Point, and Condo Pool

We all piled into the car and drove across the island to Hilo.

1-Rainbow Falls was our first stop-we hiked up to the banyan trees and took some pictures at the falls.




We even had a little fun with the pictures LOL:





2-Laupahoehoe Point has a bit of a sad history (April 1, 1446 a Tidal wave came through and a whole elementary school class of kids, their teachers and a few others lost their lives), but is a beautiful spot and guys-it was PACKED full of locals this day! We stopped for a while, read about the the sad history of the point, and enjoyed the immense beauty here.





3-Halii Kai Condos pool: We relaxed a bit tonight in the pool and hot tub at our hotel. Somehow I did not get a picture of the hot tub, but guys...it was awesome with a rock/sand bottom! Here is a shot of the pool itself:




And the view of the ocean from the pool:



Phenomenal!

Monday July 24th: Snorkeling at Kahaluu Bay and a stop at Hapuna Beach State Park

1-Kahaluu Beach Bay was a fun stop for snorkeling, but it was super packed! Tons of people were here! But we still spent quite a bit of time here today.






2-Hapuna Beach State Park: We stopped here for food, but they would not serve a group as big as ours (yes, seriously), so we just hung out at the beach for a while, snorkeled and my daughter went Boogie Boarding. Then we headed back for some food at the Condo.





Tuesday July 25th: Puako Beach and Petroglyphs, Walk to Hilton and LUAU at Mauna Kea!

1-Puako Beach Petroglyphs walk first. Actually, we accidentally walked along the beach first:







Then we went on the real Petroglyph path/walk:






2-We walked from our hotel past the golf course and over to the Hilton Waikoloa Village. That hotel is like the Disneyland of resorts! Holy crap! We may have to stay there sometime when I can get a good deal! It was beautiful!

3-Luau at Mauna Kea Resort. So great! Great show, great food! Actually, it was my favorite Luau I have been to so far in my life! I definitely recommend it!






Wednesday July 26th: Armour's 11th Birthday, Hilo Farmers Market, Imiloa Astronomy Center, Akaka Falls, and Night walk at the Hilton

1-We gained an 11 year old today! He wanted cheesecake for his birthday, so we went and bought some at Foodland and we celebrated the birth of our middle child! The Big Island is a great place to celebrate a birthday! What a lucky guy!


2-We wanted to check out the Hilo Farmers Market in all it's glory, so we went there today since it was a Wednesday. It was the perfect place to pick up some local foods, grab some sweet souvenirs, and hang out with lots of other people! We even met a guy from Aberdeen! It was crazy! :)



3-My FAVORITE stop on the Big Island back when I visited Wes there 11 years ago was to the Imiloa Astronomy Center. The planetarium was the best part. Sadly, this time, the Planetarium was closed, but we went and enjoyed the rest of the Astronomy center. It was so fun and educational for the whole family! It was great!!!


4-Stopped and hiked down to Akaka Falls.



4-Walk to Hilton Lagoon:



Thursday July 27: 49 Black Sand Beach/Honoha'ope Beach, Walk to see Dolphins at Dolphin Quest, and Hawaii's Volcano's National Park.

1-Wes, Armour (11 year old) and Wesley's parents walked over to 49 Black Sand Beach/Honoha'ope Beach this morning (Early):



2-We walked over to see the Dolphins at Dolphin Quest on the Hilton Property.






3- We went to Hawaii's Volcanos National Park-there was SOOOO much we did here today that it will have it's own post. I will put a link to it once it is posted! Here is a couple pictures to whet your appetite:




Friday July 28: Swimming with Dolphins, Chilling around the hotel

1-Today Wes and the kids swam with Dolphins at Dolphin Quest. It was amazing for them!!!









Saturday July 29: Mauna Kea Onizaka Visitor's Center, Hilo Farmers Market (again), Botanical Garden drive, Red Eye home!

1-Mauna Kea Onizaka Visitor's Center with the family-the bus barely made it there, but it was fun and interesting to stop!




2-Back to Hilo Farmer's Market!



3-Scenic Drive near the Botanical Garden-we took the scenic side drive and it was so worth it-look:





4-Off to the airport to return home on the Red Eye.


