I just returned from taking my wife and her now 90 year old mother for two weeks in Hawaii and want to take a minute and thank all of you who helped me plan the trip. The advice I received here, as in the past when we went to Europe, was right on and we had a great trip. Using the open-jaw concept that I learned from Rick we flew into Hilo and out of Honolulu and took short flights between Kona and Maui and Maui to Honolulu. We rented a car for every day we were here and as I'm sure most of you learned in Europe, you get to the back doors of Hawaii in the same way. If I can help anyone plan and execute a trip to Hawaii I will be happy to share how I planned it, places we stayed and things we did. One thing I should warn you about though. When I decided on Hawaii instead of another trip back to Europe one of the reasons I told my wife was "at least a dollar is worth a dollar in Hawaii instead of $.60 in Europe". Boy was I wrong. Since everything is shipped in the prices are much higher and paying $3.05 for gas in New Orleans seems like a bargin after paying $4.54 per gallon in over there. Haven't finished calculating just yet, but I'm thinking I could have gone to Europe for less.....maybe....but I wouldn't have been able to see a live volcano there. Thanks to everyone who helped.
Jim