After a harried morning trying to make sure our things were in order, packed properly for a flight, and that we didn't forget anything, we relaxed for an hour or so before hitting the road en route to Kona to catch our flight home. Since we had a red eye flight (a.k.a. overnight, leaving at 10pm), we had a whole day to "kill", so we gradually made our way.
Our final day in Hawaii, we packed up our things and hit the road en-route to Kona for the day. Other than the complete lack of restaurants or reasonable food sources nearby, we were sad to say goodbye to Sea Mountain - our stay there was wonderful! But we were escorted away with some incredible views such as these, which made the parting a little sweeter :)
South Point Road
Mark was fascinated with the idea of South Point Road and decided that with a sleeping kiddo and some time to kill, we might as well drive down there. We figured the views must just be out of this world. Instead, we got a lot of this, which...don't get me wrong, it's beautiful...is just like driving in rural Minnesota. Well...except for the lack of snow...in April lol
They even had a row of windmills, because apparently it's very windy at South Point. (It makes me wonder if they've ever been to Southwest Minnesota haha)
We were fascinated with a few things while on this short road: 1) How many people actually had built homes out there, and 2) How many of those properties were dilapidated.
Regardless, it was still a beautiful drive on a beautiful day! Initially, we had planned to do this 2 mile hike down to Papalokea Green Sand Beach, but with how much sun we had gotten the day before, along with our need for a down day, we had skipped it. And considering it was pretty warm that day, we decided that without a place to shower, we would just skip Papalokea altogether. We enjoyed the view just the same, though :) We turned around when the road started getting rough.
After our little excursion, we headed back on South Point and rejoined our main road headed to Kona, which soon turned into such an interesting part of the island: the volcanic rock "desert", as I like to call it.
It doesn't really look like much, but it's pretty impressive when you're there. It's amazing to think that at one point, this was where the lava flowed.
Big Jake's Island BBQ
We didn't stick around to check it out for too long since our tummies were rumbling, and made our way to Big Jake's Island BBQ, which had rave reviews (that they TOTALLY lived up to) to find ourselves some lunch.
While the place itself was pretty underwhelming, the food was incredible! Jake talked us into a delicious special of the day, which was a ham sandwich with a honey clove glaze, some beans and slaw. My mouth is literally still watering just thinking about it!
One of the things I was overly worried about on the trip was how we were going to keep our (what we thought was) picky toddler nourished, but he surprised us and chowed down on pretty much everything we let him try. The ham? Yeah, he ate a lot of it lol
Well, that is...when we could get him to stop watching all the roosters that were roaming around lol
Greenwell Farms
One of the parts of the trip I was looking forward to this time around, since we missed it the last time, was to tour Greenwell Farms - arguably one of the best coffee plantations in the world! I had been saving up my blow fund dollars for a while in preparation for this stop :)
We took a short walking tour of the plantation, learned how coffee is make and the history of the operation.
On the coffee tour, we also learned that avocados are grown on a tree...
...and that coffee "beans" are really from berries, and that those berries are supposed to be green when you pick them - who knew?
The reason that Kona coffee beans are so very expensive is that they are hand-picked by Americans in a higher-paying region, which makes sense. They then run them through this machine, which cracks open the berry pods and spits out the beans inside.
They then soak them in these giant tubs...
...and then dry them on the roofs of these buildings for 3 days.
I was pleased to find so many flavors that I liked, so I ended up with 3 bags of coffee: Macadamia Nut, Chocolate Macadamia Nut and Chameleon Blend. I had initially gone in thinking that Peaberry was going to be THE big thing, but I found the flavor too bold for my likings, so I settled on a bag of chocolate covered Peaberry coffee beans instead. Ninety dollars later (Oy!), we were back on the road towards Kona :)
We made the last little stretch in good time to Kona and killed a bit of time at Walmart before making our way down near the beach and touristy area for the evening. Cashel really enjoyed stretching his legs and wandering ALL over Walmart (with Mark and I chasing behind him).
The Oceanfront
When we got down near the waterfront, we explored the boardwalk area a bit. I could probably have spent a few hours perusing the little shops, but believe it or not, we actually didn't have that much time left in our day to explore.
Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.
Before long, we happened across our dinner spot for the night: Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. I had always wanted to try this place out, but honestly hadn't ever been anywhere that I knew one existed, so that was sort of exciting.
This was our view from our table - beautiful!
I thought it was cute how you cued the service here: If you wanted them to refill drinks/etc., all you had to do was flip over this sign, which said, "Stop, Forest, Stop!"
It was early, and we were still fairly full from lunch, but we knew we needed to be at the airport early, so it was either this, or become scavengers at 11pm when our stomachs really started growling and we were an hour into a 7 hour flight. We decided to split the shrimp scampi, which was good, but not out of this world. It would have been nice to try one of their more signature dishes, but Mark isn't overly adventurous when it comes to seafood, so we settled :)
Final Sunset in Hawaii
After supper, we wandered down the street a ways further and happened across the beginnings of a beautiful sunset overlooking the rocky beach front area just off from a little park. It was perfect timing with a squirmy, curious little kiddo, who thoroughly enjoyed inspecting all the rocks :)
Before we knew it, the sun was making its final descent :) It was a wonderful ending to a wonderful vacation for us.
We made our way back to the car, stopping for ice cream along the way (two scoops: macadamia nut and coconut), then piled into the car and headed for the airport. Poor little man conked out during the 20 minute drive, and kept sleeping as we took him out of the car in his carseat while we waited for Mark to return the rental car.
Our flights home were both without any issues, and our little guy slept the whole way (can't say as much for Mom and Dad, but we tried). Why can't paradise be just a short drive away?
Aloha! And Mahalo for a wonderful visit, Hawaii :)
