Weekend on the Big Island of Hawaii

Our weekend started on a Friday morning/afternoon in November. We were supposed to catch a short flight on Mesa's GO Airlines from Honolulu to Hilo at 1115 in the morning and be vacationing in Hilo by noon. Things didn't go quite according to the script. There were problems with the plane and we didn't depart Honolulu until after 2:30 pm and by the time we got our rental car and departed Hilo for KMC, it was 3:30.
We had reservations at Kilauea Military Camp in Volcano National Park. Our plan was to drive from the airport, check in and still have time to see some of the park before dark. We stayed with the plan, however, by the time we were "seeing the park" it was 5 in the afternoon....about an hour before sunset. We drove down the chain of craters road to the ocean. The Park Ranger had told us that there was lava flowing but because of where it was happening, we would only maybe see the "glow" and not the "flow". Well, as it turned out, we didn't see either....but we did have a nice hike in the dark.
We made it back up to KMC just before they stopped serving at the canteen there. They had a decent buffet.
The accommodations at the camp are very nice. We were there with another couple and we had a 3 bedroom apartment. We found it somewhat odd how they had the beds arranged. In one bedroom there were two ful size beds and in the other two rooms there were two twin beds. Since neither our friends or me and Brenda wanted to play Ricky and Lucy, we moved one of the full size beds into one of the other bedrooms.
The next morning we got up early, grabbed a continental breakfast and headed south on Highway 11 toward Punalu'u. I will include reviews on the places we stopped on our trip around the island. We made a stop at the black sand beach at Punalu'u, a stop at south point, a stop at Ho'okena Beach to snorkel, a stop in Kainaliu at the Surfin Ass to get some "donkey balls",a stop in Kailua Kona at the Harbor House to eat dinner and a stop in Waimea to get coffee and take a picture of the Parker Ranch sign. By then it was too late to stop anywhere.

Quick Tips:

My best advice if you are only have a weekend to see the Big Island is to buy a copy of "Hawaii, the Big Island Revealed" by a guy named Doughty.
A GPS helps to find some of the tricky places.
With these two fantastic aids at our disposal, it enabled us to find places to eat in a hurry, and not waste a lot of time looking for the sights we really wanted to see.

Best Way To Get Around:

They don't call it the Big Island for nothing. The only way to really get around is to rent a car.

We found Ken's on Sunday morning when we were looking for a place to eat breakfast. We dug into the "Hawaii, the Big Island Revealed" book and there it was.
We arrived about 1000 and the parking lot was full. I drove around until someone left while the rest of our party (there was 4 of us) went in and got on the waiting list. Ken's is open 24/7 and is quite a popular place judging by the crowd.

We had a table in 10 minutes or so. The menu was quite extensive. They have most any breakfast food you can imagine...including the notorious "loco moco". Their pancakes were light and fluffy and they offered several different exotic syrups....mango, coconut,passion fruit, guava, bluberry....They also had dinner items on their menu....we'll try that next time. Even though they were slammed , the service was very good. I'm giving Ken's a 9.5 on a scale of 10.

This black sand beach is a must visit if you're planning a trip to the BIG Island. You can almost always see Hawksbill turtles there resting on the beach. Just walking in the black sand is a treat. It isn't every day that you get to sink your toes into black sand.
There are a couple little souvenir shops right on the beach. You can buy a t-shirt or a refreshing bottle of water. This beach is about halfway between South Point and Volcano National Park. You may as well plug it into your GPS because you will definitely want to see this.