What an amazing trip! We did so many amazing thing, and there is so much more for us to do next time!!! I cannot wait to get back!

Wow, the summer of travel is almost to an end, but I have not shared all the great tips I learned this summer yet! I guess I will start with my most recent vacation. It was a big one! 

Almost two weeks ago I returned home from the Big Island of Hawaii. 


About the Trip/Pre Trip Planning
As I have mentioned before, I am a planner. Big time. Maybe even an over-planner...This trip was no exception. 


But I feel I need to explain something about my planning. I am a planner that likes to be spontaneous. Weird, right? But true. When I plan, I do not make calendars full of events and exact times. But what I make is spreadsheets and lists of the things that I might want to do at the location I am visiting. And I research. A lot. In advance. That way I can usually figure out if there is something I want to do that requires planning ahead and putting on the calendar (like going to See Hamilton on Broadway-you have to get those tickets WAY in advance and plan ahead for that!) or if things are more of a possible spontaneous adventure (like a beach or a drive).
Usually we are pretty active and adventurous on vacations. My husband especially. People always comment that he keeps you running! True...But we also know our audience, and for our most recent vacation (the the Big Island of Hawaii), our "audience" was 11 people ranging from grandparents to kindergartners. 6 years old to 62 year old, kids, adults, teens all in the mix. This was THE big trip of the year for the Beckee's Deals family-Wes and I took our 5 kids, his parents, and my parents with us to Hawaii for a week. So I planned a LITTLE differently...
I started out the same...For those of you that read my Kauai overview post, you know I completely recommend these books:


My husband is kind of a Big Island pro because he did an externship during med school in Hilo, so he lived there for a month (or 6 weeks?) At the time our middle child was a baby. That baby and I visited Wes on the Big Island for about a week. On this recent trip, we celebrated that "baby"'s 11th birthday. So, it has been almost 11 years since Wes got to live in Hawaii for a glorious few weeks. 
In spite of Wesley's expertise on this island, in preparation for this trip, I still read this book (We actually gave this book to our parents to read as well in preparation for the trip):


(If you cannot see the picture, it is "Hawaii The Big Island Revealed" 8th edition by Andrew Doughty.)
Twice:


And marked a lot:




The first time through, I just marked and noted the things that looked awesome, that Wes and I might like if we were going alone. And the second time through I looked for things that a multi-generational groups could all do together. That would appeal to a 6 year old and not kill a 62 year old, that would keep the interest of a teenager and still challenge an adult without boring a 9 year old. 
Then I took what I thought looked like it would be the best activities for my group and made a two page spreadsheet of them. And arranged it by what part of the island the activities were on:




That way, if we were on one part of the island doing an activity and we had time to do something else spontaneously, we could see what else might be of interest nearby. I tried to make sure the list included things that others might be interested in even if I was not (Golf, fishing, etc).
Next, I looked at the list and picked out a few absolute MUSTs and looked to see if any of those musts required advanced planning and arrangement. Like, for example, I knew we would want to do a Luau with everyone while on the island. That might sell out and only happens on certain nights, so I planned it ahead, made reservations and paid for the luau in advance. AND put it on the calendar! 
A Bit of Background about THIS trip
Who were we with: I already mentioned that this was a huge multi-generational group-11 of us. My parents, Wesley's parents, me, Wes, and our 5 kids (ages 6-14). ( Enjoy this terrible picture of the whole group...I would use a better one, but this is the only one with all of us in it)


