Headed home

What a long red eye flight, S and I both watched Ocean's Eight then he started to watch a few others before we both finally nodded off for a bit. It did not last long and we both ended up starting Tag before we arrived in Vancouver at 4:45 with a 2 hour time change and a bit ahead of schedule. Once thru the huge airport cheese maze we got to our gate around 7:30 waiting for the Calgary leg.

It was a short 1 hour flight with another hour time change. S napped the whole trip and I got a half hour in finally before we landed, grabbed the bags and were out in the -4 overcast day, yuck.

Back home before 1 pm Lola was glad to see us and after scratches was off to show her patrolling skills. Bags were hauled in and S hit the big brown chair, looked thru his mail and was soon asleep. I got busy catching up on emails which had me spending over an hour with technical Microsoft support to solve the issue that was happening before we left but finally got it fixed.

It was then on to bill paying and entering vacation credit charges. Yikes.. the US $$ is even worse at 1.36 now!!

While on vacation I had an Etsy sale.. for the vintage wood jewelry box I had the poll on painting. It sold to Australia!! SO I got it all bundled up to go which took lots of cardboard cutting trying to get it in the size parameters to fit the postage cost. Finally after much finagling I got it all boxed up and the shipping label printed and paid.

I rustled Sheldon awake before 4:30 after a 3+ hour nap but once I was back to the computer I heard the snoring resume. He did get up for the 6 o clock news and kindly cooked his fav KD and some pork skewers for our supper. THANKS. I was now working on posting the rose gold box and kids table & chairs blog posts and trying to get my marketing sites freshened up. I did reply to all the interested emails for Kijiji, Varagesale and Letgo, hope to start moving pieces soon.

I ate quick and back to the computer room while S started a fire and watched the Flames vs Kings (who Kevin Wagner's boy Austin plays for). He did bundle up and head out at first period break to see if the cats had food or if J was just saying hello,. I jumped in to warm up in the tub then put on fresh linens ready for a good sleep!

Last day

Sad day, today we spend our last day in the sunshine here on Hawaii. B says it is sunny at home. We packed up the last few things and after S's usual toasted croissant and our fresh smoothie we had almost everything ate up. There were 6 beer and a jumbo ice tea (which we stuffed in a plastic bag and ice) and some snacks for todays road trip. The bags were loaded, top was off and just before 11 am checkout we were on the road heading south.

We took a new high road for some of the way seeing more local Kona sights then jetted down hwy 11 on route to Punalu'u beach, the turtle laden black beach. What a lovely spot with a lily pond to boot.

see the turtles behind me?

here is closer, they are everywhere, on the sand in the water...

There are also lots of fresh water springs popping up, this is where years ago they fetch fresh water with gourds upside down to capture it

more turtles (above see on beach in front of life guard hut) and below behind us

Sheldon's favorite banyan tree roots

The day was lovely as usual and as we headed a wee bit farther south east we stopped to look at a few macadamia nut trees.

varying ripeness, green still has the husk layer on, brown the shell

A tour thru a little town had a sign for a coffee tour and even though not a huge fan I did want to see the process so off we went. The threatening skies soon turned sunny yet again. Free tastes of coffee and macadamia nuts  (nut crunch delicious, the spam flavoured nuts not so much) and we even got in on a Small seed to cup tour. Coffee is very labor intensive. Each tree produces about 10 pounds /yr for about 3-6 years then cut down to rejuvenate and wait a couple more years for production. Cherries sell like grain per pound and grade with 1.90/lb for good quality. This Kau coffee Mill plantation had 3000 acres of coffee trees and 15000 acres of macadamia nut trees.

coffee tree and a pea berry (R)

sorting machine

storage room in burlap coffee bags

the uber large roaster

see why they hand pick each one? some ripe some not

finally a plumeria I could reach

look at this gorgeous hibiscus color... coincidence I too wore coral?

picture on the fly by of the fields of coffee trees

We decided to head back towards Kona with a few planned stops. We did whip back to Whittington beach but this is basically a rest stop with black lava high surf and lots of locals, easy to skip this. Another little road side hut had us stopping and learning lots more from Barney the owner. He shared more about coffee and macadamia nuts letting us taste his roasted and fresh macadamia nuts and well as show us a pea cherry (single) and a regular and a triple coffee bean which he said was sooo rare. He also said we came at a perfect time as the air quality has not been this good since 1974!

poinsettias grow as shrubs/trees here!

