Aloha Colorado, Aloha Hawaii: Kona - October 26, 2013

The plan was to catch the 8:43am AB from Westminster to DIA. There was no 8:43 bus, it being a Saturday. I was also battling a monster cold, and that wasn't in the plan either. But fortunately Elly's Mom was in town to visit us and see us off, so she was able to give us a ride to the airport. She was herself battling a migraine, so things were off to a rocky start all around. We made it onto our flight on time, and with enough time left over to buy an airport breakfast burrito and some OJ, so we weren't complaining.

The flight was pleasant enough despite (or possibly because of) the fact that I was a Day-Quil zombie. Elly tells me one of the restrooms went out-of-order half-way through the flight. I also remember her showing me how our window cover was extremely hot to the touch. I remember eating an $9 sandwich that tasted like a $2 sandwich. Mostly I remember that our aisle had an empty seat, so Elly and I were able to stretch out a bit, which was very nice. The flight went quickly (for me, Day-Quil Zombie, but also for Elly) and we arrived 15 minutes earlier than we were scheduled to.

As our flight descended to the Kona Airport, the view we saw initially was pretty desolate. As far as we could see was craggy fields of black volcanic rock. I didn't know quite what to expect, but this was definitely not it. We touched down at Kona Airport, and as we exited the jet the humid, hot Hawaiian air slapped us in the face like a giant fish. We left Colorado dressed appropriately, and landed in HI dressed extremely inappropriately. 85 degrees and humid, and we haoles (HAH-oo-leh: foreigner) are dressed in multiple layers underneath our jackets, with the sun beating directly on us from the moment we exited the jet. The Kona airport is entirely outdoor, and really awesome. All of the usual airport stuff (baggage claim, information, etc) was basically just little booths, or underneath canopies. We were exhausted and not taking any pictures, but we'll remedy that as we fly out.

Fortunately, baggage claim and car rental went smoothly and relatively quickly. We drove off in a dark-gray Chevy Cruze, which we promptly nick-named "Lucy Cruise" because the license began in "LCY". Lucy Cruise turned out to be a manual-transmission hybrid, something I didn't even know existed. As we waited for Lucy to get driven out to us we made friends with a Canadian yoga instructor. We neglected to exchange names somehow; I think we all expected our meeting to be a lot shorter than it was. We wound up waiting for probably 15-20 minutes for them to bring the car around. This was when I began to suspect that Island Time is a bit slower than Colorado Time.

The drive to the condo took about 15 minutes. It would have been a lot shorter, but the speed limit was 30mph for most of it, slowing to 15m on Ali'i street, the main drag that takes us to the condo. Apparently the speed limits are on Island Time as well.

We got to the condo, and there was a "Be back soon" sign on the manager's office. "Soon" turned out to be another 20 minutes, with Elly and I sweltering in our Colorado layers. When the manager finally showed, though, he turned out to be very professional and friendly. Ironically, one of the reasons he wasn't in the office is because he was putting a key in a lock box on our room.

The condo turned out to be worth the wait! The room is absolutely beautiful. All the furniture is pale bamboo and dark polished wood. The floors are flagstone that feels really good on bare feet. The kitchen is well stocked with pots and pans, full sets of dishes, an 8-spice rack. The ceiling fans in the living-room and bedroom are really cool: they are woven fan blades made of some kind of dark lacquered reeds. The kitchen island has an attached bar for breakfast or whatever, but its clear that the main eating area is intended to be the porch outside. The condo also has a dishwasher, and clothes washer and dryer, so we're not even sacrificing any of the comforts of home. We're RIGHT on the ocean: As I write this post from the living-room I could easily frisbee this laptop through our sliding glass door, over the porch, and directly into the ocean surf. Don't test me, I'll do it!

Once we got unpacked, the first thing we did was go out past our porch and get a picture of ourselves still in our Colorado clothes, just to demonstrate the absurdity of it. While we were out there we met our next-door neighbor. We chatted a bit (I felt the need to explain that we weren't crazy) but I was so exhausted I neglected to introduce myself.

We went out to Target to buy some bare-minimum supplies: eggs, sausage and veggies for a scramble breakfast, shampoo and other bathroom essentials, and some garbage comfort food (Oreos, potato chips, and hummus.) We bought "Maui-style onion-flavored potato chips" something we THOUGHT was us being cool and local, but it turns out they're just Frito-lay. Quite delicious though.

The neighborhood immediately nearby our condo is teeming with shops and restaurants. Despite our absolute exhaustion (dinner time here is 10pm where we left!) we braved the outside to get some food. We drove to the busiest section of Ali'i Street, parked, and walked to the nearest restaurant we could find. It turned out to be "Wasabi's", a Hawaiian-Japanese fusion sushi place. I remember almost nothing about it except that our sushi and drinks were delicious and the service was SUPER slow. Island Time again, I think.

Stocked for the next day and fed, we went back to the condo. We soaked in the jacuzzi for a few minutes, rinsed off, then went directly to bed at 9:00. I dosed myself with Ny-Quil and fell immediately to sleep. Elly had high-hopes of seeing the other side of 10:00 (to put herself on a regular sleep schedule) but she was only about 10 minutes behind me.

And thus ended our first day on The Big Island.

Photos
https://plus.google.com/photos/105719328153023565846/albums/5939762704691749649?authkey=CMmd-s7Dqo2ciQE