After a rough day at the doggie ranch, pampered pooch Dolce recuperates on "Dad's" side of the bed. Meanwhile, her hardworking parents toil away in order to purchase her gourmet dog biscuits, nontoxic chew toys and time at the Grooming Spa. She ends the day with Ella and Victoria at the playground. She helps out in Scrabble with suggestions like "woof," "dog," "cat" and "nap."
So cute! She gets food, affection, praise from strangers, old and young alike. We went to Lowe's and were promptly informed that the lumber department has milk bones. People pour out their heart about their last dog that she reminds them of. Susan, the nice lady who runs the cafe downstairs, gives her soup, pieces of meat and coldcut. Nice life, huh?
I think her name is Keo. She is only 7 months old here. Swimming with dolphins is an incredible experience, well worth the wait and time spent. We decided if our kids get into Harvard, we will reward them with a dolphin swim!
The dolphin swimming lagoon is located at the Hilton, which we loved and wished we had stayed at. Typical for Hilton, well situated, top amenities and divine artwork. This is also where our friends Jesse & Rochelle got married. Here, Jeff is in front of bronze horse statues.
I am tucking in to a traditional Taiwanese shave ice - sweet azuki beans with mochi balls and topped with condensed sweetened milk. Yum!
One of our favorite food indulgences is shave ice and this is our favorite joint, popular with locals and tourists alike. We love it so much that we went to both outposts in one day. I love the ling hing mui (sour plum powder) honey syrup with lilikoi cream and condensed milk to top it off. This combination makes Jeff gag.
This scenery is typical of the Big Island - formed by lava meeting ocean. We were thrilled to be upgraded to an ocean view room at our hotel. 
Although we were only able to view the lava from a distance, it is still quite an amazing sight as it crashes into the ocean. Luckily, Jesse had the foresight to bring binoculars, so this doesn't even reflect what we could see then. A marvelous experience.
Jeff & Jesse having some guy time at the top of the mountain while we wait to view the incredible sunset.
The loco moco (hamburgers atop rice, topped with spam and gravy) comes in many versions here. Legend has it the loco moco was created in Hilo. We learned early on that food portions are huge in Hawaii, particularly joints like this.
Rochelle took us to get a bento for our trip up the mountain. This place is so popular that it often sells out of many items by 10:30 am on a Saturday. Here, although I am trying to hard to not blink and have eyes as big as Jeff's, I don't mind this goofy shot. The food was so yummy. You can pick items a la carte to create your own bento or go with one of their combos. I love the long rice. It's been around decades and only locals know about it, so we were thrilled to get in on the secret.
From L to R, Jesse (Jeff's college friend), Sue-King (a friend of Rochelle's also visiting that weekend from the "mainland"), Jeff, myself and Rochelle. This is one of the rare pics of all of us together. Jesse & Rochelle were so gracious in taking us all around - we hiked the falls, stopped at Ed's Bakery for homemade jam (lilikoi jam, my favorite), then went up to Haleakala that night, gaining thousands of feet in elevation in the same day.
Spam is the ever ubiquitous mystery meat still favored by locals. Oh, we love it so too. Here I am, too cheap to buy the pillow, but loved it enough to take a picture with it. There was one day that we ate Spam at three meals - fried up with eggs and taro bread french toast for breakfast, spam musubi for lunch and spam fried rice for dinner. Yum! Spam is a recurrent theme of our trip.
We were greeted in Hilo by Jesse and Rochelle with leis, who were so gracious and kind to us during our stay. Rochelle grew up in Hilo and was able to teach us about local history. This sign really cracked me up - it was posted at the downtown bus depot. Some things you can never plan for, such as lava flowing, which came to the surface a week before we headed to Hawaii. 
More pics to follow, but before I freeze to death at home in Seattle - we wanted to cherish and savor the highlights of our long awaited honeymoon. This picture is taken in Maui, en route to our hotel from the airport. Since we've been back over a week already, this will be a flashback. 
