November 2, 2019
We arrived a day late to the Big Island due to not being able to get on the plane yesterday. I had a seat. Denise did not. So we ended up getting a hotel room and then catching an 8:30 AM flight to Kona. However, on Friday, between landing in SFO and our flight to Kona (that we did not get on), Kami came over and got us and took us to the marina where her cruise ship is moored. I had never been there before. Both her and her boy friends boats are really nice. Two bedrooms, two baths and nice areas to hang out in. We were there about an hour and a half before we came back to the airport. She is about 10 minutes away.
We arrived in Kona around 10:30 AM. Not too bad. We would have been at the temple until almost noon anyways. After getting a rental car from Enterprise, we headed to our BNB. It was real close...just up the mountain and a bit south. Maybe 10 minutes max. We unpacked our stuff and then decided that we would head south down to the southern tip of the island. We stopped at a sandwich shop called Poi Dog Deli. The sandwiches there were about $15. So we split one. It was pretty skimpy for the price. But it was good. Unfortunately we did not see that the ham and pineapple sandwich also had jalapeños on it. Made it hot.
Our drive south was about a 1.5 hours long on some narrow roads. The drivers here are opposite than Utah drivers. If it says 35 MPH...they go 30 and stay in the fast lane when there are two lanes. And yes, they have roads with two lanes each way that have 35 MPH zones. It is pretty nuts. Anyway, down at the southern tip were two beaches that we wanted to see...Green and Black sand beaches. We decided to go to the Green Sand beach as it was said that we had to walk 2.5 miles, one way to get to the beach. But we had heard, however, that there were people who would drive you down. We arrived there around 3:30 PM. It was hot. The parking lot was dirty. People were getting into their cars and we asked them about the hike. They were clear...DON'T DO IT!. PAY THE MONEY. Yes, there were people, homeless looking people with beat up trucks, suburbans, SUV's and ATV's taking people. A gal and her boyfriend said it was their turn to take people in. We asked how much. $20 per person for a round trip ride and 45 minutes messing around on the beach. And based upon what we were hearing...the decision was a no brainer. We said...let's do it. It turned out, with another couple from Switzerland, we got into the back of a beat up pick truck with bars all around to hold on to. I sat on the floor. But the gal said that I was going to want to stand up. She was right. I have never taken a ride like that before. To go the 2.5 miles, it took 20 minutes for that truck to grind over a terrain that looked like the moon (lava rocks) and dirty trails. Super large pot holes, hills to climb and so on. I was sweating when we arrived because of the intense grip I had on the poles and trying to remain standing as they 4-wheeled over this path. Now, the beach was pretty nice. Yes the sand was green. There are only two in the world like this beach. We had to walk down a bit to get to the beach. But I had my shirt and shoes off and into the ocean. Home again. It felt so good. The waves were pretty rough however...surf was coming in. Nonetheless, it was great...felt so good. After our 30+ minutes, off we were with the moon rover taking us back over this crazy landscape. We were SO GLAD that we did not walk that. We would have gotten lost and we'd probably still be walking!
We arrived in Kona around 10:30 AM. Not too bad. We would have been at the temple until almost noon anyways. After getting a rental car from Enterprise, we headed to our BNB. It was real close...just up the mountain and a bit south. Maybe 10 minutes max. We unpacked our stuff and then decided that we would head south down to the southern tip of the island. We stopped at a sandwich shop called Poi Dog Deli. The sandwiches there were about $15. So we split one. It was pretty skimpy for the price. But it was good. Unfortunately we did not see that the ham and pineapple sandwich also had jalapeños on it. Made it hot.
Our drive south was about a 1.5 hours long on some narrow roads. The drivers here are opposite than Utah drivers. If it says 35 MPH...they go 30 and stay in the fast lane when there are two lanes. And yes, they have roads with two lanes each way that have 35 MPH zones. It is pretty nuts. Anyway, down at the southern tip were two beaches that we wanted to see...Green and Black sand beaches. We decided to go to the Green Sand beach as it was said that we had to walk 2.5 miles, one way to get to the beach. But we had heard, however, that there were people who would drive you down. We arrived there around 3:30 PM. It was hot. The parking lot was dirty. People were getting into their cars and we asked them about the hike. They were clear...DON'T DO IT!. PAY THE MONEY. Yes, there were people, homeless looking people with beat up trucks, suburbans, SUV's and ATV's taking people. A gal and her boyfriend said it was their turn to take people in. We asked how much. $20 per person for a round trip ride and 45 minutes messing around on the beach. And based upon what we were hearing...the decision was a no brainer. We said...let's do it. It turned out, with another couple from Switzerland, we got into the back of a beat up pick truck with bars all around to hold on to. I sat on the floor. But the gal said that I was going to want to stand up. She was right. I have never taken a ride like that before. To go the 2.5 miles, it took 20 minutes for that truck to grind over a terrain that looked like the moon (lava rocks) and dirty trails. Super large pot holes, hills to climb and so on. I was sweating when we arrived because of the intense grip I had on the poles and trying to remain standing as they 4-wheeled over this path. Now, the beach was pretty nice. Yes the sand was green. There are only two in the world like this beach. We had to walk down a bit to get to the beach. But I had my shirt and shoes off and into the ocean. Home again. It felt so good. The waves were pretty rough however...surf was coming in. Nonetheless, it was great...felt so good. After our 30+ minutes, off we were with the moon rover taking us back over this crazy landscape. We were SO GLAD that we did not walk that. We would have gotten lost and we'd probably still be walking!
After Green Sand beach, we headed to the Black Sand beach. It was another 20 minutes or so up the highway once we got back to the highway. The Green Sand beach parking lot was about 11 miles from the highway. Anyway, the Black Sand beach was easy to get to. It was pretty actually. Yes...it was all black sand. Much more course of sand than that at Green Sand beach. We did not stay long here. Just took some pictures and then turned the car back towards Kona.
We arrived back north of Kona and decided to find the temple. Our BNB is about 5 miles from the temple. It was a pretty siteto see all lit up at night. We arrived there around 7 PM. Getting to it is somewhat odd as it is at the end of a dead end street. I've never seen that before. We hope to do some temple work on Tuesday before we leave that day.
For dinner, we went to Denny's. Yep...Denny's. We were tiredand it was the only obvious thing. I was told by my sister to try the Loco Moco. And sure enough Denny's had it. Pork Fried rice, a big burger patty on top, with a fried egg on top of the patty all buried in brown gravy. It also had onions and other assorted vegetables. It was really good. I could not eat it all and took half home for breakfast. Denise had some crazy good pancakes with all the trimmings (bacon, hash browns, etc.) After my AARP discount...$36! I would have paid less than $20 for that at home. The food here is really, really expensive.
After eating, we went to Safeways that was in the same parking lot and bought some chocolate milk and pastry treats for some of our breakfasts. We then returned to the BNB, showered and then totally crashed into bed. We were wiped out!
Pictures:
Green Sand Beach....
Black Sand Beach.....
Our BNB...really clean...really nice. Not big...just right.
In one of the tide pools at the Black Sand Beach, there was this ripples in the water.. It was a little spring of water coming up through the rocks.
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