Spring Break in Hawaii

For spring break, we spent the week in Hawaii taking a break from our normal school routine and getting scuba certified! The Padi Open Water Certification was challenging and exhausting, but also incredibly rewarding. After weeks of PADI focused schoolwork and three intensive days of diving, we all earned our PADI Open Water Certification!

Amazingly, our time back in Hawaii for spring break also lined up with my mother’s spring break at the school she teaches at! She was able to come spend the week with me in Hawaii. Our time together was so special. Hawaii is my mom’s favorite place, and we had always talked about going to Hawaii together. This was a dream come true!

After working all week on scuba certification, mom and I took a mini no-work spring break weekend to enjoy Hawai’i Island. On Saturday, we visited Punalu’u black sand beach, Punalu’u bake shop (aka the “southernmost bakery in the USA”), and Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park. Unfortunately, we did not see any sea turtles at Punalu’u beach. We did see several Nēnē, which was a first for mom and me! Mom had visited Volcanoes National Park before I was born, and enjoyed seeing the differences caused by the most recent set of eruptions. The weather was perfect for hiking around the volcanoes. We loved walking through the sulphur banks, along the crater rim trail to the south rim of Keanakāko‘i Crater, driving down Chain of Craters Road to the sea arch, and hiking to the Pu’u Loa Petroglyphs. We had an unforgettable day that is going to be a great memory forever.

On Sunday, we originally were going to go whale watching. The whale watching boat ended up not able to sail due to high surf, so we did one of my mom’s favorite activities, and hung out at the beach. We sunbathed, talked, and listened to the waves crashing along the shore. We ate lunch at my favorite local restaurant, Kona Brewing Co. After lunch, we went down to Ali’i drive in Kona and walked through the St. Patrick’s Day market. Mid-afternoon, I took mom to the airport for her flight back to the mainland.

Unfortunately, mom’s flight was unable to take off on Sunday due to a lightbulb issue on the outside of the plane. Fortunately, I was able to drive down to the airport to get her so that she could stay with us one more night before flying out on Monday morning. It was a huge hassle for Mom and the other passengers, and as of yet there has been no action taken to compensate the passengers from American Airlines. I was glad to get to spend the extra night with mom, even if it was under less than ideal circumstances.

I will be forever glad my mom and I got to share a week of this adventure together.

Our spring break ended with packing to get ready for the final leg of our adventure – Asia.

Next stop, Japan!