Day 7: On to the Big Island

We bid a sad farewell to Maui today. We were only there a week, but we fell in love. It was a short flight to the big island of Hawaii, which has an even smaller airport than Maui. Coming in on the plane, we could see that the the entire airport is surrounded by and built on lava rock. We had heard that this island was newer than the others, and it's really apparent that there has not been time for erosion. While Maui had normal-looking soil, Hawaii has huge chunks of lava everywhere.

We really enjoyed having a condo while we were in Maui, and we got a lot of use from the kitchen and the washer/dryer. And yet, although the condo was nice, staying at a plush hotel is a different kind of sweet. It's actually a treat to be forced to eat every meal out, at least for a little while. We had reserved a room at the Sheraton for this part of our trip, mostly based on reviews on tripadvisor.com. As soon as we got here, we saw why it was rated so highly. The hotel is elegant and graceful, and it doesn't seem nearly as big as we expected. The landscaping is beautiful, and of course the view of the coast is incredible. It's a nice change to be at a resort. When we were checking in, the woman confirmed that we had reserved a partial ocean view room. Bill commented that if she wanted to upgrade us to a full ocean view at no extra charge, we wouldn't complain. Without a word, she upgraded us to a more deluxe room. Sweet!

The room we got is spacious, comfortable, and has a really nice bed (one of Sheraton's selling points.) In addition to having a beautiful ocean view from a very large balcony, we also have a private lanai that we walk through to get to our door. This private front patio has gorgeous views of the garden, grounds, and mountains in the distance. I have never stayed in any hotel room that included private outside areas on both sides of the room, but I could get used to this. Here is part of the view from our front lanai:

After swimming in the pool at the resort, which wraps around the buildings and includes a lava rock waterfall and a huge slide, we got a recommendation for dinner. We went to a place called Keei Cafe. It was easy to see why the restaurant was so highly regarded. The decor was classy and understated, and the food was fresh and inventive. It looked like about half the people there were locals, and the fish was delicious. We took our waiter's suggestion for all courses, and were not disappointed. They don't take credit cards, so we had to get cash on the way. But yum! It was the best food so far, with the exception of Roy's in Kihei.

Of course, there was a beautiful sunset over the water, which we are becoming accustomed to. I realize that we have sunsets over the water all the time at home, but they have more clouds here, which makes for a more spectacular sunset. Tomorrow is our dolphin swim, which is the whole reason we came to the big island.

Aloha!