The Beauty Around Us

Our Hawaiian Vacation: One Last Drive

By Linda G. on August 17, 2010

We went on one last drive along the coast our fourteenth day in Hawaii (May 30). We drove approximately 12 miles south of Kona.

Our first stop was at Kahalu’u Beach Park (Keauhou, HI), approximately 4 miles south of Kona.

The Outrigger Keauhou Beach Resort adjoins Kahalu’u Beach Park. Dorothy and I went for a stroll through the resort’s gardens.

From Kahalu’u Beach Park we drove 8 miles further south to Kealakekua Bay State Historical Park (Napoopoo, HI), where one can see the Captain Cook Monument located one mile across the bay.

We drove north to downtown Kona from Napoopoo. Along the way a highway intersection caught my eye.

John dropped off Bob and me at Kona Inn. We took one last walk through the Kona Inn Shopping Village.

Bob and I met John and Dorothy at Oceans Sports Bar and Grill, where we ate pupus (appetizers).

After finishing our pupus, Dorothy and I went for a walk down Alii Drive to watch boys who were surfing at Oneo Bay. John and Bob remained at Oceans and enjoyed a couple pints of beer.

These surfing pictures are the best that I took while on vacation in Hawaii. In addition to being closer to the action, I utilized sequential shooting rather than single-frame shooting and used my camera’s shutter priority setting in an attempt to freeze the action.

Later in the day Dorothy and I watched the sun set into the ocean from the vantage point of the Keauhou Shopping Center.

The next day, May 31st, Bob and I spent the morning and afternoon hours at John and Dorothy’s condominium. We finished packing and relaxed in preparation for our flight home late that evening. We ate dinner at the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co., sitting on an outside patio at the edge of the ocean. We enjoyed watching the waves come in, as we chatted amicably and ate our dinner.

We departed Kona airport at 10:45 PM. We breezed through Kona airport when we first arrived in Hawaii. Leaving from Kona airport was a little more taxing. The first thing we had to do was put go through an agricultural inspection station, where our checked baggage was inspected. We then got in line to check in. The check-in line was long and moving very slowly. We soon discovered if we paid $5.00 for curbside check in, that we could jump the check-in line. We got our bag checked in quickly. We didn’t need to print boarding passes, as we had done so at the condominium earlier in the day. Our bag weighed 48 pounds. WHEW! The limit is 50 pounds. The next check was through security. We hugged John and Dorothy and thanked them for everything before going through security. We removed our shoes and put them in a bin. Our laptop computers went in other bins. We had to put our video camera in a bin as well (didn’t have to do this at other airports). We laid our carry-on baggage on the conveyor belt. The security check went smoothly. We wondered if Bob would be able to carry an empty Kona Brewing Company growler on board; no problem. When we finished the security check, we waved goodbye to Dorothy and John (they hung around while we went through security in case we had to hand over the growler to them). There was one last check at the gate. Our carry-on baggage went through an agricultural inspection. I don’t understand why both checked and carry-on baggage couldn’t have been inspected at the first inspection station.

We arrived at the Pittsburgh airport, via Phoenix, at 4:04 PM (local time) on June 1st. Total travel time, including layovers, was approximately 12 hours. I slept on the plane, but not much. I managed to get a few minutes sleep here and there. Bob slept a couple hours; said he was rested enough to drive home when we landed in Pittsburgh. I said “no, no more travel”. After landing at the airport we were checked in to our hotel and on our way to dinner within 30 minutes. We ate dinner at Cracker Barrel. We both were hungry, as we had eaten only a snack bar and drank soft drinks and coffee / tea during our flights. I crashed soon after returning to the hotel from dinner. I was asleep by 6:00 PM. Bob awakened me at 8:00 PM (my request). I went back to bed at 10:30 PM. Bob went to bed at 11:30 PM.

On June 2d we drove home from the hotel. We arrived home at approximately 1:30 PM.

This blog post concludes our Hawaiian vacation. Our Hawaiian vacation began on May 16th and ended on June 2d. I uploaded my first blog post about our vacation on June 7th. A little more than 2 months later I uploaded my final blog post about our vacation. Wow, that took a long time! I hope that you have enjoyed reading about our vacation, as much as I enjoyed sharing it with you.