Kona-Day 9

Today was a day for relaxing and bumming around. While reading on our lanai this fellow came to visit us. He stayed on the railing for a while watching us watching him.











This guy in the corner was walking all over our lanai, under the table we eat at, the couch, in front of the table I'm writing this on until he ended up in the corner.










And then this guy came along. He's wrapping band of metal around the tree.






















You can see the bands of metal and the "shoes" he's wearing as he climbs the tree.













He has a loop of rope around his middle along with his tool belt. He also has hanging from a rope a machete. He's up there hacking off the junkie parts of the tree and palms that are getting too heavy and making it difficult for the people in the unit (up and to the left of us) to have their $1million dollar view.

The long pods you see flower and then become coconuts and then fall on people's heads so he was cutting those down also. He throws the items down to the ground below-those pods sound very heavy. He was cutting so much we thought he was preparing the tree to be totally cut down. But he told your father that if he was going to cut down the tree he would have worn spikes.





And now this is what the tree looks like. Your father and I think the next door neighbors should have the same thing done to their trees and then maybe we'd have a better view of the sunsets.














The whole point of this trip was to celebrate (early I know but it's the only time both of our work schedules will work) 30 years of wedded bliss. We decided to eat at Brown's Beach House at the Fairmont Orchid Resort. Absolutely one of the best restaurant surroundings I have ever been to. You can just see the end of our table where we were seated. This is the hotel's beach-stunning. Unfortunately, the wind was at gale force toppling over water goblets at the tables behind us and whipping our menus right our of their sleeves. Dad's was rescued by a kid walking by on the pathway just below us. The torches wouldn't even stay lit. It wasn't cold just very windy.


This is the view to the right of our table. The views were gorgeous, the company was entertaining as it has been for the last 30 years, the food was artfully displayed but...not that great tasting. Here is what we had:
Appetizer-Dad-crab cakes.
Mom-Triple tasting-phyllo wrapped prawn, braised rib served over risotto, and a seared scallop with some kind of orange caviar on top. All was good just not great (especially for the price)-the little eggs popped in my mouth like those pop rocks!
Dinner-Dad-NY steak, truffle macaroni & cheese
Mom-triple tasting of three different fish-Walu, Ono, and seared ahi tuna (which was pretty much raw except for the very outside-not my favorite). For dessert we shared a mud pie made with kona coffee and vanilla ice creams with an oreo cookie crust. Dad ate the kona coffee ice cream and I ate the vanilla.


My wonderful companion for these past 30 years! Looking forward to the next 30.

I told your father that to keep up my travel blog we were going to have to do more traveling. He replied that I could write about my travels to Lowes, the grocery store...and thus it continues.









Tomorrow we pack up in preparation for our return flight on Saturday. We're trying a restaurant that was voted best on the island 13 years in a row called Merriman's.

ALOHA and MAHALO

Kona-day 8 Final Chapter-To Eternity and Beyond...Again"

With our trusty 4 wheel drive we were ready to attempt the climb once again up to Mauna Kea. But first, we had to read the instructions on how to engage the 4 wheel drive! Once that was figured out and we had waited the allotted 30 minutes at the visitor's center-we were on our way up the bumpiest road I have ever been on in my life!

Fortunately, at the 4.5 mile marker the road became paved. We think they don't pave the whole road 'cause they really don't want to encourage people to come up since it really is scientific research they are doing up there. When we arrived there were about 15 vehicles up there and people were milling around in their ski parkas, hats, gloves, with cameras around their necks. I didn't get out of the car because I was just glad I made it up and it was cold (though I have been in colder places-Rexburg). I was seeing a lot of spots which made me a little nervous. But your dad got out and took quite a few pictures. I feel bad because I didn't even think of taking any of him until we were down the mountain but he was up there.

Two of the eleven telescopes up top.

Beginning of the sunset-Very bright on the eyes.

Tim wanted to make sure he had gone as far as you could go so he drove around to the farthest telescope and took a picture of it as it was turning around to face another position. The wind was really blowing on this side. After he got in the car, he gave me the camera which was very cold and he was only out there for about 3 minutes.

The ride down was just as bumpy. We had to keep our lights off until we had gotten to a certain point on the mountain so that the lights would not disturb the telescopes' views. Your dad went as fast as he could safely down the mountain so that I could use the facilities at the visitors center. I don't know what is worse - going slowly so that the bumps won't be as horrible or going fast so that you can make it to the facilities before there isn't a reason to use them.

