A Wedding in Hawaii - Big Island Fun - Kona

We flew to the island of Hawai'i colloquially known as the "Big Island" for 3 days.  It's the biggest of the islands and the population is much lower on all the islands that aren't Oahu.

but before that we has breakfast at Cinnamons which is famous there and they have one of them in the Ilikai hotel.  Corned beef hash and Portuguese sausage are huge staples as well as rice and fried eggs.


Ala Moana and Waikiki beaches.

Diamond head crater

it's crazy to think that it's raining under those clouds at the mountain tops and sunny and beautiful down by the beach and that that rainy climate might just stay around the mountain top that day and that you can see it all happening from the sky.

a bunch of out of the plane boring shots but i find each one of these so interesting.  You can see 3 islands in this one
sheer cliffs


when you fly into Kona you land on an airport that's volcanic rock.  45 min flight, just long enough to get sleepy and not get rewarded with a nap


fresh flower lei refrigerator at the airport.  We went to Da Poke shop for poke bowls and other raw fish at some point and it was awesome.

Greenwell farms Kona coffee tour.  We got peaberry coffee for Jen's aunt cuz its her favorite.  Peaberry used to be thrown out as one of nature's errors but now its the most expensive.  


Apple banannas

coffee "cherries"

coffee plants

this roof thing rolls on or off to keep the beans dry during drying time


coffee flowers


hibiscus flower, this is what's on my suit

a Jackson chameleon is lurking in this photo somewhere

dirt road leading to where?

would take some balls to do this...

and pop up on the other side







Volcanic rock as far as the eye can see

2 sets of tourists seen all day.  Tons of these little lagoons.  tons of fish in them.  And sea turtles!






seems out of place but I guess it's legit.  

at one point we were hanging out in our own little lagoon and goats crested the lava hill and scampered off.  So I guess goats are a thing

we raced off to capture the sunset (seems to be a theme for us when we are by the ocean).  We made it in the nick of time, found amazing parking and strolled up to place that looked best for a sunset drink and it turned out to be Don the Beachcomber, a kitchy tiki bar that Jen had wanted to go to in the first place. Perfect ending to a perfect day.

a Chi-chi is a pina colada with vodka instead of rum and is my favorite "Hawaiian" drink if I must have sweet island cocktails.  Not into mai tais (on the right).  Chi-chis are very dangerous because you can't taste the alcohol.




We went to Big Island Grill which was the 2nd worst food we had in Hawaii which I don't like to say because I want to keep the Hawaiian paradise vibe going but the food just wasn't that good.  Jen kept insisting that I have to try Saimin, a noodle soup mashup of of cultural foods from the sugar plantation days.  She says it's awesome elsewhere

Kona Brewing Company down the street.  Only a few of their brews are commercially available.

getting fresh water straight from the source.

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