Elizabeth Weintraub • Sacramento Short Sale Agent • Land Park

You might wonder how I can say The Palms Cliff House Inn is the best bed and breakfast in Hilo, Hawaii, when it's the only bed and breakfast I have stayed at, but it's not just my opinion. The Palms Cliff House Inn was voted the best bed and breakfast in Hilo by readers of the Hawaiian Tribune-Herald for 2010.

This view is from room #5 on the second floor. There are only 8 rooms, four on each floor.

This is the view of the front of the home. It is owned by John and Michelle Gamble who moved to Honomu 10 years ago. John said they were on vacation from Denver and were not intending to buy a home in Hawaii. But they stumbled across this Victorian and fell in love. So, they bought it and built the bed and breakfast quarters attached by a veranda. It sits way back from the road and is located only 15 minutes from Hilo, yet miles away from civilization.

This is the view from our room, #5. Each room is different but similar in size, very spacious. Our room has granite, a large walk-in shower and a separate jacuzzi overlooking the ocean. Much of the furniture and beds are antiques. It's simply beautiful and relaxing.

My husband shot this photo of me posting a blog on ActiveRain. The Palms Cliff House Inn has WiFi but unfortunately none in any of the rooms. There is a guest Lanai and the enormous dining deck where WiFi is accessible. However, I also used my iPad in my room and switched to 3G. The breakfasts, btw, are fabulous -- sweet papaya and island pineapple, homemade muffins, french toast with taro, bacon and broccoli quiche, chicken and apple sausages, fresh-squeezed juices. I gained 3 pounds this week.

This is our private balcony off of our room. I searched the Internet for hours to find The Palms Cliff House Inn. I poured over Hawaiian hotels in Hilo and none compared to The Palms Cliff House Inn. Our own travel agent didn't have this property on his offerings, but he does now. If you're headed to the Big Island for a vacation, you will definitely enjoy an unforgettable experience at The Palms Cliff House Inn. It's magical.

It's located close to the following attractions:

Hawaii Volcanoes National Park

Chain of Craters Road

Akaka Waterfalls

Honolii Paka Beach

Helicopter Tour of Lava and Hilo

Rainbow Falls, Mauna Kea and Waipio Valley

Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden in Hilo

Photos: Elizabeth Weintraub

This is the view of Kilauea Crater and the Halema'uma'u Crater -- it's like a crater within a crater -- from the Thomas A. Jaggar Museum in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. It sort of looks like Mars, don't you think? This is where the Hawaiian goddess Pele (goddess of fire) lives.

This is the trail above the fountain of Kilauea Iki, which last erupted in 1959. The splatter from the cone devastated this area so all that you see in this photo is new since then. That means this entire rainforest is younger than I am.

I don't know what this flower is but it was interesting enough that I stopped to take a photo of it. I love the beauty of tropical flowers; it's like they were painted by hand.

It's about two miles from the entrance to the Kilauea Iki trail to the bottom of the lake. We took the hike counter clockwise so the hardest part was going down instead of going up. The hill that you see behind me is the fountain of Kilauea Iki. It didn't exist prior to 1959.

This is the head of a new fern. I like these because they remind me of musical notes. In the state of Maine, people eat these as they are known as fiddleheads from the fiddlehead ferns, and they really quite tasty.

An overview of the lava lake, Kilauea Iki, and Kilauea in the background giving off steam. This is the youngest volcano in Hawaii and still active. Another cinder and splatter cone, Pu u O o, began erupting in 1983 and continues today.

Photos: Elizabeth Weintraub

I can't say I've ever seen a rainbow that formed a complete arch from one end of land to the other. I suppose it could have something to do with the latitude and being located just south of the Tropic of Cancer, though. I mean, haven't all the rainbows you've seen sort of formed in the sky on one end and the bottom was on land?

Near the end of the Chain of Craters Road is this impressive arch. It's called the Holei Sea Arch and it stands 90-feet tall. Eventually, it will collapse as waves continue to erode the arch. New land created by lava flows sometimes break off and fall away into the sea.

All along Chain of Craters Road are markers indicating the year of lava flow, which has crossed the road several times. This is the Kealakomo overlook near the hairpin turn in the road. You can see the steam rising. Part of this road is almost impossible to navigate due to steam, sulfur and moisture blanketing the road. Everywhere you look it's gray, and you can't see two feet in front of you. And chilly.