Milolii beach was next on the list, The drive down is long and windy with a really nice view but as you get farther down it gets sketchier and slum like. The beach park was small and again no beach but rather lava and surf. Of course it is pretty but the junk/garbage/poor neighborhood is another skip we would suggest. (I did watch a beach hunters episode just after we got home and it was in the area just before the slum area and the place was listed for $649,000 US)

so many poinsettias and these trees below (top center) with deep red/orange flowers, I must find out what they are

We journeyed on to Kona again taking the high road over making it in time for sunset on Alula beach finally. (our condo owner says her favorite beach) It was close to town and Costco, our next stop. It is a quiet beach and not really for swimming/snorkelling as it is near entrance to the harbor.. that and a 16 foot tiger shark named Laverne frequents the area. We saw a whale spouting while we watched the sunset.

One last fill up at Costco and we headed to town to grab supper. We looked at the menu at Fish Hopper S wanted to try but fish was $39.95 US so we drove to another area. We were planning to go to Laverne's tavern but we had not missed happy hour by 30 min. The menu looked better at Bongo Bens so we grabbed a seat along the front to people watch. The fish tacos were $13.95 here compared to $19.95 I had at Huggos right across the street, and the mai tai was half price at $5.

We took a stroll around this coconut grove market area and saw Oceans sports bar in the center had tacos on special for $2.75 EACH inside (4 for $6 on the street) and margaritas for $4 all day. After another drive down the strip we decided that we still had a couple hours to spare so parked back near this sports bar for a couple frosty margaritas.

Finally it was time to head to the airport and drop off the car. Today we put on about 200 miles totally 1000 over the 12 days. Dropping the bags off (ice still had the lone ice tea frosty cold in the snorkel bag) we changed inside the open air terminal eventually getting on the plane for the red eye leaving just before midnight. Good bye lovely Kona, it has been an adventure. We will be back!

4 more beaches checked

The weed eater started up at 8 (Wednesday again, lawn care day) so coffee was early. I made smoothies and S his usual crossaint and last of the avocado. We decided to spend the day hitting the beaches with the condo provided cooler, towels and beach chairs.

We were off again a bit after our usual 10 am with a quick stop at Costco to return a huge bag of chips and pineapple we will not be able to eat today. Then were off to search for beaches 30 miles north. First was called Spencer beach, it is nice, quiet water and shallow with shade and grass, great for kids. We did not stay long but S did have a swim quick.

Next was Mauna Kea beach, near the golf course/hotel and wow it was a beauty. Nice sand, lots of room, some shade  and all round great rating. We walked the whole beach starting our day of beach walking.

The 3rd one was Hapuna beach, this one charges $5 or park at top of the hill and walk down The beach is very long and nicely sanded but has very little shade. The hotel at the north end had lots of construction going on so it was loud. We walked this whole beach too and S swam before we were off to the last one of the day.

Last beach was Waialea, just down the road south of Hapuna. If you are looking for a really nice beach with loads of trees for shade, this is it. Again we walked to the far end and back and my calves were feeling the amount of walking in the sand we did today.

Looking for one more south, we toured thru Puako but the beaches there were really lava like so it was time to head to the condo for our last night. A frosty margarita on our lanai then a trip to see the saltwater and tide pool. WHAT, the tide pool was drained seeing the surf was back to “normal”, darn the luck so to back to our little beach.

look the tide pool is empty

Vikings season premiere is on tonight so there were lots of catch up episodes. The Bjorn special was on at 6 so we had a quick swim before it started. I put on supper (the last of the fish, crab cakes and tater tots) and we ate while watching. I also threw in a load of laundry and started to pack up as we check out in the morning. Time flies for sure.