Tim & Denise Tiner Travels: 2019 November - Day 04 Big Island Hawaii

Today was an interesting and long day. First, we were informed by our AIRBNB host that we could not stay until 5 PM. The house cleaner apparently needed to come earlier. So we had to be out by 2 PM. Not too big of a deal. But it did cause us to try and figure out what to do for 3 more hours.

The first item of the day was to get up and get all packed. After doing that, we headed to the temple to attend the 10 AM session. The temple, both outside and in, is very beautiful (as are all LDS temples). We really enjoyed the session.

After the temple, we returned to the BNB and changed our clothes and ate some left overs for lunch. Denise did not eat much as she still needed to check off the Loco Moco food item. Anyway, we left around 1 PM or a little after and headed up the north west coast to check out a few beaches. My sister’s ex brother-in-law owns a condo up there. We kind of wanted to see what it was like there. The drive was about 20 miles (40 minutes)...have I said what crazy speed limits they have here and how slow everyone drives?!?!? I just get so frustrated being in a 45 mph zone on a two lane highway and two cars blocking both lanes are going 40 mph. It is nuts! Anyway, the coast line looks a lot like the moon again...lots of lava rock landscape. We did not find it so pretty. However, we did pass by some nice, sandy, beaches that were in the resort areas. We actually got out of the car at Beach 69. It was interesting as it was amazingly shady. The trees went down almost to the water. So if you were not a sun seeker but loved the ocean...this would be perfect.

While we were driving back, my sister called us. We had been texting here asking questions about beaches and this area. Turns out we were at the exact area where Spencer’s condo was. It was a really nice area that had a very nice ‘mall’....Queens Market it was called. Shelley said we could find a food court there...which we did. And yes, Denise found a Hawaiian BBQ that had Loco Moco. But instead of having the ‘standard’ Loco Moco with a hamburger patty, she had the Kailua Pork on it instead. It was really good. Not very healthy...but good.

By now it was a little after 3 PM. And we had plans to see the movie Judy that started at one of the theaters at 5:10 PM. As it turned out, the darn theater was on the complete opposite end of Kona. And our darn GPS was taking us to odd places and my gas was beginning to run low. In the end, we arrived at the theater at 4 PM, bought tickets and wondered what the heck we were going to do for the next hour. So what did we do? We went to the Long’s Drug store and wandered around. I lasted about 10 minutes there and then headed out to just walk around the parking lot. Eventually we ended back up in the theater (that was empty) with the guys at the concession counter dinging us to buy popcorn, candy or sodas. At one point, I asked the kid if he made his money on commissions. He laughed and said he was new and just trying to impress his new bosses. We never bought anything...too full and way too expensive.

The movie (Judy) was about Judy Garland. Kind of a depressing show. But the actress playing her (Renee Zelleweger) will probably get the Oscar for her performance. It was impressive. We were out of the show by 7:30 PM. Our plane to SFO was at 10:30 PM. I still needed to get gas and we needed to return the rental car around 8 PM. Earlier, when looking for gas stations, my GPS showed Costco having gas for $3.09 per gallon. I would say the average price in Kona was $4.00 per gallon. So I called Costco because a) we did not have our card and b) wanted to know how much gas was...and indeed it was $3.09! Almost a dollar difference. So off we went to Costco to figure out how to buy it without a card. Denise could show her electronic card but the gas pumps do not have the means to recognize that. Denise also wanted her glasses fixed at their optical department. Well...it all worked out. We bought a gift card to use for gas. Denise got her glasses fixed (really nice gal worked with her on that). And we handed in the rental car at the airport around 8:30 PM. Not bad.

I am now writing this from the SFO airport. Our 5 hour flight went well arriving in SFO at 5:30 AM PST. We immediately went to get some breakfast using our Priority Pass. We can spend up to $58...which we did. Crazy huh?!?! But what a good deal for us and the food was pretty good. Now we hope we can get on the same plane but it looks like we might have to split up. Fortunately, the next plane has enough seats to get us home. We should be back in SLC by 2 PM.

It has been a really fun trip. Much more so than I thought it would be. I’d love to come back to this island and just enjoy it again....maybe stay on the Hilo side. Who knows. We’ll see where our next adventure takes us....until then!

Pictures:

Food Court at WaiaKola (something like that!)

Queens Marketplace at WaiaKola

Entry at Queens Market at Waikoloa Resort

Yesterday at the beach....headed to get a shaved ice!

Outside waiting area at the airport. They have no inside waiting area. Pretty interesting...

This is where they let the Denver Broncos cross the road when they come to the Big Island. I guess they run free over here as we saw a number of Denver Bronco crossing signs!

The grass parking lot by our BNB...

The Kona Temple...

Loco Moco...sorry the picture is sideways.

Beach 69....Northwest on Big Island.

The shady area of Beach 69....

Shaved ice with ice cream buried on the bottom....

Happy shaved ice consumers...

Our first and only Poke Bowl...so good. We were licking our fingers. It was calle Da Avo as it was in a Avocado Aioli sauce. The Ahi Tune as amazing. And you also see fried rice and macaroni salad...staples here.