Denise's Hawaii - The End

Oops, a week late, but yes we did get home okay.

Technically, it took us 2 days to get home! We checked out of our hotel in Kailua-Kona Thursday morning and walked into our house in Winnipeg at suppertime Friday. It was a good trip, but at the end, you're always glad to be home.

Final Day - Thursday, March 17
The Sheraton Keahou has a checkout time of Noon, so we decided to take advantage. We slept in, took our time getting ready, finished packing the last of the clothes back into the suitcases, etc, etc. We did our usual double, triple, quadruple check of the hotel room (I once left a jacket behind in a hotel in the Netherlands when I was 10 and I never got over it!).

I'm not sure what time we finally checked out, but it was likely around 11. So, lunchtime!

I had a list of a few restaurants I wanted to try so we figured we'd stop at the first one we found. They were right near a store that I desperately needed to visit. (Yes, desperately! But more on that later.)

But between the wonky GPS and the bad maps I had bought, we just could not find these places! We drove around and around the same blocks, in and out of parking lots in case they were tucked behind other buildings. Finally, we realized we had to give up and start looking for something else. Right across the street from where we had stopped to re-group appeared to be some sort of fast food mecca. There was BK, McD's, Wendy's, Subway, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell. We had successfully avoided all chains while on this trip, (including Denny's and IHOP) and there was NO WAY I was going to spoil it on the last day.... and we ended up at The Hut anyway. Ugh.

Don't get me wrong, it was delish, but I had higher hopes for us! But pricey! 1 12" two topping was $25.

After gorging ourselves on greasy, cheezy, delicious pepperoni pizza, we headed out to find my Del Sol store. Those who know me, know my Del Sol addiction. Most family souvenirs come from there. Darrin and I each fill our half of the closet with souvenir shirts from all our stops. I'm lost if I can't find one of my DS hairclips. And I've even been known to hit more than one store on the same island in case they have different styles. Yup, addict. But we just could not find this store. I was crushed, but we decided to move on. If we drove quickly, we could just make it for a coffee tour!

Above Kona is the hottest (not literally) coffee growing area around. Kona coffee is known worldwide and we were heading to the best. Mountain Thunder Coffee has their own farm, but also buys and sells to and from other farmers in the area. In 2010 Mountain Thunder won third place in the world for best coffee.

We had checked their website a couple times and verified that they offer tours every hour, on the hour. We pulled up at five minutes to 1. As we walked into the gates, we saw a group at a building right ahead of us. We figured they must have just started so we jumped in. Nope! They were half through. They don't really stick to the "on the hour" idea, they just start tours as large groups fill in. Makes sense, but it meant we took the last half of the tour from 1 to 1:30 and then we took the first half of the tour from about 2:15-2:45. Interesting way to do it, but hey, we got it done.

First the tour guide takes us to a coffee tree so we can see what the tree looks like, what the "cherries" look like and she gave us a brief history lesson of coffee. (First discovered in Ethiopia. Goat herders were the first ones to see what they could do with this plant.)

However, the beginning of the tour kept getting interrupted because Loverboy, a resident male goose, could not stand not being the centre of attention. Standing behind the group he made such a ruckus that sometimes you couldn't hear what she was saying!

After the outdoor stuff, we moved inside (sans goose) to the first area where the cherries are processed. Inside each cherry are two little beans (sort of look like peanuts). The outer layer is stripped and then the beans are sized. The bigger they are, the better they are (so they say). They go through different sorting screens and are bagged to be processed later. At this stage, the beans can sit for up to 2 years without losing any quality.

We got to see the roasting process (sadly there was a burnt batch sitting in the cooling tray when we got into the roasting room - apparently that can be up to a $1500 loss). We got to watch them bag and grind and package and prep orders to ship.

They also have an area outside where you can grab a cup of joe (free) and watch videos that have been shot at their farm including a National Geographic special, a local station show (like Shaw used to do), and an episode that Mike Rowe filmed there.

The only downside to the tour was the smell of coffee, it was everywhere. I hate the smell of coffee. :) Not that I was surprised though. I mean - it's a coffee farm and factory!

On the plus side, they had two of the sweetest cats I think I've ever met in my life. And I've met some pretty good ones!

