'13 Day 2: Village Burger! (oh yeah... Waimea, Waipi'o Valley and Pu'ukohola Heiau)

After a day of not straying too far, we decided Friday would be one where we would venture out a bit more.  After walks/runs/good early morning stuff within Mauna Lani in the early morning, we set out on an eastern trek across the top part of the island mid-morning.

OK.  I know this is a vacation blog, and Hawaii is my favorite spot in the world and it should be all about the island.  But I have to take a mild detour here because I just do.  The kids thought it was silly that I said that on Friday I ate the best lunch that I have ever had - but I did.  And I want to share.

Waimea (I guess traditionally referred to as Kamuela) is a cool cowboy town, not like other parts of Hawaii, more like northern California with a combination of true cowboys and odd ducks, etc etc etc.  Waimea has character and this is well documented.  But Waimea also has "Village Burger".  And Village Burger served me the best hamburger, with the best parmesan fries, and the best vanilla-butterscotch milkshake I've ever had.  I can't believe I didn't take a picture - the shot to the right was Alex's sandwich, mine looked similar.  But it doesn't really matter because a photo would not do it justice.  It was great.

OK - best lunch ever behind us, we set out to complete our trek across the state by driving to the Waipi'o Valley.  We had tried to line up a horse-driven wagon ride to the basin of the valley but they were booked, so we decided to go anyway and see where our feet would take us.  They took us about halfway down the steepest, coolest road on Hawaii before the rain and our better sense said that we should head back up.  So those of you who have been on the basin floor, hiked around down there, etc. - save your comments, please.  We know we missed the best parts - but we got a great flavor for it and had a great time as a family going down, and then back up in the rain.

We made our way back across the island in time to indulge in our first Shave Ice of the trip (see tongues below for hints at flavors chosen by two of us).  We obsessed about this specialty in our last visit to the islands, and have been surprised at how hard it is to find in Kohala.  This will probably change when we spend time down in Kailua.  

Actually, before we hit the Shave Ice place we made it to to state park for the Pu'ukohola Heiau - a temple built by Kamehameha in the late 1700's.  Really cool visitor center, displays, trails - and the Heiau is impressive.  The history of these islands is amazing.

Back at our place, Suzy and I picked up take-out sushi from Monstera and the kids were more than satisfied with frozen pizza (though they did have a few california rolls - they weren't too keen on the nigiri) back in our condo before hitting the sack.