Along the ocean at the bottom of the Chain of Craters Road is a portion of land that appears to have been spared from the lava flows. A cluster of palm trees line the shore. Although, I don't know if this is an area where I would want to build a house, if you know what I mean, jelly bean.

At another viewing area are the petroglyphs, carvings into the lava rock by ancient Hawaiians. The various drawings at Pu'u Loa depict life on the island and consist of circles, which are supposedly the burial grounds for newborn umbilical chords, and stick-like figures of people, canoes, food. About a mile off the road is a man-made boardwalk, which provides a viewing area for visitors to walk around the petroglyphs.

Here is the end of the Chain of Craters Road. The last lava flow from 2003 completely covered the road and sealed it off. You can walk another 1/2 mile or so on top of the lava bed, but the land is unstable from that point forward. On the other side is another road accessible further up in the park where sometimes you can see hot lava, but it wasn't flowing for us. What I find amazing is how quickly vegetation will grow in the lava. Well, it's how Hawaii was formed.

Photos: Elizabeth Weintraub

While I love the sounds of nature as much as the next guy, after spending a few nights sleeping next to the ocean in Hilo, Hawaii, I can understand why some of the natives would like to eradicate tree frogs. These tiny little guys never shut up. Especially when it's raining, they yakkety-yak all night long, sending out a mating call. Hey, there doesn't need to be MORE of them. I want to scream: No sex for you! Like a tree frog nazi.

It's about a 15-minute trip from our bed and breakfast into Hilo, which is our closest source of food around here. We make the trip at least twice a day. Once to get to our destination, which invariably means driving through Hilo, and again at night for dinner. So, I can't count the number of times I've passed the Alae Cemetery and marveled at its beauty. You know how most cemeteries have flowers on graves only here and there? The Alae Cemetery has flowers on many, many graves. I made my husband pull over in traffic so I could shoot this photo for you.

Myrl Jeffcoats told me I needed to visit Akaka Falls, and I always take Myrl up on her excellent suggestions. There is so much to see and do on the eastern side of the Big Island. This site is also a state park in Hawaii. And there are actually two sets of falls, an upper and a lower. This is a photo of the upper falls. As with most hikes involving waterfalls, what goes down must come up, but it's only about a half mile so I wasn't griping too much about the up part.

This tree is cut down near the base of Akaka Falls. I liked the composition of the scene. At first, I started to count the rings of the tree. I don't know if it's true or not but I remember some teacher from grade school telling me that you can tell the age of a tree by counting the number of rings, and each ring indicates one year in the lifespan of the tree. But then another authority said it also depends on how far apart the rings are spaced, so I don't really know. Ask me about Sacramento short sales, not tree rings. I'm a real estate agent, not a botanist.

The photo below is of one of Obama's planes. I guess they could not store all of his planes on Oahu, so they brought one of them to Hawaii. The Hilo airport had guards posted all over this end of the airport. They just closed down a good part of it and roped it off. The guards yelled at me when I slipped off the curb and my feet touched the street. Very protective of the plane, but that's probably a good thing. So, this is the closest I could get to shoot a picture of it. Hey, what were you expecting? Obama himself? I wish.

Photos: Elizabeth Weintraub

If I were 30 years younger, I could spend every day at this beach. What looks like a one-way road is actually two-lane access to the beach. It's a Peter, Paul and Mary kind of beach. Honolii Paka Beach. You go there basically for one thing. That thing is to surf, and surfers are pretty serious dudes.

Overheard conversation -- Surfer Dude 1: Brotha, what did you do yesterday? Surfer Dude 2: What was yesterday? Oh, yah, Thursday; dunno. I slept all day Wednesday.

It was really warm and very sunny at Honolii. I swear, the surfers are fanatics about showering. They stand under the shower head for a long time rinsing. Makes me wonder what's in the water or if they're in the water for so long they don't know when to turn off the shower handle.

My husband calls this guy the one-armed surfer because he makes surfing seem so effortless, like taking a walk in the park. Or in this case, a walk on the water.

I shot this photo for the simplicity of it. During our vacation, I have been sending cellphone photos to my sister in Minnesota, where it's snowing and freezing. Not to rub it in but because she asked me to. But then she complained that my captions were not lengthy enough. Hello? Picture? 1000 words?

This looks like so much fun. If I wasn't concerned that I might break a hip or maybe slam my head into the ground and break it open, I might take up surfing.

