Yesterday, we put our bags into the trunk of the renta-car, checked out of Kiahuna Plantation, voiced our regret at leaving Kaua'i and got on a plane to Oahu. We would soon be on another flight to the Kona airport on the Big Island.

As we approached the Kona airport, I could see immediately what one of my former co-workers was talking about: the Kona airport is built on a sea of black rocks. That entire area of the island is like this - piles of black rock stretching for miles, legacy of some past volcanic eruption.

It was warm out when we left the plane (from a rear door on the small plane, a first for us) and we made our way to the baggage claim. I had Jenny rub my crew-cutted head for good luck, and soon the bags started rolling out.

Much to our delight, all of our bags made it this time. We lugged them to the car rental and got our vehicle - a big old Ford Explorer.

The last time we traveled anywhere by plane before Hawaii, we had a really bad experience with Dollar Rent-a-car. They didn't have the car we had reserved (or any other for us, for that matter) and we had to wait there for hours with a lot of other very angry people. Finally I started hitting the other car rental agencies in the Tampa Airport until Hertz hooked us up with a convertible for not much more than we would have paid at Dollar. I was so impressed that I signed up for a gold #1 membership with Hertz before I rented the cars for the Hawaii trip.

I wasn't disappointed. They have a "Gold Members Board" that lists the reservations and their parking places. If your name is on the board, you just go to that space, get in the car and drive to the gate where they check your license and contract and you're on your way! When we pulled up to their office, sure enough, my name was up there so we proceeded to pull off the fastest car rental that I have ever engaged in. We were out of there in no time.

As we left the airport, we saw that lots of people had written messages in the black rock with white pebbles. I had to remember to keep my eyes on the road as it is a 55 MPH road where people can stop to turn left at any time - I had to brake pretty hard at one point to avoid such a situation when my eyes had been wandering.

The Mauna Kea is gorgeous. It is hands-down the ritziest hotel we have ever stayed at. We were greeted at the entrance by bellman who took our bags and (to Jenny's delight) draped leis around our heads. We checked in and the bellman who was bringing our bags up gave us a quick low-down on the resort and its facilities.

The Mauna Kea was built in 1965. It predates Hawaiian laws requiring hotels to be built a certain distance from the beach, so now it boasts the closest distance to the beach of any resort on the island. It is surrounded by golf courses to the East and ocean to the West. Neither of us are golfers, but we can certainly appreciate the acres of well-manicured grounds surrounding us.

There are two restaurants - one for casual dining and one that is more upscale. There is a store where you can buy clothes and trinkets and day-to-day items. There is a jewelry store, a fitness center, a laundromat and a salon. And everything here is very expensive. Like $50 for a tee-shirt expensive. They had some boogie-boards for sale with the "Mauna Kea" logo on them, I tilted one back and was shocked to see a price tag of $100. I think Jenny and I got a pair of these for $10 each, once, then left them at the vacation house we had stayed at in case anybody else wanted to use them. Fortunately, our hotel package comes with breakfast. Dinners are going to be interesting, entrees are $20-$30.

We're not sure what our prospects for dinner outside the resort are like. Things are spread very far apart here, although there is a small town nearby. We'll be taking a trip into it tonight.

We had fun laying out by the pool reading, today. There was not a cloud in the sky. If there had been a bar by the pool I would have ordered a drink.