We decided to spend the Thanksgiving holiday this year somewhere other than home. So we decided to go to Hawaii for the week and camp our way around the island. While we did stay in a few Air B&B locations, a couple were just a shade above camping. Here’s how our week went… [Many of the pictures and videos are 360’s. They seem to work best in Chrome on the Mac and IE on Windows]
When we arrived at the San Diego airport that morning this is how we were greeted at the TSA line. Not the most reassuring thing to see at 6 in the morning. They even were giving announcements about these on the plane during the preflight briefing. After the usual at the airport we were airborne and on our way to Hawaii.
Having never flown in to Kona Hawaii before it was interesting to see that the airport was carved into a lava field. Only a few feet away there is a rough and sharp cooled lava flow with grass growing up through it.
We deplaned at the Kona Hawaii airport and much to my delight it was a small airport that you simply walk down the stairs on to the tarmac. One of the first things I noticed about Hawaii was the weather. It was pleasantly warm and humid. Living in San Diego I had forgotten what humidity feels like it was actually really nice.
Right past the “gates” in the courtyard there is this statue of 3 Polynesian dancers. It is really nice to see that the native Hawaiian people embrace and are proud of their heritage. It also seems that there is a large amount of respect for the heritage here as well.
Despite being overcast and cloudy we are just amazed at how lush and green everything is here on the Kona side of Hawaii. As they are famous for their Kona coffee and Sharon is a coffee connoisseur we had to stop and try some that was grown and brewed on site. The place here not only roasts their own coffee fresh and on site it’s grown here as well. You can literally see the coffee plants growing the coffee cherries right here at the wall, we actually could reach out and pick them off the plants.
We stayed at a coffee farm that was an Air B&B place, Bebo’s Coffee farm in Captain Cook Hawaii. The owners were really nice and accommodating. The lodging was a bunkhouse room with attached shower and bathroom. They also had a grill there for use and some pots and pans as well. While we were there and walking around the grounds we noticed that there was not only coffee but huge avocado trees on the property. I never knew that the trees got so big or that the avocados would either. We picked up 3-4 of them and they were the size of cantaloupes. In the week we were there we couldn’t eat all of the avocado we picked up and we tried.
From here we looked around the island. We discovered a great local restaurant called Kaaloa’s Super J’s that serves traditional Hawaiian cuisine. Our favorite by far was the Laulau, which is basically steamed meat wrapped in a Taro leaf. They serve Pork Laulau and it’s positively wonderful. Another interesting item they had was actually a condiment. On the table was a bottle of sauce with garlic and tiny red peppers floating in it, the base for this hot sauce was just salt water. While I was a little skeptical of this I’m here to tell you that it was great! There was also soy sauce in an unmarked bottle as well, it didn’t taste like the soy sauce you are used to as there was a unique richness and different flavor to it. So far we were finding this side of the island of Hawaii to be quite unique and charming.
After our afternoon snack here we headed back to the Coffee Shack just up the road for some fresh brewed coffee and a piece of their signature Lilikoi pie. The Lilikoi pie is similar to Key Lime pie but it’s made with the juice from the Lilikoi or Passion Fruit plant. It’s acidic and tangy, definitely a tropical treat and it went amazingly well with the locally grown, roasted and brewed coffee.
We decided to run up the road and get some fresh fruit and something to grill for later. We ended up at a road side fruit stand and the local grocery store. The fresh fish selection they have in Hawaii was nothing short of amazing, it seemed better than what we saw in Japan. There was even sushi grade tuna in the cooler with the rest of the fish, it wasn’t even behind the counter as it normally is when we find it here in the states. The sushi grade tuna is just there along with the other fish selections as it’s an everyday item here in Hawaii.
After the flight and roaming around the island we were beat tired. So we headed to bed to get up the next day for our day of diving with the Kona Diving Company. Check back and watch our Facebook and Twitter feeds for the next blog post about our dives with the Kona Diving Company as well as the famed Manta Ray night dive. It truly was spectacular!
