Friday, February 22, 2013

Day 15: Maui -> Big Island


* cell phone pictures only *

Today we fly from Maui to Hawaii and fearing harm to my precious passion fruit I savor the one that are left during breakfast. 



The streets are dark when we pull out into almost nonexistent traffic and by the time we arrive at the gate it is just barely light out.


The sun crests over the mountain as our plane arrives


I love Kona International Airport: these lovely hula girls welcome travelers to Hawaii. I wish they were there everytime we traveled through KOA


And the best part: driving out of the airport on this palm tree-lined road.


We stop at Costco on our way to the hotel to check out their Wavestorm surfboards, but decide it's not worth it to get one after a quick oversized luggage calculation on my phone. We're pretty hungry and the pizza looks good so we enjoy a nice, cheap lunch there.

I found this neat looking fruit in the parking lot. I wish I knew what it was.



Finally, we are back at our much beloved Royal Kona Resort. Located right on the water at the end of Alii Drive the location can't be beat and I love the Hawaiian feeling and friendly staff.



We luck out with a beautiful oceanfront room in the Lagoon tower. At night we'd leave the door to the lanai open with just the shutters in place and listen to the waves crashing on the rocks ... heaven!


View of the grounds if you looked to the right from our lanai



We our room service from Don the Beachcomber, the onsite restaurant and watch the sun slowly sink into the ocean. Meanwhile the luau has started and we have a pretty good view of the podium from our lanai. We really enjoyed it when we went last year and although I probably wouldn't pay to see another luau again, we love seeing it for free from our lanai.







2 comments:

  1. Hello darlings,
    I don't think pizza in the morning would do it for me.
    The fruit you found looks like a piece of sculpture.
    What's a luau?
    Love,

    Joeve

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  2. A luau is a Hawaiian ceremony where they serve traditional dishes like Kalua pork (pig cooked in an "imu", an underground oven), poi (mashed taro), poke (cubed, raw seafood salad) and haupia (coconut pudding). The ones geared to tourists are like a dinner theater, with a host, music and Hawaiian dancers in full costume. They're a lot of fun!

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