We started out our day by picking up our rental jeep at 10:35 am and returned it a 9:35 that night. We were gone 11 hours and only drove 248 miles. There was so much to see which made for a very long day. Thursday and Friday are going to be relaxing, staying on the lanai reading days.

Kona-Day 8 part 4 Flora & Fauna

For those who love flowers, Hawaii has quite a variety of lovely ones. We took a 4 mile loop through quite a lot of flora and fauna with some waterfalls mixed in-very lovely. So here are a few pictures (not in any particular order).

Above is called the Tulip Tree. I've seen three different colors of flowers-red-orange, yellow, and a light orange-very bright colors.

Here is the red-orange flower from the Tulip tree.

A waterfall coming out of a lava tube. The white across the picture is a white fence.


I have no clue what the above 2 plants are. Some agribusiness was growing them. If anyone recognizes them, please let me know.


Both of the above pictures reminded me of beads.


Akaka Falls-we made an unplanned stop at the Akaka Falls state park. There is a 10 minute loop you walk to see 2 falls-Kahuna (not worth it) and Akaka (a little more worth it). We were surrounded by jungle, it was hot, and raining. We knew we were in trouble when we saw all the stairs going down because we knew we were going to have to come back up. Dad used to tell me that we would have no problem competing in the Amazing Race but after this escapade, I know we would not be one of the top three.

A huge bamboo plant in the middle of the Akaka falls park.


The above 2 flowers are from the park.


This flower doesn't look like much but it had a wonderful fragrance-I wish we had smellavision.

This was to just contrast between the desert vegetation and the rain forest variety. Still pretty.

Kona-day 8 part 3-Waipi'o Valley

After our malasadas we headed to the Waipi'o Valley or Valley of the Kings. This area was once the favorite retreat of Hawaiian royalty. During the 13th and 17th century 4,000 - 20,000 people lived here. In 1946 a tidal wave drove most residents out. The valley is one of the most isolated places in Hawaii. To keep it pristine, only 4 commercial companies are allowed to take people on trips down here and on Sundays no one is allowed in. They do allow 4 wheel drive vehicles down the 25% grade road so we were able to go down.
View from the overlook. The walk down to the overlook is a steep incline which means the trip back up is steep also! The beach below is a black sand beach. I guess because of overuse of the beach and a lack of sanitary facilities serious unhealthy conditions have arisen. There is a sign at the top of the road warning of a bacteria that is in the water. We didn't go near the water at the beach but we did see a pregnant woman playing in the water-go figure.
There are a few people who live in the valley and grow taro plants to make poi.
View from overlook.

View of valley as we head down the very skinny (one lane), very steep, very bumpy road.

This is a fresh water river running through the valley. It is fed by a waterfall to the left of the valley (you can't see it in this picture). The waterfall wasn't very big but I guess when it rains, it's probably very full.

The roads are very skinny so while we were waiting for a car to pass us, your dad spotted this frog on the side of the road. The little pond also had fish in it.

We had to cross this "raging" river to continue on.

We stopped in the middle of the water to take this picture which was to the left of us. The picture sort of looks washed out but it was very green.

This is what was on the other side of the road. He just stood there calmly as we drove by him. His 3 other buddies were to the right of him off road. When we were coming back this way, the four of them were walking down the road towards us-taking their time. We could've touched them if we had wanted to.

The road (and I use that term very loosely) to the beach was unbelievable. I don't know how that pregnant woman made it. Your dad did a great job trying to miss the bigger ruts but still it was a shaky ride.
Once you get to the beach there are signs posted to the left like the one above and the other one (2nd picture below).


Kapu means sacred or sacred law.

This is the very steep and skinny road looking up. It's about a mile long. We saw lots of people walking it. The walk down would be okay but the walk up would be deadly.

Kona-day 8 part 2 Waimea

We started out the day by renting a Jeep and heading to the Hamakua Coast above Hilo.

The best way to get there is to cut through the island towards Waimea. It is a small town home to Parker Ranch, a big huge cattle ranch. Waimea is much greener than Kona where we've been staying.


This photo shows the stark contrast between the desert and the green hills of Waimea.

Our first stop after reaching the Hamakua Coast was to stop at this place to try their Malasadas. Malasadas are a puffy, doughy, Portuguese doughnut without a hole. They are deep fried and then, if you wish, filled with different fillings or you can have them plain. They are best when eaten hot. They are messy like beignets, puffy like scones, and have the consistency of a cross between and scone and a doughnut. I've decided the plain ones are best. Thought these were good, the ones we got from a little stand outside a Kmart in Kauai were the best.