Now that my husband isn't around, hey, gotta say, ladies, hubba hubba. Yeah, if I happened to be 30 years younger and single, let me tell you.

Photos: Elizabeth Weintraub

The best way to tour the lava fields and Kilauea is by helicopter. The main reason a helicopter works so well is because there is no other way to get there apart from being beamed there, and I didn't see any Starship Enterprise nearby. This is an active crater, Pu`u Oo.

The streak of red that you see is a red hot lava flow. Yeah, some volcanoes on the Big Island are active. If you look very closely, you can see faces in the lava. Lava comes in many colors, from gray like this photo, to reddish brown and black.

I believe the helicopter pilot Joyce said this was a macadamia farm, but I could be wrong. This was about the time that somebody in the helicopter developed motion sickness and was glad to have a bag handy. I'm not supposed to tell you who that person is except to say it wasn't me.

Here is where the lava meets the sea. You can see the slightly lighter shade of blue of water, and below that surface is the new land created by the lava. Sometimes, these shelves break off and float away. I am betting at low tide though you can see the new land. It's how all of Hawaii was created. All of the islands are made out of lava.

Here you can see houses built on top of lava. Now, I don't care what you say about Californians who build homes on fault lines because these people seem to have it worse. Not only did lava burn down their existing homes, but 2 years later, after they rebuilt, lava flowed through and burned them down again. At some point, don't you think a Hawaiian would say, "Hey, maybe I should build somewhere else?" Insurance rates have got to be very high in this neighborhood. The people who have it worse are those whose homes were spared and did not burn down -- they can't get to them because there are no roads anymore. Think about that!

This is a nice aerial view of Hilo and Hilo bayfront. The bayfront is where you will find many of the hotels. Maybe the nicest is the Hilo Hawaiian if you don't mind horrible $40 buffets and screaming children runningamuck. I'm glad we opted not to stay there.

And yes, here I am sneaking behind Santa's back to show off my new helicopter hairdo. It will soon be all the rage among other Sacramento short sale agents. Merry Christmas, Everybody.

Photos: Elizabeth Weintraub

When I was born, Hawaii was not yet a state. I was in first grade when Alaska became a state, followed 7 months later by Hawaii. It was the coolest thing ever, two new stars added to our flag! I thought that every year we would add new states, as I was way too young to understand how long it had been since any state was added to the Union. Before Alaska, Arizona was the last state, and Arizona joined the union on Valentine's Day in 1912. That means in the last 100 years, give or take, we've added only 3 states to the Union, yet the last state to join was more than 50 years ago.

Oh, the photo above, that is Rainbow Falls off the Saddleback Road on the Big Island. You can see the rainbow in the lower right on the rock.

This is another state park outside of Hilo called Boiling Pots. I think at certain times, the pools of water that you can see will bubble but they weren't bubbling when we were there early morning. It was sunny, warm and beautiful. Whomever says that it rains all the time in Hilo must be talking about some other time of year. Sure, it rains daily but it rains in Kauai, too, and you don't hear anybody complaining about that.

There is a visitor's center located about 6 miles up this road. We never made it all the way to the summit because it was raining, foggy and the guy at the Visitor's Center said even with 4-wheel drive it would be dangerous. He said the last tourist who got stuck up there had to pay $1,400 to get his car towed. The top of the mountain is almost 14,000 feet from sea level; from the ocean floor it's over 33,000 feet, making Mauna Kea the tallest mountain in the world. It snows on the cap of Mauna Kea, and I spotted blotches of snow along the way. Snow. In Hawaii.

OK, by the time we reached this scenic spot at Waipio Valley, it had begun to rain and the fog blanketed the shore. This is a sacred spot, and you're not supposed to go down there except by invitation. The road from Mauna Kea to Waipio led us through lush forested canopies and past cattle plantations. If it hadn't been raining and impossible to shoot the shot because there was no place to pull over, I would have jumped out of the car to show you the road. At one spot, you could see the rolling blacktop made up 8 hills, way off in the distance, up and down and up and down. In another a triple set of S turns.

Another interesting tidbit, the guy for whom the Douglas Fir was named, this botanist Douglas, lived in the region when it was overrun by wild cows. The cows were mean, not like today's cows. He was walking along the road when he fell into a pit designed to trap cows. Fortunately, he survived the fall. But so did this bull, and the bull gored him to death. True story.