Transportation and Accommodations 
This trip was originally supposed to be a beach/Disneyland trip to California (Adventure #4 in this post). However, when I was in the planning/paying stages, on a whim, I checked Costco Travel for any great deals. And guess what? I found one! But not for Disneyland/California Beaches, but for the Big Island of Hawaii. And it was less than the other plan was going to be for 11 people. HECK.YEAH. Since we did a package deal on this, airfare, car, and hotel were included in the cost. The original plans and what actually happened were a bit different sadly...(we had some issues-which was weird because we have never had problems with Costco travel before when we have used them.) Here's what happened:
Airplane travel: The grandparents were all coming from Salt Lake City Utah, so they were on the same itinerary, and we were flying from Seattle. The plan had them flying to Seattle, then all 11 of us on a flight to Kona. We had reserved seats months ago all together, but for some reason Delta or Costco changed them and my father in law almost got bumped from the flight. It was terrible, but in the end, after HOURS on the phone with Delta and with Costco, We were in fact all on the plane together-seated all over, but on the same plane. 
Ground Transportation: We rented 2 cars, a minivan that could hold 7 people for us and our kids, and a full sized car for the grandparents. It was through Alamo. Luckily, I ALWAYS go online 24 hours before the car rental and pre-check in on Alamo. When I went on this time I discovered that they had changed our minivan seating 7 to a car seating 5 (for the 7 of us). I called Costco and Alamo and discovered that whatever mistake had happened, they did not have a minivan anywhere on the island for us now. After LOTS of time on the phone (HOURS) and a lot of me being VERY pushy and refusing to accept "I guess you and your husband will both have to drive and we can give you 2 small cars" or "You can get a bigger van but only if you PAY for it when you arrive" (even though I had already paid!!), we FINALLY got a car to fit us all. It ended up being a FULL SIZED 15 passenger Van:



I was furious at first, but in the end it was actually nice to have a huge vehicle that all 11 of us could be in together. We drove a lot and that added time we could all be together and the kids could bond with the grandparents.
Accommodations: This aspect of our trip was phenomenal! We had 3 condos reserved at Halii Kai at Waikoloa. 




Wes, the kids and I were in a three bedroom, three bathroom condo and each set of parents had a 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom. Here's a view from our balcony



My parents were directly below us and Wesley's parents were in another building. If I could have changed one thing, I would have had my in-laws in the same building or at least in a closer building. Other than that, it was great. We DID run into a few problems with our room key code not working and a few other things, but the staff was SO helpful and nice (even when they had to come back after hours to deal with our door not opening!). I loved it so much here that Wes and I are seriously considering whether we should save up for a few years and try to buy one of these condos! Location is great-the pool is fantastic and the condos themselves are just great! We absolutely loved it and will return!
So, now you know why I went, who I was with, where I stayed and how I got around. Activities and Food will need their own posts! Watch for those soon! :

In this post I asked you if you could identify where I took this picture:  In case you have been dying to know, it was taken on the Big Island of Hawai'i, at the end of Chain of Craters Road in Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park. In the picture above, the smoke/steam you can see coming off the land over the ocean is where the current lava flow is going into the ocean.
AND the Big Island is the next vacation location I will be writing about! Stay tuned so I can share all about my plans, what I actually did there, what I loved, and what I cannot wait to do next time-and all my favorite activities and foods there of course.

Just for fun, while you are waiting for my next travel posts, guess where I took the following picture:

If you have a guess as to where I was when I took this picture, feel free to comment with your guess below! I would love to hear the guesses! :) 

Clearly I am traveling like a boss this year! 
I have so much to share and I am so far behind! I have some New York thoughts as well as some ideas about Hawaii's Big Island. I promise those post will be coming out soon here. Right now I am between trips in this year of travel, and I am sitting at home while some work is being done here. It sounds like this might be the perfect time to catch up a few things on here between cleaning up, and having work done! So, look forward to some more travel thoughts from Beckee coming to my blog soon! 

Happy 7-11 Day!  My 3 oldest kids are away at camps, so the 2 littles and I just stopped over at 7-11 and got our FREE small Slurpees! YUM! You have until 7PM today to get yours so head over to your nearest 7-11 and get one! No purchase necessary! 

Wahoo! One of my favorite yearly freebies! Tomorrow is 7/11 so, 7-11 will be giving our free small Slurpees from 11am-7pm! YEAH!  Not sure where a 7-11 near you is? Look up locations on their page here.

Back in April, my husband had a continuing education conference in Southern Cal, so he and I went without our kids and made a vacation out of it. The conference was at the Hotel Del Coronado (one of my awesome top 5 worthwhile splurges) so we got to stay there and play! 
One of the days though, we decided to sneak away and do something we had never done before-go to Disneyland KID FREE! That's right, alone as adults at Disneyland! YEAH! 

