Day 15

Friday, August 19

Today was  our last day at the Fairmont Orchid.  We decided to have breakfast at the Orchid Court, which turned out to be awesome.  The buffet was extensive, including a fruit bar, omelette station, eggs florentine, and a Japanese breakfast section, which included steamed fish, miso, rice, and kimchi. We stuck to the eggs florentine. After breakfast we reluctantly turned in our keys and checked out (Michelle may have teared up a little) and drove to Kailua-Kona to spend the rest of our day. 

At first, we stopped by the local post office to mail out some souvenirs and mail ourselves a giant box of laundry (which was probably the smartest traveling tip we got on the islands).  From there, we drove to the Hula Daddy Coffee Plantation for a coffee tour and to sample some coffee. 

Hula Daddy is located at 74-4944 Mamalahoa Highway in Kona.  The plantation sits on the lush western slope of the extinct Hulalalai Volcano and receives plenty of rain. We pulled up to what looked like a little house, which serves as the visitor's center and tasting room.  We were promptly offered coffee to sample.  It was amazing.  Now that we were salivating, we were taken on our tour of the plantation.  We were first taken out to the coffee trees and allowed to pick a couple of coffee cherries, which looked little red berries.  What we didn't know was that inside the cherry, the coffee bean is yellowish-white and is essentially encased in a slimy sugar coating. 



Coffee Cherries

At Hula Daddy, all cherries are hand-picked and hand sorted before the beans are removed from the cherries.  At that point, the sugar coating is washed off, so that the beans can rest.  After resting for months, the beans are sent to the roaster, where they get their brownish tones.  The roasting time determines the type of roast, from light to dark espresso.  We were taken to the roasting room to see all the different variety of beans Hula Daddy has to offer.  At the end of our tour, we sampled some more coffee and purchased all we could fit in our overstuffed suitcases. 

 

Hulihee Palace

We then drove back to "downtown" Kona, which essentially consists of Ali'i Drive and walked around the little shops and stands, looking for some more souvenirs.  There was quite an array of little shops, some specializing in things made out of Koa wood, some in rare gems and stones, Hawaiian shirts, leis, ukeleles, and surf gear. We were able to see two Hawaiian landmarks along Ali'i Drive, though we were too late to walk in.  The first is Hulihee palace, which was the former vacation home for Hawaiian royalty. The other building was the Moku'aikaua Church, the first Christian church in Hawaii.  Completed in 1837, Mokuʻaikaua Church sits today much as it did almost 200 years ago. It remains an active church. 

Moku'aikaua Church--the first Christian church in Hawaii. 

After we walked a fair amount, we decided to hunt down a place to eat.  Unfortunately, two of the places most highly recommended by our Lonely Planet Guide were closed for good.  So, we wound up at the Lava Java Cafe, where Jerry enjoyed some fish tacos and Michelle had some kailua pork pizza. Both were delicious.  We also were serenaded by a man named Joe, who apparently was in love with our waitress.

 After dinner, we drove to the tiny Kona airport, for our long flight home.  The Kona airport essentially looks like an outdoor bus terminal.  After waiting for about an hour, we walked out to our plane and flew to Arizona.  At 6PM, we arrived in DC, and were already thinking about how we would go back to Hawaii. 

We had the best trip either of us has ever had, and we couldn't have done it without all of our generous honeyfund donations. 

Mahalo!

Michelle and Jerry