Photos: Elizabeth Weintraub

This is the view from my balcony. I told my husband I could stare at this view for the rest of my life, and he looked at me like I was nuts. What can I say? He is just not an island guy. Although, he did mention that there is a reporter job position open at a small paper on Kauai that probably pays all of $28,000 a year, so there is still hope.

No city anywhere in the world is compete without being home to a farmer's market. This is the farmer's market in Hilo. Good thing there are tents everywhere because this is the wet side of the Big Island, and it definitely rains a lot. My neighbors behind my home in Land Park in Sacramento grow those red thingies.

We took off down this tiny, curvy road that used to be the main highway. It's hardly big enough for two cows to pass each other. A few miles in is where you will find the Botanical Gardens in Hilo. It was built by this guy from San Francisco who spent 8 years clearing up the rotting debris to bring into life such a joyful creation. Where have you ever seen like a flower like this fragile white dancer above?

This is very similar to the California Bird of Paradise, but it's not. It's like an orchestra. The percussion section. We arrived at the Botanical Gardens about 45 minutes before closing. My husband almost didn't buy a ticket because it takes at least 90 minutes or so to view the entire grounds. I felt I could get enough enjoyment from 45 minutes, especially since the possibility exists that because there is so much to do in the Hilo area of the Big Island, we might not come back. And I didn't want to take the chance that we would never see this garden.

The Hyatt hotel has me on record with my profile showing that orchids are my favorite flower. They are very Georgia O'Keefe, if a painter can ever be used as a metaphor for a flower and not the other way around. Orchids are the most beautiful flower in the world. Aloha.

photos: Elizabeth Weintraub

Oh, it was a glorious morning, yesterday morning. No rain, quick trip to the airport, no problems through security. Sat down in the first row as the flight attendant brought us our choice of champagne or guava juice. The plane pulled away from the gate right on time at 9:25 AM. Taxied a bit. Then the Captain made the announcement we were returning to the gate. Something about an emergency light.

They tried to fix it. We sat at the Sacramento airport for another 4 hours. No can do, they said. It required a part. So, the soonest Hawaiian Airlines could get another 767 into Sacramento would be at midnight.

We tired of listening to old men hack and babies bellow. Seemed a better idea to go home and maybe do take-out for dinner. My husband came home from The Iron Grill with half of our order. They forgot to give him the other half.

Back to the airport at midnight and boarded our plane. In the rain. Of course, they were not able to give us seat assignments on our connecting flight to Hilo. I know why because I had already called Hawaiian Airlines earlier in the day. What you get for this delay is a $300 voucher, good for 12 months only on another Hawaiian Airlines flight, but they cannot put a First Class passenger into Coach. Seriously? Can you repeat that please?

Not to mention we are out one night at our hotel that will not be reimbursed.

But you know what? It's bound to get better. After all, we're in Hawaii now. Voted my best place in America to live.

We did stop at the Premier Club but they would not let us in with food in our hands, and we were starving. I know the frustations of life, though. I am a Sacramento short sale agent.

Photo: Broken Hawaiian Airline plane at Sacramento International Airport, Elizabeth Weintraub

Eureka! I received two more Bank of America short sale approval letters yesterday. Of course I did, because it's just before Christmas, and I'm going to Hawaii today. That's all it takes! Seems to be the law of the universe.

One of the short sales is in Elk Grove, and we're closing on December 30th. How are we closing in 10 days? Because I gave the buyer's agent a heads up that the approval letter was coming two weeks ago, and that buyer listened. That buyer started her loan and ordered the appraisal. That buyer will be in her new home before New Year's Eve.

The other short sale is in Sacramento, and we're still waiting for the second lender letter. That approval letter will undoubtedly come while I am on the Big Island. But I've got my iPad and my BlackBerry, so I'm set. I've got a great support system in Sacramento. The pros I work with are the reason I can even consider going on vacation. Otherwise, this Sacramento short sale agent would be chained to her desk. But I'm a free dog.

And don't worry. Pia has her catsitter for company while we're gone. She's tumor cat. Well, she's tumorless cat now. Because the biopsy results after her surgery last week showed all the surrounding cells are clear, which is good. However, she was so miserable in her cone that we tracked down an inflatable collar for her, and she seems to be much happier. Although you probably do not sense her elation from that photo.

Aloha!

Photo: Elizabeth Weintraub