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We did feel a little tiny bit guilty staying in a 2-bedroom duplex that could sleep up to 6... This is a shot of the second bedroom in our timeshare. An amazing place, despite the somewhat over-the-top decor.

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As mentioned, our place was a duplex - sad (or maybe scary) to think it was bigger than our apartment in LA. Here are the stairs heading up to the kitchen and greatroom.

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This is the greatroom of our the second floor of our timeshare.

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Our living room and dining room. The couch is a hide-a-bed, so we could sleep at least 6 in the timeshare.

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Our beautiful kitchen, and nice refrigerator. We were able to buy most of our breakfasts and luches. We even found Kosciusko mustard at the grocery store - who would have thought?

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We had patios on the ground floor and the second floor had a really nice one. Our next trip to the Big Island will be longer and with more people so we share all these amenities.

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Our room, with the big king size bed (we\'re used to a queen size bed). Owen is reading \'\'The Big Island Revealed,\'\' which is a wonderful guide for the island (we used \'\'Kauai Revealed\'\' when we went to that island).

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This is the site of the first church built in Hawaii, in Kona. The original one was destroyed, and this one was built in the mid 1800s.

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Another view of the church in Kona.

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This is a picture of the Hulihe\'e Palace, at the coast in Kona across the street from the first church. Princess Ruth, who is responsible for much of the wealth of the Hawaiian school system created to benefit the native Hawaiians. Princess Ruth was also quite tall, quite large, and refused to speak English- requiring a translator in spite of her fluency in the language. This Palace was damaged in the October 15, 2006 earthquake, is currently under repair, and the tours are limited pending full repairs.

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Just had to take this one - love the historic marker signs.

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Another fun Hawaiian sign - Watch for falling coconuts!

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The webcam of konaweb.com. Owen looked at the website a bit to learn about Kona before our trip. We tried calling Caitlin to take our picture through the webcam, but she was not available. So we called Seth at work...

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Seth went to the website, and took a screenshot of us on the webcam (that\'s Owen on the phone next to Jen on the lower part of the left picture). Seth put it perfectly in his email to us: \'\'You certainly one uped me. Calling me at the office to take a photo of you on vacation.\'\' Thanks Seth![line][line]On a side note, to answer the question \'\'What is Vog?\'\' (at the top of the webcam shot) - vog is the Hawaiian smog. The winds blow the smoke and other emissions from the Kilaeua volcano. It mixes with humidity, and instead of smog, it makes vog. It can have some slightly more nasty smells from the sulphur emissions.

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This is a close up of the seawall that was featured in the webcam picture. It\'s a good view of the swim part of the Ironman Triathalon, which is held in Kona.

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This is the other view of the webcam, and shows the start of the Ironman Triathalon (which is the swim part).

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Another view of Kailua-Kona bay and the start of the Ironman Triathalon (the town is officially known as Kailua-Kona, however often is referred to as Kona).

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This is a type of bird we saw throughout the islands. A striking red head, and very loud chirp.

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We did feel a little tiny bit guilty staying in a 2-bedroom duplex that could sleep up to 6... This is a shot of the second bedroom in our timeshare. An amazing place, despite the somewhat over-the-top decor.

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