Those of you that know me in real life probably know I am a huge Disney fan (HUGE) so this was awesome. However, one of my major pet peeves when I spend all day there is how quickly my cell phone dies. I want it to work all day for calls, texts, photos and even to play (the battery draining) Pokemon Go if I feel so inclined. But it doesn't. And even when I bring several of my good portable chargers, the phone still only lasts until maybe early evening at the longest. Especially when my husband and I are sharing portable chargers. 
But guys! Disneyland has now installed these amazing machines that solved my problem! FuelRod stations are portable charging stations. You purchase a fuelrod portable charger there for $30 at the park (or if you plan ahead-unlike our last minute trip, you can order one on their website for $20). 
They look like this: You just use the portable charger until it dies. Then take it to a charging station and exchange it for a brand new fully charged one.  There are several charging stations, I only used 2-one in Disneyland on main street near the lockers, and one in California Adventure near the photo shop. The only list of where they are that I can find is one posted by a great blog, The Disneyland Daily, that you can find here. (If you are looking for any Disneyland info, make sure to check out the Disneyland Daily blog while you are there. Lots of good stuff there-I read this blog but otherwise have no relationship with them-just a fan!)
You get unlimited exchanges! UNLIMITED! I LOVE IT!!!! Best new product in years and it took my Disney experience up a notch from AMAZING to PERFECTLY AMAZING! I literally cannot say enough good things about these Fuel Rods. I am just hoping these become even more popular so I can start exchanging all over the place! (Oh BTW-you can recharge them at home yourself and use them as you would any other portable charger as well. So, if you aren't near a charging exchange station, you can still get use out of them!)
Please FuelRod-expand out all over the country! Please! This product is great! 
Also, just so you know, this is a completely unsolicited opinion. I have no relationship with this company and was not asked to review or try these. I just simply tried and loved it so much that I HAD to tell you all about it. I hope using them can enhance your Disneyland experience as well. 

