Day TWO: 44 mile Road Ride

Today we got up, got on our bikes and headed out on a ride while deep in conversation.

Our plan was a pretty simple out and back route. However, we didn't quite know how far it was. We did know that the first state park on the route was about 10 miles out. We wanted to go a little further than that, and 25 mile creek state park was a little further on the map, a good 30 mile bike ride sounded great.

At about 15 miles we came across Kelly's resort, which looked like a house. How could this be a resort? We only stopped for a second, and found out that the park was 6 more miles. Hey, thats not so far! We also noted that Kelly's had a little store. The ride out to the park was mostly downhill, but there was so much wind that it was the hardest downhill ride ever! It took so much energy just to go 17 miles an hour.

Because we were going so slow it felt like it took a very long time to get down to 25 Mile Creek state park. The power of the wind blowing across the lake was amazing. We stopped for a rest and a snack, with our backs to the dock wall and the wind blowing in our hair. It took a while to gather our courage to start back up the hill. I should probably explain that although it was mostly uphill there were a lot of small rolling down hill and flat sections too. The most amazing thing was again the wind; the ride UP the hill, seemed easier than coming down. I have to say, the ride up was certainly the most fun I've had on a climb in a long time!

We had a lunch of cheese, crackers and lunchmeat at the Kelly's resort store, and learned all about the resort, their cabins and had a delightful time talking with the staff. Thanks for lunch Kelly's!!

Day ONE: Mountain Biking

After checking into our hotel we immediately began researching rides and found a little bike store in town where we could get some maps.


Researching for this trip on the internet has been hampered by a lack of detail. I was confused by this until I arrived, and started talking with the people who live and work here. Pretty much everyone gives directions just like these websites: "cross the bridge and turn right, you can't miss it"


yeah... I could.


We ended up heading to a bike store to get some maps of the area, and then going mountain biking. It was my first time mountain biking, and the sun was about to go down... so we didn't stay out very long, but it was FUN! So FUN!

Adventure 2008 -- Chelan

Its been about a year since our adventure in Hawaii, and I haven't blogged nearly as much as I wish... but oh well.


This weekend, Mom and I are in chelan for our anual adventure.


We left this morning with 4 bikes on (and in) the car and headed away from the rain to Chelan.

Around lunch we took a gorgeous detour over to Elensburg, thanks to our awesome GPS navigational computer. We headed around this beautiful valley, where it was very windy and tumbleweeds were blowing across the highway. I took a picture of one... but its a little hard to see them.



The valley was totally amazing. At a little lookout, we stopped at a lookout and took a few pictures. It was way more windy than we expected.





See... mom's hair is blowing around like crazy!!

Bike to work month -- Day 1

Its MAY! already... and may is bike to work month.

I'm on one of 8 Nordstrom teams, which is pretty cool, but a little intimdating too. I road IN to work for the first time today. Last fall I would ride the bus in, with the bike on the front and then ride my bike home.

So - riding in today -- the weather was GORGEOUS! only slightly windy, not too cold; totally perfect.

I did have some mechanical issues today, which slowed me down some -- hopefully tomorrow will be better.

Coffee anyone?

Thursday: Coffee farms in Kona
The people in Kona are very proud of their coffee.
Our ride started out on a quiet local road, where we passed coffee farms, and gorgeous flowers in peoples gardens.

I stopped and took pictures of this trumpet flower tree by the side of the road. All of the flowers are amazing, I had a hard time not stopping every few feet to take pictures.

We stopped part-way through our morning ride and took a tour of a coffee plantation / factory.
The guide showed us the bushes, berries, and the machines that sorted and peeled the coffee berries.
This next picture is of the little shop with everyone standing around tasting the 10 different kinds of coffee. We picked up a bit of coffee and also some of the other local products.


We left the coffee plantation and headed to Pu'uhonua O Honaunau - The Ancient "City of Refuge" -- which was a whole history lesson in itself!


The beach here was completely amazing -- The dirt road ended at a white coral sand beach which was behind a lava rock shore.
I took some pictures of mom with her bike on the lava rock. It was really odd to have the sand behind the rocks.

