Waking up this morning felt a bit like a dream.  We have been talking about doing a vow renewal for YEARS, so it was crazy to think that it was over.

Once again, we had such a glorious morning, but I am starting to think I sound like a broken record.  Because, once again, we lounged around the house, took intermittent walks down to the beach and the hotel’s coffee shop, read, obsessed over one’s iPad (that would be Casey) and relaxed.

Dan did get back in the water pretty early this morning fueled by his new octopus obsession.  He said the snorkeling was great, but no dice on the cool sea creatures.

Around 11:45, the kids and I loaded up the car and headed north.  We stopped in my favorite adorable little mountain town, Waimea, that sits on the side of the Kohala Mountain, where it looks like Montana and Ireland had a baby in the middle of the Pacific. The Lilikoi Cafe is a local spot known for great salads.  Unfortunately,we had to rush through our meal because they ‘lost’ our order.  Not sure how that happened within the span of 15 minutes but here, you are on island time and you just have to roll with it.  The food was still really good at least!

We then traversed up the mountain in our trusty SUV; there were a lot of twists and turns in addition to it being windy up on that mountain (like it always is) but Casey managed to do ok sitting in the front seat.  We arrived at Paniolo Adventures in time to get set up on our horses for a one hour ride through probably, the most beautiful countryside I have ever ever seen.   Casey’s horse, Guava, was a little slow and at one point just turned around to start heading back to the barn but Gary, our guide got Guava going in the right direction again.

Ponoholo Ranch is 11,000 acre cattle ranch sits atop Kohala Mountain and apparently straddles three separate climate zones, all the way from the rain forest down to the ocean. Panoholo is one of several large cattle ranches on this side of the island, where the land is perfect for raising cattle.  Paniolo Adventures leases the rights to give guided tours on their land.

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We made the obligatory stop at the one (that I know of) McDonald’s on the island, due to a weak moment that included a promise to a little girl for cheeseburger and fries, and then descended back down the mountain toward our house. I was eager to get home because frankly, we were all tired and we were anticipating a potentially late night for Dan and me.  We were scheduled (or so I thought) to see Manta Rays over at the Mauna Kea Resort but we somehow figured out right before that I had originally scheduled that excursion for Friday night.

Dan was a bit bummed so I had to quickly remind him to be patient, that good things come to those who wait (And boy, were they worth the wait…yes, that is foreshadowing!) We instead all gathered on the couch for a good old fashioned family movie time with Despicable Me 1. It was actually a wonderfully relaxing way to end the day!