After spending 5 days on Maui on a business trip, we extended on our own on the Big Island for 1 week. We flew from Maui to the BI on Aloha. The flight was uneventful. While hubby was collecting our luggage and dive bags, I took the Alamo van over to get the mini-van we had rented for a week. Because 2 other couples were joining us for a few days, it was the best way for the 6 of us to go places together with all our snorkeling gear, picnic lunches, coolers, etc. I stood in the Alamo line for 30 to 45 minutes and finally got the van, drove back to the airport, calling hubby on the way over so he would be at the curb (security won%26#39;t let you park for more than about 2 minutes) with our stuff. We drove into Kona to pick up the keys to the house we had rented for the week and made our way about 2 miles south of Kona town to Hale Honu, our home away from home. We rented the studio downstairs for the week and our friends rented the 2 bedroom upstairs apartment for 3 days. We were blown away by when we saw it. Absolutely, right on the ocean and very roomy with all the necessities. We found it on vrbo.com. It can be rented separately or all together which really made it perfect for our needs.
We dropped off all our stuff and did a quick check of the kitchen spices and other supplies, made our grocery list, and headed off for Safeway and WalMart. On the way we decided we were hungry so we went to Ocean%26#39;s Seafood Chinese restaurant. We shared an order of their yummy fried rice with bits of pork and each got the lunch special. We%26#39;ve eaten there before and knew what to expect and were not disappointed. We then made our way to Safeway where I signed up for the grocery shopping card and saved about $25 on our basket of groceries. WalMart was a little different than the ones I%26#39;m used to here on the Mainland. They seemed really low key with not a lot of merchandise. They didn%26#39;t even have ice for sale! We did buy a couple of cute t-shirts for $4.99 each and some snacks really cheap so it was worth the stop anyway.
Went back to Hale Honu, dropped off our groceries, made our favorite drink, Vodka Johnson (long story), poured out a bowl of mac nuts and lounged on our patio watching the sunset while listening to the sound of the pounding surf. We had been in Hawaii a total of 5 days and now we finally felt like it. We were home. Whales were blowing and breaching, the sun was setting, the sky was this magical color of pink/orange mixed with the steel gray color of the ocean, the surf was pounding against our patio making the air have the slightest salty, oceany scent, drinking my cocktail and munching on mac nuts, all the while holding hands with the love of my life of 32 years. All senses were in play...sight, hearing, smell, taste, feel. Why do we love the Big Island? There%26#39;s your answer. Day 2 to come.
Trip Report Day 1
Bips,
Sounds beautiful!! So descriptive .... what a wonderful time. I%26#39;m looking forward to day 2!! Keep writing....
Please do share the condo listing, sounds perfect!!
Trip Report Day 1
We stayed in a house called Hale Honu. We found it on VRBO.com. I will look up the actual listing numbers tomorrow.
I looked up your hale honu, and it it%26#39;s the right one, wow! It looks awsome. Hurry up with day 2 please, I%26#39;m living vicariously through you until Feb 3, when we leave to start our trip. Your trip sounds just wonderful so far. At least the BI part. Thanks for sharing it with us.
NIce start to your REAL holiday!
Since there are several homes names Hale Honu on the VRBO site I will give you the numbers of the one we stayed at. Listing 46951 was our studio we rented for the week. It was really great! Listing 34465 was the 2-bedroom, 2-bath connected to the studio part of the house. Our friends rented it for the 3 days they were on the BI with us. They loved it!
WOW - your post gave me chills, what a wonderful way to end a day. looking forward to more
I loved this report, your lyrical description of the day%26#39;s end was magical! You go from the prosaic business to bliss in a way that works really well.
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