Kona

Latte, Lava, and Lobster

We got up had some breakfast ….a sidenote would be that the coffee on this ship is not good….it is some Italian brand that is incredibly bitter…but, not being a coffee connoisseur I drink it for its pick-me-up value every morning…

In Kona the bar is too shallow for the big cruise ship so we have to tender ashore on the lifeboats. I love being on the water so loved the tender ride to the pier. Once on the pier we had to catch a shuttle to the airport to pick up the rental car.

In Hawaii there have been so many excursions offered…but they are so expensive.. and most of them just take you to see beautiful scenery that you could drive to on your own with a map. The rental car only costs 40/day as opposed to the ..for example…road to hana excursion, which did nothing different than we did in the car, and cost $170/person! We have saved a lot of money this trip by avoiding most of the excursions the ship offered and adventuring ourselves. I felt more confident with that here than I would in the Caribbean, I mean..this is just a US State – no foreign laws I might not be aware of breaking.

Anywho…..we rented a car to explore Kona which is the leeward side of the big island of Hawaii. (Kona actually means leeward in Hawaiian) Where Hilo was wet and lush and green on the windward side…Kona was not…..it was the side of the island where lava from Mauna Loa had made its path to the sea many many many years ago, but the island still had not recovered. I looked around and wondered how Kona coffee could possibly grow in such a barren wasteland. Don’t get me wrong…there was still a beauty about the island …but it was a primitive beauty…rather than the beauty of things that are lush and alive with color.

Our first stop of the day was Mountain Thunder Coffee….as seen on the Discovery channel. (ok..not really lattte..but I was trying to theme my title) This coffee plantation was at an elevation of 3500 ft up Mount Hualalai. Anyway….driving up Hulalai has nothing on San Francisco….pffftt….those San Francisco hills are nothing….up up up we went through beautiful neighborhoods with homes tiered into the side of the mountain so that every single house had a few of the mountain above and the ocean below. We finally reached the plantation. We got out to the smell of roasting coffee beans….and cats. So many big fat friendly cats. I was immediately giddy, as I always am when I get to pat an animal. We headed to a set of picnic tables where there was a video showing about the coffee making process. It was at this time a young, semi handsome, kid in jean and a t-shirt approached to give the tour. First..he handed me a cup of premier kona coffee from the mountain thunder plantation. OMG…so good…like nothing I had ever called coffee before. There was nothing bitter about this coffee…it was smooth…drank it black and didn’t even want cream or sugar to counter the taste. It was absolutely delicious. It was at that moment I understood people who drink black coffee…..it is a matter of drinking good black coffee and not just Maxwell house. Coffee is a bit like fine wine…..you drink based on the type and quality of the bean, etc…etc…etc.. Learned a lot about coffee beans in the tour of the processing plant, which is really not much more than a Mom and Pop kind of shop. We finished the tour and then were offered a cup of their finest Hawaiian espresso. I admit , the espresso was good, but not nearly as smooth as the kona premier blend. I bought some coffee…kona premiere blend, and some chocolate covered coffee beans and chocolate covered macademia nuts.


We headed off to the Kona Brewery that had been suggested to us for lunch by a member of the cruise director’s staff. I am not much of a beer drinker, but Rich had a flight of Kona brews and he enjoyed all of them. I had diet coke with my salad and slide of pizza. It was a good lunch.

Then we were off to the lava fields. Miles and miles and miles and miles of black lava rock all the way to the sea. They had chiseled a road through the lava field to the ocean ..it was a state park. We wound our way through the curvy, rough road where there was nothing but black lava on either side of the road for about 40 minutes….then suddenly it opened up to the sea with palm trees and sand..it looked like an oasis. I admit the drive through the lava field fascinated me….the devastation it wraught, looking at the petrified trees in the lava….just filled me with the wonder of our planet and how it has been formed.

After our drive back out of the lava fields it was time to fill the rental with gas, and return it and return by tender to the ship.

Wednesday night on the Pride of America (the name of our ship) is lobster night. They take on Maine lobsters (home grown in kona…go figure) We had reservations for the Lazy J Steakhouse specialty restaurant on board. …every one of the restaurants had some kind of lobster. I got dressed in another of my new dresses and we went and had a before dinner drink in the bar on the top deck, then down to dinner. It was delicious..and the lobster amazing..the wine not so good. When we finished dinner it was about 10 PM and we were tired…we have not stopped to relax this whole trip..so much to see and do. So we went on to bed.

Tomorrow – Kaua’i.