Kona

View of the mountains from our lanai

After a leisurely morning enjoying left over plane snacks and freshly brewed coffee, we headed to Kona to explore, buy a few souvenirs and then pick up our groceries. On the way, we were surprised by how many wild goats live in the lava fields. We found a parking spot and headed into the downtown area. We had breakfast at a local Mexican restaurant. I had a loco moco which is rice with a hamburger patty topped with an egg and smothered with brown gravy. It is a local dish and not as bad as it sounds. Cheryl had chicken fried something with sausage gravy and Pat had an omelet. The restaurant was across from an ABC store and had a lovely view of the cruise ship anchored offshore. After filling our faces we visited the first church built in the Hawaiian Islands. We found a small beach where we watched the waves, jumping fish, smoking snorkelers and discovered a colony of lava crabs.

Lava Crabs on the lava wall

They are black and live on the lava rocks so I named them lava crabs.

Cheryl "hanging loose" in Kona

Bags full of tacky tiki souvenirs, we headed to Wal-Mart and Safeway to purchase supplies for the week. At Wal-Mart we filled our cart with Hawaiian print shirts and more souvenirs. At Safeway, we filled our cart with a few groceries and lots of bread and beer. This should be a fun week. The highlight of the shopping trip was of course the chocolate chewy cookies that can only be found at Safeway. Back to the condo where we relax on the lanai and enjoy the scenery and wildlife. I saw a mongoose run across the golf course and I named him Rikki Tikki Tavi (only mongoose name I know). We watched lots of birds and then we were visited by the geckos. Of course on Hawaii even the geckos are more colorful.

Garry - our Hawaiian lanai gecko.

Cheryl saw one first and named him David. Who ever heard of a gecko named David?

Hibiscus flower outside our condo

After relaxing we decided to find us a lava flow. We head to the King's shops which is just next door and we found one - a $8.95 one and that was happy hour prices!! We continued to explore, visiting the shops, picking up more trinkets and snacks. We even visited the King's Road which is a road that was cut into the lava fields to connect the villages of Hawaii. I can't imagine walking from one village to another on this road. It is open to the elements and difficult to walk on - I hope they had good sandals. The sun set during our exploration and of course we missed it. It was dark on the way back to the condo but fortunately we all had our new Hawaiian LED flashlights that we had just purchased from the ABC store conveniently located across the street. Back in the condo, I blog and the girls write out postcards and drink a lukewarm beer. Apparently our refrigerator cooling level was too low. We increased it and tomorrow we will have a cold one (hopefully).

Aloha cold weather dwellers - tomorrow we are off to the beach, or the volcanoes, or the rain forest - so many options and all of them fun!