Happy Anniversary Day #4

Our day started just before sunrise. I got up and walked out onto the lanai so I could get a glimpse of the sun breaking over the mountains. Bummer. Lots of clouds over there and, instead of a brilliant orb creeping into view; it just went from dark to light.

After showering, I headed downstairs to find a coffee pot. Surely they would have one out for us to use. But my mission was a failure. No coffee pot. I started back upstairs when Wendi called out to me from her kitchen. “Want some coffee?” Oh, yeah! I went in and she handed me two very large cups, brimming with that hot elixir of life.

As I managed to finally navigate my way up stairs and to figure out how to open the door, Sharon greeted me by simply taking one cup and saying, “Why did you put the entire pot in my cup?”

After a while, we headed downstairs for breakfast.

Let me digress a moment. While researching for places to stay, Sharon read a review about this place that mentioned Dave’s breakfast burrito. One person actually said that it was the best breakfast burrito available on the entire island. Based on this, and other, reviews, we decided to stay at this particular B&B.

As we were munching on a bit of fresh fruit, Wendi surprised us with a bottle of champagne (Veuve du Vernay Brut)  to help us celebrate our 30th anniversary. Nice. Then, Dave brought out his huge burrito! I must say that the reviewer was correct in saying this is a great meal. Stuffed with mushrooms, sausage, cheese, onions, and tomatoes, the large flour tortilla covered the plate! We dove into our meal, devouring everything, while sipping daintily on our bubbly. Very nice.

As we were finishing up, Wendi, who had been keeping us company, asked what our plans were for today. Naturally, we were going to a beach and probably visit a coffee plantation. Up she gets, running off into the house. We head upstairs to get our GPS and guide book. When we get back down, Wendi had a cooler, towels, water bottles and two beach chairs all ready for us. She also included snacks, some plastic ware, glasses and a corkscrew! We are now set for the day!

Heading south, our first stop was a coffee plantation, Greenwell Farms. Here we sampled a lot of their coffee before we walked over to where the beans were collected, cleaned, sorted, and dried. We spent a few minutes watching before we returned to have another sample or two. I decided to buy a bag of Kona and some chocolate covered beans to give to Wendi. As I was waiting in line, a lady was attempting to buy some coffee but her credit card was not working. She turned and told her husband, “My card doesn’t work! Did you tell the credit card company we were leaving Montana?” What? It’s not like you’re in China, lady. This is still the U.S., you know. More likely her card was either maxed out or it wasn’t being read correctly by the card reader. I paid for my purchase (with a credit card) without any problems.

If I didn’t have a coffee buzz when we left the B&B, this place definitely jazzed me up. I was ready to walk all the way to South Point now!

Back on the road, we set our sites on getting to Punalu’u Beach State Park. The drive along Highway 11 was relaxing and uneventful. As we arrived in Nā’ālehu, we decided to stop at a shop recommended by Wendi to buy a couple of sandwiches for lunch. There, we found Punalu’u Bakeshop and Visitor Center, “The most southern bakery in the US”. The smells drifting outside the shop were delightful and, following our noses, we entered the bake shop to find an amazing assortment of doughnuts, pastries, and sandwiches. Sharon was very interested in the mango doughnut but found the strength to resist. We purchased a couple of Hawaiian bread sandwiches and an assortment of fruit to take to our picnic on the beach.

We finally arrived at Punalu’u Beach. We selected this particular beach because it is a black sand beach. As I walked out to the beach, I noticed two things immediately: first, the sand was much coarser than I expected sand to be and second, the black sand is very HOT!

I immediately noticed two sea turtles sunning themselves on the beach along with a few more playing in the surf just off-shore. We set up our beach chairs, lathered up with sun tan lotion, and just relaxed for a bit before having our picnic lunch. We explored the area some before packing up and heading back to the car. Signs everywhere stated, “Don’t take the sand with you.” But that is pretty hard to do since the stuff sticks to you like glue. We couldn’t help getting some in the car where Sharon carefully picked the pieces off and put in a safe place (souvenir, don’t you know?).

On the way back to Kona, we stopped at the Shaka Restaurant and the “southernmost bar in the U.S.” so I could get a picture of it. Would have liked to have gone in and try a bit of the local brew but had a good drive still ahead of us.

Next stop was the Pu’uhonua O Hōnaunau (Place of Refuge) National Historic Park. It provides a good view of native Hawaiian life on a beach made of both lava (black) sand and coral (white) sand (a perfect salt-and-pepper beach). Walking through the tidal basin, we found lots of critters like fish, sea urchins, crabs, and other things. In one of the buildings, we noticed an endangered Hawaiian seal resting. Overall, this was a pretty cool place.

Located on Kealakekua Bay our next beach, Nāpō’opo’o Beach, was pretty hard to get to. This beach, if you can call it one, is covered with very large rocks and only a small area of black sand. Great place to just sit and ponder the universe. You can see Captain Cook’s monument across the bay. Supposedly, when you swim here, you are joined with spinner dolphins but I didn’t see any.

Finally, back to our home base in time to find that the cruise ship followed us from Hilo! We headed out to the Kona Brewing Company to have a really nice spinach and green cheese salad, a couple of locally brewed beers, a nice supper, and all of it outdoors! Back to hit the sack after watching the stars and having another beer before bed.