Well, this day found Don feeling better but now it's my turn. We ate breakfast breakfast at the condo (did I mention that a 1/2 gallon of milk is $4.00? Just having cereal in this state can be costly! We packed our kleenex, Sudafed and Mucinex and went on a shopping excursion in downtown Kailua-Kona. The local farmer's market was being held, so that was our first stop. I realy enjoyed that as there were a lot of local Hawaiian crafts-artists there and I picked up a few things for myself along with two fragrent fresh pineapple, and of course I couldn't pass by the freshly roasted macadamia nuts. My tastebuds are working today, but I'm confident I will enjoy them at home. We then walked the "boardwalk" which was full of more shops. In the middle of the boardwalk is Hulihe'e Oalace where the King and Queen lived so we took the tour. As we took off our shoes and stepped into the entryway, we were immediately transformed back to the 1800's. It was amazing to see the magnificent beds and armoirs each hand carved with meticulate detail. A chair in a corner of the bedroom was enormous, which shouldn't have surprised me as the Queen was quite ... what's the politically correct term nowadays ... "voluptuous". lol. Tbe palace overlooked the ocean and the grounds were lush with all different types of tropical foilage. Boy I wish I would have listed when I took a "Flora, Fauna and Geology" course through UC Davis. My cousin, Joann, and I took the course which entailed us traveling to the Hawaiian Islands and camping for a couple of weeks and listening to lectures of whatelse? Flora, fauna and geology - lol.
After the tour we crossed the street and went inside Moku'aikaua Church, the oldest Christian church in the islands. It's one of the landmarks you see on all the postcards. Since I had just read the book "Hawaii", I had a new appreciation of what the missionaries went through just to have this church built. Very serene.
We wondered through more shops then stopped for lunch at the Canoe Club which was right on the water. After relaxing a bit watching the ocean from our table,we visited the local Harley shop to pick up a t-shirt for my brother and across the street to the Kona Brewing Company. Barrels of hops were lined up along their fence, opened, and there was the cutest little bird jumping from barrel to barrel getting his fill of hops! Aftewards we then took a drive to the Ali'i Gardens Marketplace for more shopping. We were exhausted so decided to go back to the condo and jump in the pool. Today it was about 82 degrees (that appears to be the norm) but the pool was quite, however that didn't last long. We had forgotton that there was a hula show and "pupus" (horsderves) that was going to take place, and we were in for a treat. This condo is so nice; everyday they have activities all day long. There's always something to do if you decide you want to stay here.
After we returned to thbe room, we both fell asleep. By the time we awoke, it was time for dinner! So off we went to Bongo Ben's again for their seafood pasta special and I even had a "lava flow" which is a pina colada with strawberries swirled through it. Yummmo!
Yes, I really love these islands!
No comments:
Post a Comment