Big Island Day 6: More Of Everything

Today is the last post about our trip to Big Island.  I hope that you’ve enjoyed having a look at our travels & adventures.  Friday 3/20 was our last full day on Big Island.  We didn’t have any plans, so we decided to just take a relaxed approach. 

Woke up at around 6:30am.  Went on FB and found out that Mannie (Kristina Werner's cat) died.  I was so sad that I cried.  I've loved all the Mannie photos and videos that she's posted the last few years.  I love using the stamps she designed in Mannie's image.  I will miss him.

For breakfast we had some of our last strawberry papayas from the farmer's market.  Todd had his popcorn and Coke.  Then we walked down to the Akule Supply Store cafe down at the marina for breakfast.  I didn't like their special today so I ordered the Breakfast Bento Box.  It was spam with scrambled eggs, rice, and some fruit.  I also had a big cup of Kona coffee.  

The bento box was just OK.  And there was way too many flies bothering me and my food. It was gross.  They had a TV mounted and there was March Madness basketball already at 8am Hawaii time.

After breakfast we hung out in the condo.  Then around 10:30 we left the condo to drop off our Redbox movie and to get some gas and drinking water at the Aloha gas station nearby.  Then we were on our way to the Four Seasons' Beach Tree Cafe for lunch again.  We had such a good time and good lunch on Monday that we wanted to go back!  We made it there around 11:45.  

Todd got the hamburger this time and he LOVED it.  He said it was right up there with the best burger he's ever had.  He had French fries too.  

I had the grilled & chilled shrimp salad with avocado, corn, black beans, and cilantro lime dressing.  So good!  

We had to have the lemon meringue ice cream pie again, because it was so good the first time we had it.  It was delicious!  

This time lunch cost only half as much as on Monday, since we didn’t get an appetizer or a cocktail.

After lunch we drove back.  It took about an hour to get to Mahina Cafe.  They had THREE malasadas left and we bought them all!  We hadn’t had any malasadas on this trip yet.  Our favorite and best malasadas are from Leonard’s on Oahu.  Unfortunately they aren’t on Big Island. 

After that we drove up to Kona Earth coffee farm and met with the owner Gary and his wife Valerie.  We got a brief tour.  They had some workers pruning the trees.  

Todd got to rake the coffee berries on the drying deck with Gary. 

I guess it was a “working vacation” for Todd, ha ha!

Usually the drying deck has coffee in the “parchment” stage, after pulping the coffee cheery skin and pectin.

But Gary had a bunch of “naturals” on his deck when we were there.

And by the way, a few days after we came home, we were checking on the Kona Earth blog and were surprised to find a photo of Todd raking the coffee beans on their blog!  So fun!

Gary showed us the bean dryer that he designed and put together.  Quite different than farmer Bob’s at Lehuula Farms!

We got to taste the dark roast and even that was good.  We chatted with them and it was quite nice.  They have two cute dogs who roam around the farm.  We bought four 8oz bags to give to friends.

After the coffee farm, we drove back to the condo and by then it was 4pm.  We turned on NCAA basketball and ate our malasadas.  They were ok, not great.  

I typed up some of the journaling about the trip that I hadn't done.  We rested.  Then around 6pm we went to dinner at Kenichi Pacific nearby.  I had fried calamari and they were good!  

I also ordered tempura udon and that was only ok.  The udon noodle soup was too salty.  I gave Todd my tempura onion stack and he loved it.  

Todd got a NY strip steak and he liked that, but he didn't like the rosemary potatoes or squash.  They took forever to get our dinner out.  Service was very slow on a Friday night.

After dinner we went back to the condo and packed.  The vacation was awesome, adventurous, and relaxing all at the same time.  But as with all vacations, we were ready to go home and cuddle with Noodle.  Somehow on this particular trip the island “vog” was pretty prevalent.  There was always a haze of volcanic smog everywhere we looked.  It didn’t seem like that on our last trip in 2008.  Maybe the Kilauea Volcano is erupting at a different spot now…

The next day (Saturday) our flight left at 9am.  On the way to the airport I took a couple of photos of the scenery.

The agricultural check and security check lines were very long, due to three flights leaving the island at the same time.  But we made it in time.  Goodbye Big Island!

On the way out, we flew over Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea.  I could see the summit was still covered with snow and I could see the little dots which are the observatories that we saw on our trip.

The flight back to San Diego was only five hours (versus the six hours going to Big Island).  I watched “Big Hero 6” and LOVED it so much that we rented it with Redbox when we got back so Todd could watch it too.  Noodle was so happy to see us, even though Fred took VERY good care of him when we were gone.  It was good to be home, but I wished that we had a few more days off at home before having to go back to work!