I posted on Sunday what my Tony award guesses. Wanna know how I did? I was interested to know so here we go. Below is my original info WITH the actual winners added: Play: Favorite: Sweat Who I think will win: Oslo  Who I think should win: Oslo (from all I have read it was a brilliant production) WINNER: Oslo  Musical: Favorite: Dear Evan Hansen Who I think will win: Dear Evan Hansen Who I think should win: Natasha Pierre and The Great Comet of 1812 WINNER: Dear Evan Hansen
Play Revival: Favorite: The Little Foxes Who I think will win: Six Degrees of Separation Who I think should win: Present Laughter (solely because I love Kevin Kline-LOL) WINNER: August Wilson’s Jitney
Musical Revival: Favorite: Hello, Dolly! (though several articles I read today are predicting that Falsettos may take it) Who I think will win: Hello, Dolly! (which is possibly my least favorite musical of all time) Who I think should win: Miss Saigon! (It was AMAZING!) WINNER: Hello, Dolly!
Leading Actor (play): Favorite: Kevin Kline for Present Laughter Who I think will win: Jefferson Mays for Oslo Who I think should win: ? I am not sure on this one.. WINNER:  Kevin Kline for Present Laughter Leading Actress (play): Favorite: Laura Linney for Little Foxes Who I think will win: Laura Linney for Little Foxes (blah) Who I think should win: Anyone else...(I don't get the obsession with her) WINNER: Laurie Metcalf, A Doll’s House, Part 2 (YES!!!) Leading Actor (musical): Favorite: Ben Platt for Dear Evan Hansen Who I think will win: Ben Platt for Dear Evan Hansen Who I think should win: This is a rich category this year-it is hard to say which one should win-frankly I am surprised Ben Platt is SUCH a favorite. WINNER: Ben Platt for Dear Evan Hansen Leading Actress (musical): Favorite: Bette Midler for Hello, Dolly! Who I think will win: Bette Midler for Hello, Dolly! Who I think should win: Hard to say-fame is clearly a factor here-3 uber famous talented women nominated-all three superstars, and 2 newer, less known talents. I saw both of the lesser known ones (Denee Benton in Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812, and Eva Noblezada in Miss Saigon). Both of their performances were worthy of this award in my opinion... WINNER: Bette Midler for Hello, Dolly!
Featured Actor (play): Favorite: Danny DeVito in Arthur Miller’s The Price Who I think will win: Danny DeVito in Arthur Miller’s The Price Who I think should win: ? WINNER: Michael Aronov, Oslo Featured Actress (play): Favorite: Cynthia Nixon in Lillian Hellman’s The Little Foxes Who I think will win:  Cynthia Nixon in Lillian Hellman’s The Little Foxes Who I think should win: ? WINNER: Cynthia Nixon in Lillian Hellman’s The Little Foxes Featured Actor (musical): Favorite:Andrew Rannells in Falsettos  Who I think will win: Mike Faist in Dear Evan Hansen Who I think should win: Lucas Steele in Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 WINNER: Gavin Creel, Hello, Dolly!
Featured Actress (musical): Favorite: Rachel Bay Jones in Dear Evan Hansen Who I think will win: Jenn Colella in Come From Away Who I think should win: ? WINNER: Rachel Bay Jones in Dear Evan Hansen Book of Musical: Favorite: Steven Levenson for Dear Evan Hansen Who I think will win: Dave Malloy for Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 Who I think should win: Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 or Dear Evan Hansen WINNER: Steven Levenson for Dear Evan Hansen
Score: Favorite: Benj Pasek & Justin Paul for Dear Evan Hansen Who I think will win: Benj Pasek & Justin Paul for Dear Evan Hansen Who I think should win: Dave Malloy for Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 WINNER: Benj Pasek & Justin Paul for Dear Evan Hansen
Scenic Design (play): Favorite: Nigel Hook for The Play That Goes Wrong Who I think will win: Nigel Hook for The Play That Goes Wrong Who I think should win: Nigel Hook for The Play That Goes Wrong WINNER: Nigel Hook for The Play That Goes Wrong
Scenic Design (musical): Favorite: Mimi Lien for Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 Who I think will win: Mimi Lien for Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 Who I think should win: Mimi Lien for Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 WINNER: Mimi Lien for Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812
Costume Design (play): Favorite: Jane Greenwood for Lillian Hellman’s The Little Foxes Who I think will win: Jane Greenwood for Lillian Hellman’s The Little Foxes Who I think should win: Jane Greenwood for Lillian Hellman’s The Little Foxes WINNER: Jane Greenwood for Lillian Hellman’s The Little Foxes
Costume Design (musical): Favorite: Paloma Young for Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 Who I think will win: Paloma Young for Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 Who I think should win: Paloma Young for Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 WINNER: Santo Loquasto, Hello, Dolly!
Lighting Design (play): Favorite: Donald Holder for Oslo Who I think will win: Donald Holder for Oslo Who I think should win: Donald Holder for Oslo WINNER:  Christopher Akerlind, Indecent
Lighting Design (musical): Favorite: Bradley King for Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 Who I think will win: Bradley King for Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 Who I think should win: Bradley King for Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 WINNER: Bradley King for Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812
Direction (play): Favorite: Daniel Sullivan for Lillian Hellman’s The Little Foxes Who I think will win: Daniel Sullivan for Lillian Hellman’s The Little Foxes Who I think should win: ?? WINNER: Rebecca Taichman, Indecent
Direction (musical): Favorite: Michael Greif for Dear Evan Hansen Who I think will win: Michael Greif for Dear Evan Hansen Who I think should win: Rachel Chavkin for Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 (I think it is worth mentioning that Matthew Warchus did an AMAZING job with Groundhog Day The Musical, and I don't think it should be discounted, particularly for this category-also, I hope it wins some sort of effects awards. The staging was AWESOME!) WINNER: Christopher Ashley, Come from Away
Choreography: Favorite: Andy Blankenbuehler for Bandstand Who I think will win: Sam Pinkleton for Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 Who I think should win: Sam Pinkleton for Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 WINNER: Andy Blankenbuehler for Bandstand
Orchestrations: Favorite: Dave Malloy for Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 Who I think will win: Dave Malloy for Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 Who I think should win: Dave Malloy for Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 WINNER: Alex Lacamoire, Dear Evan Hansen
I guessed a total of 11 categories correctly out of 24. So...I'm not sure what to say about that, but I can say that I thoroughly enjoyed watching the Tony's! It was a great show-fun to watch and totally fun for our family! And for anyone following at home, the whole family did predictions, and I guessed the most correct, followed by Armour who guessed 10/24 correctly.