We started the day off
early, especially Norm and Irene who woke up early to get tender tickets for
everybody. The port at Kailua Kona is too shallow for our cruise ship to dock
so we need to take small tender boats that can take up to 100 passengers to
shore. Tender days are definitely not ideal but at least the tender boat takes
us to a port to an area with lots of shops and restaurants! Poke round 2 here
we come!
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| May trying to survive the tender ride |
We decided to join the
Irene tour again with my parents and a bunch of other people. The plan was to
take it easy, walk around old town, grab some food, and then relax on a beach.
Kailua Kona, or Kona for short, is on the west side of the Big Island. Because of
the large mountains on Big Island, the weather in Kona is mostly sunny and very
little rain while in Hilo, which is on the east side of Big Island, it is
mostly rainy. We definitely felt the difference; when we were walking in town,
we kept looking for shade or air conditioning. Luckily, we realized ABC
convenience stores are all over Hawaii and the air conditioning is always
blasting J
We wandered to a farmers market and was able to buy some fresh fruit. We really
wanted to try Maui pineapple but we had to wait until Maui for that.
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| So hottttt |
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| Our cruise ship |
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| Rambutan |
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| Bananas in pajamas..... |
Our next stop was a local
poke shop just 5 minutes away from the farmers market. (So glad some of us are
American and have data to use Yelp!) The line-up was quite long for the
restaurant but it was definitely worth it! Even though the poke was very
delicious, most of us thought the poke we ate the day before was even more delicious.
Might be because we were starving when we ate it yesterday but either way,
yesterday’s was definitely more bang for our buck.
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| Kombucha (not bad) |
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| Poke from Umekes Ali'i Plaza |
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| Hungry and hot |
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| The fish for the next batch of poke |
After lunch the parents
decided to slowly head back to the ship and we grabbed taxis to check out a
beach. The beach was not particularly beautiful compared to the other beaches
we’ve been to but the water was nice to snorkel in. I always had a little bit
of trouble snorkeling for a long time because I feel claustrophobic and fear
that I’m going to drown but on this vacation I got over the fear! I think
because I was using Irene’s fancy snorkel gear which makes a world of a
difference. We were able to see small and big sea turtles while snorkeling but
they were really close to shore and the current knocked us into the rocks and
we got cut up pretty bad L
Remember to wear water shoes kids!
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| Who's that cutie |
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| Heyyyy |
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| My first Hawaiian shaved ice |
While waiting four our
taxi van to get to the beach, I tried my first Hawaiian shaved ice. For a
shaved ice from a truck, it was really refreshing and delicious. Our taxi
finally arrived and we were on our way back to old town. On our way back, we
saw Will T. playing beach volleyball and then when we were walking around old
town, we saw him again on an electric bike! I guess when a 2000+ cruise ship
goes to a small town, you’re bound to bump into friends. Our last stop was
another ABC store to buy some famous Kona coffee to bring back home.
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| Hey Will! |
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| Bye Kona! |
That night we went to
Cascade for dinner and either played games, went to the casino or chilled in
our stateroom until bed. It’s tiring to have so many land days back to back....
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