Hawai'i 02: In which we arrive, eat a lot, and consider our options.

Monday, March 16th

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We got up VERY EARLY (4:30), fed the cats and bustled into the taxi. The flight to Seattle was easy, the flight to Hawai'i was as bumpy as anything. They don't feed you anymore for free on airplanes, apparently, or show movies, but luckily we had lots of books and Dave's computer to watch Battle Star Galactica on (we are currently making our way through the entire series). Flying into Kona we saw turquoise water, and the whole plane went "ooooh!". We walked off the plane into warmth and sun. "This isn't Portland," I said to Dave. He smiled a big smile. We picked up our stuff, and asked the lady at the rental car place where we could get a good plate lunch. Four miles down the road we stopped at the Pine Tree cafe, and got a large Loco Moco (fried eggs on hamburger and sticky rice, covered in gravy) and Saimin (Chinese noodles in Japanese broth) to share, taking away hefty leftovers.

We meandered down the coast in our Dodge Caliber (Dave noted that now we know where the unpopular cars go--rental car places), readjusting to manual locks and windows. The Kona coast is lush but on the dry side of the island, so there's a lot of greenery but it's also warm and slightly humid. We couldn't check into our room until 3, so we admired views and drove down to Kealakekua Bay, where Captain Cook was killed, to check things out. We really wanted to see the monument near the spot where he was killed. We'd both read Blue Latitudes, a book about the travels of Cook (highly recommended), and had missed this the last time we were on the island. There was conflicting information as to whether kayaking across the bay or walking down to the monument was recommended. The area around the monument is considered sacred ground, so you can't drive there, and it's a long swim, and there's not an obvious kayak put-in. There are folks renting kayaks, though, and the bay looked a lot smaller than I'd expected, so at least there was an option.

We drove to our bungalow, at a place called "The Banana Patch", just north of the small town of Captain Cook. We found a private drive into a long alley surrounded by a lush garden. Each bungalow is very private, tucked away and out of view (though not out of hearing, we found out) of the other bungalows and neighbors. We immediately bumped into the caretaker, a character we think goes by the name of "B", who was a bit like a mix between a hippie sea captain and Iggy Pop. He said hi, and immediately started giving us directions to several places to see the sunset and recommendations as to where to eat. This is always welcome, though the directions were so long there was no way we were going to remember them, and his comment that he would "come take us to" one of the places to eat set off alarm bells for me. I'm happy to have advice on where to go and what to eat, but the point of the trip was NOT to have to do anything we didn't feel like, and having this dude drop by on us mid-week fell into that category. I assumed he'd forget all about it, and he eventually took off and we walked up the winding staircase to our door, surrounded by banana, papaya, and coffee plants.

I'd been a little bit worried because of our last experience in a treehouse. The last time had been in an actual treehouse, out on the old lava flows in Puna, in Southern Hawai'i. It was gorgeous, but the folks who built it hadn't made sure that the place was consistently screened and we were completely eaten by mosquitos. The Banana Patch treehouse is really nicely done--no actual window panes (amazing to be in a place that doesn't need them), but plenty of screens and it was delicious to be able to feel the breezes yet not get eaten alive. There was also a small kitchen (we cooked at home a lot), comfy chairs, a very comfy bed, and a small private hot tub on the back deck.

I was very excited about the produce in Hawai'i. When we'd visited 10 years ago, the local foods movement hadn't really kicked in, and there wasn't much around, food-wise, that was very accessible. Now there are plenty of farmer's markets and restaurants featuring local food, which is a wonderful mix of Asian, Hawai'ian, American, and even Portuguese. Good stuff. I'd heard that there were 40 different kinds of avocado in the islands, and was eager to start trying them. I picked up a couple of Haas avocados on our way in, but then we had time to check out the South Kona Fruit Stand before dinner. It's a wonderful permanent stand (highly recommended if you're in town), and they had, oh, only about 6 kinds of avocados that day. Beth, the owner, verified that there are about 30 varieties of avocados on the big island alone. We ended up with four kinds--2 almost as big as my head, and Dave got an extremely juicy-looking pineapple. Sadly, they weren't all ripe, so I ended up making do with the Haas avocados for dinner (they still made great guacamole).

We spent the evening hanging out in the hot tub and drinking beers, reading Mark Twain (I'm finishing his Hawai'ian diary), and listening to the neighbors.