Morning drive...

Our first morning in Waikoloa, Andy was up early (well, we both were) and out the door to get us Starbucks (there was one about 4 minutes away - score!) while I snuck in a few more episodes of "House of Cards." Upon his return he exclaimed "We've got to go for a drive! I just took the top off the jeep and it's beautiful out!" This was music to my ears after a sort of cloudy and drizzly first day. 

He wasn't joking - it was beautiful out. We had no idea how awesome the island was since it really had been foggy and cloudy on drive from the airport to our resort the day before. Wow! My head felt like it was on a swivel looking to the right and seeing the volcanoes and to the left and seeing the ocean - and then looking up at the absolutely clear blue sky. Our island is known for having 11 of the 13 ecosystems, so as you'd drive you'd go from nothing but lava rocks, to gorgeous foliage, and so on. 

We didn't really have a destination, just enjoyed the drive and the view. We pulled over a few times, once to check out a public beach. It was awesome, even though the sun hadn't quite hit it yet. The sign as we entered the beach area sure caught my attention though - yikes!

We also found a great place to pull over where we had a wide view of the ocean (and the whales for that matter) and we had good cell service so we did Face Time with Adam. He loved getting to see the views and see the Jeep. A memorable first morning for sure - and we knew at the time that this would be one of the things we'd remember most about our trip. 

After that it was back to our condo for some homemade eggs before hitting the pool and enjoying our first poolside cocktails - oh yeah, vacation mode had officially sunk in!