~ Abi

Volcano National Park

Wednesday: VOLCANOES!!

This morning we had breakfast at the "Volcano House" at Volcano National Park. Unfortunately it was pouring down rain, and there were clouds completely obscuring the view. This building was built in the early 1900's and then re-built in the 1950's so that people could come and watch the Kilauea volcano erupt in safety! There are amazing pictures all around the lobby. While we were in Hilo, we picked up a second van and started traveling everywhere in caravan. I couldn't resist taking pictures of our vans in the parking lot. Of course they are still completely covered in bikes.

After breakfast, most of the group rode in the Van to a trail head, and hiked across the smaller of the two volcano craters. This was the Kilauea Iki crater - which about 50 years ago was a lake of lava. Walking across this was completely amazing. There are even steam vents puffing away around the crater, the stone was of course safe, and completely solid... but somehow the stones seemed a little warm. I was at the back of the group, so I took this picture of everyone walking across the lava in their rain coats. Fortunately, the fog lifted so we were able to see the crater a bit better! From above, the lava really looked like a lake. but once we were really down on the surface, it was very rough, and had big peaks mixed with some smooth parts.

After the hike, some of the group biked 8 miles around both craters, seeing some amazing sights -- and then ended up back at the lava house for lunch in the park.

After lunch, we had the most amazing bike ride of the whole trip. 30 miles down to the ocean. I say this was an amazing ride, because it was the straightest, fastest, easiest downhill I have ever ridden in my life! The road had a few slight turns, but it was nothing like the winding down hill rides we have done on other days. I could pedal in my highest gear and not touch my breaks for miles. Because of the rain, my spedometer stopped working at some point, so I'm not sure how fast we were going... but I'm sure it was at least 35 mph. The most amazing part was watching the elevation markers count down from 4000 feet all the way to sea level.

~Abi

Lava Fields and Rainforest.

Tuesday: Hilo, Kea'au and the Puna District

We stayed the night at a great little hotel on Banyan drive in Hilo. Apparently each of the giant banyan trees were planted by famous people.

I was really impressed by the view out the dining room window at breakfast. It was a lovely cove with bridges and landscaping. I couldn't resist taking a picture.

We took the van to Pahoa to start our ride. We started out with a pretty fun slight downhill all the way to the coast. In the middle of the hill, we stopped to see a famous "painted church" which had been moved out of the way of the lava flow in the mid 1980's. Across from the Church was a little factory making Noni juice from the Noni fruit. This fruit is known for its anti-oxidant properties -- but it tastes HORRIBLE!! the fruit is a super crazy looking blob --

this picture is one I took of mom taking pictures of the Noni fruit.





After leaving the Church and the Noni juice factory, We actually got to ride all the way down the road to where the lava flowed over it!

It was amazing to be riding down a tree lined road and suddenly come upon a hill of black lava!
This Lava is pretty new, but already trees and little plants are starting to grow out of the cracks. A little further down the road there were more views of the lava fields. I stopped to take pictures of the expanse of black lava, and also of plants growing out of cracks. I thought that this picture of a monkey fruit tree growing out of the lava was particularly incredible.

After the lava fields, our path turned up the hill again and headed back towards Pahoa. This ride was uphill, and very much in the rain forest. All the way up the hill, we were sprinkled with small showers. Because the day was quite warm and humid the showers felt really great. I was feeling really great riding today, so I decided to ride some extra miles before lunch. I was at the lunch spot before lunch was ready, so I jumped back on my bike and rode 4 miles north through Pahoa and out to where the main road hit the big highway and turned around and came back to the lunch spot at Lava Tree State Monument park. (Trees fossilized by lava)

After lunch was a challenging downhill ride from the park back down to the coast. This ride was particularly challenging because the fun sprinkling rain turned into jungle showers! At the bottom of the hill we arrived at Ahalanui Beach Park - this is a public park, which has a hotspring right on the edge of the ocean - so close to the ocean that waves splash in one end and cool the water off. Yeah, that means that some fish are in the spring, pretty fun!

~ ABI