Our Big Island Hawaii Family Vacation | Day Three

On our third day, we got an early start from our cabin because there was a lot we wanted to see. We made our way towards Hilo and drove through Banyan Drive, which is a long street lined with huge, beautiful Banyan trees. We stopped at the end and explored this little botanical garden. The kids had fun looking for fish and crossing over the bridges. 

We moved on to the center of Hilo for lunch and randomly picked a place that contained sushi, Thai and ice cream in the same room – all with great reviews (thanks again, Yelp). I got some sushi from Dragon Sushi and shared it with the kids, while Brandon ordered his usual 10 out of 10 spicy pad Thai. We got the kids ice cream and split a Filipino desert called halo-halo, which is shaved ice and evaporated milk and includes other ingredients such as boiled sweet beans, coconut, sago, gulaman (agar jelly), tubers and fruits. 

​We drove towards the SE part of the island to a place called Ahalanui Beach Park, which has a natural volcanically heated spring. It was a toasty 90 degrees and we loved swimming there. It was great for the kids because they were not freaking out over cold water. I wish I would have packed some type of floaties for them though. 

​We wanted to bike to the lava flow and see it around sunset so we made sure to head out to the end of the 130 road by 4PM to secure bikes and a trailer for the kids.  We started out on our 4-mile journey, the kids happily packed with a large bag of Cheetos, and made it in about 25 minutes. Wooo. B was such a trooper pulling the kids’ trailer on his bike (I think the last time I rode a bike was in college). The area around the lava flow is awesome, and the fact that you can see this bright red lava flowing into the ocean is unbelievable. We spent quite a while there, and even had dinner on the rocks as the sun was setting. This sounds quite peaceful, but we were chasing the kids around half the time trying to make sure they didn’t jump and slip off a rock and hurt themselves… It got chilly and windy as the sun set so we made our way back. Biking against the wind is tough and it took us about 35 minutes to get back – you only have the light of these tiny flashlights on the front of your bike, and some lights of other people passing by, and the road is all gravel. I have no idea how, but the kids stayed awake the entire ride back to the cabin, where we all warmed up by the fire and then passed out. 

Kaitlin's face cracks me up so much here, I had to post this.