HI: Kona, Kua Bay

Although i started out as a night walker, I've become a morning person.  I liked the way jet lag worked for us, because it meant that I woke up earlier than others in HI.  I took several nice quiet early morning walks.

Cousin K helped us find Uncle Billy's Kona Bay Hotel - a great budget hotel just a block from the water and walking distance to all the shops.  E would have loved the pool.  I think that we got in the ocean every day of our vacation, but we didn't get in the hotel pool.
Kona is at 9:00 on the BI "clock".  We started our trip here and traveled clockwise roughly along the coast.

 

I don't know the names of all these plants, but I loved how they grew everywhere. The pink flowers are ones that we grow on the mainland, but in HI they grow profusely as a ground cover!  The green/yellow shrub is one that I have as a houseplant on top of my fridge, but in HI they grow huge.  I took several pictures over our trip and resolved to come home and at least re-pot mine to give it a chance to get bigger.  The plumeria is beautiful and smells sweet.

 We wasted no time getting to a gorgeous beach.  K recommended Kua Bay/ Manini'owali Beach.  not too far north of the airport, just across from a Veterans' Cemetery.  She said it's where they take visitors when they first land on the plane and the last place they go before flying out.  A smallish white sand beach that has great boogie boarding.  they have public restrooms and freshwater showers.  No shade, so bring sunblock.   the water was crystal clear and beach not too crowded at all from 9-11am when we were there. 

R got us some waterproof pouches that could hold our cell phones and a few cards, so that we could take those in the water with us and feel comfortable leaving other belongings by the towels while we swam together.

After our morning beach excursion, we walked around Kona a bit. 

 

We saw some great trees on the BI.  

I'm so glad to see this salad that I ate on the first day.  It was really hard for me to eat vegetables while traveling.  I guess I started being sensitive to costs and carbs were cheaper.

There were two beaches right here in Kona, but we didn't swim here.  we had already been in earlier, and were exploring other things.  cousin S did though, jumping in after our dinner! :)
The Mokuaikaua Church is the first Christian church in HI, New England style construction because of the New England missionaries that had brought the church.

 replica of the ship Thaddeus that brought the missionaries.

 I explored the shops.

 We met cousins K&S for dinner.  they are a lovely balanced couple and I'm so glad that they are my family.  Hope we can remain friendly for a long time!  I'm sure they will always be having cool family centered adventures.

sunset.