After spending over $100 on coffee to bring home we hit the road and headed out to the chocolate factory.

Another downside of the coffee tour - we had already packed our suitcases. They were full, and I mean FULL. As in, I used the expansion zippers for the first time ever - on all THREE of them! So I had to pack the coffee into my nearly empty carry-on bag, and everytime I needed a pen, or a jacket, or money, I was "greeted" with the smell of coffee. Did I happen to mention I don't like it? The whole trip all I could smell was that coffee. I was sure the security agents at the airport were going to say something. The lady at the rental car agency did!

This chocolate factory is special as it's apparently the only one that deals with Hawaiian product from beginning to end. They grow it, harvest it, process it, package it - everything. It never leaves Hawaii until it's sold! But, another tour problem. Turns out they only give tours if you pre-book them. They don't even have the gift shop open if you didn't call first. Darn! There's goes all those creamy delicious souvenirs that may or may not actually make it back home.... yum.

So, now that we had time to kill and no other plans, we decided to make another attempt to find the Del Sol store.

Back into Kona we go and make a couple more trips down Ali'i Drive. Bingo! I saw the sign just as we turned a corner. There's no parking on Ali'i so we found a parking lot and away we went. Alas, it was not to be. They were closed! I don't think it was tsunami damage, because the store beside them (and closer to the water) was open, but who knows. There were several shops along that stretch that were shut down for flooding damage from the week before, so it's possible I guess.

Now I have to figure out how to not lose my last three hair clips until we travel south again someday, years from now. The horror!

Well, now I'm depressed and need to medicate with food. It wasn't quite dinner time, 4:30, but we did find a place that opened at 5 so we just killed time until we could get in.

Had a bit of a laugh after we ordered. The write up in the menu, and on a board outside, really made it sound like the chef/owner wanted a quality place, fresh ingredients, fusion of Hawaii and his native New Zealand and so on. Sounded really good. Well, I ordered a side of sweet potato fries... and proceeded to watch the cook search three different freezers before he finally found the bag of frozen fries that he deep-fried for my dinner! Wanted some curry mayo to go with them but the best they could offer was tartar sauce. It'll do.

I would have given my right arm for some good homemade chicken fingers, but they don't use white meat in the restaurant. Something about it "not absorbing the flavours as well" and since I don't enjoy the taste of dark meat, extra flavours or not, I skipped the chicken dishes. But Darrin had satay and really enjoyed it. He said it tasted between white and dark meat - however they achieved that!

We finished dinner before 6 and decided we'd just head over to the airport and check in really early for our 10:30 flight.

Returning the rental car to Budget was a total breeze. Considering we waited in line more than an hour to pick the Jeep up a week earlier, the drop off was like from another planet. We pulled up and a woman walked over with one of those hand-held computers/printers like couriers have. She punched in our gas and mileage, printed a little slip, and away we go. Had to have been 2 minutes.

She also asked if we'd been to a coffee farm that day because the whole Jeep oooozed coffee aroma. I was a little embarassed but she said she loved the coffee smell - and there was no coffee version of a smoking cleanup charge so we were good!

We caught the shuttle to the WestJet counter, but it turns out they weren't going to be open for another 45 minutes so we hung around the Delta counter where they had a couple benches to sit on.

Once the counter opened, 10 minutes late, it took about half an hour to get through. No problems with security, and then just chilled in the lounge until our flight was called. It was a really weird airport though. First, it's just laid out weird. You check in over here, but drop off your bags over there, and go through security somewhere else. Just trying to get to secure side you probably walk a mile from the check-in counter, depending which airline you start at.

Also, it's an open-air airport. All the counters are outside under overhangs. And the waiting areas around the gates just have a fence between you and airside. When the planes take off, they're pretty loud when you're right at the runway and there's no walls or windows to block the sound. The first plane that took off after we sat down actually startled a few people.

We got on the flight on time, made our connection in Vancouver and arrived home safe and sound. But breakfast in Vancouver broke my fast food rule again. Although, once you're back in Canada, does it really still count as vacation?

I went to get a breakfast sandwich at Tim's, and Darrin went for a breakfast platter at The Dub. I was hoping to get some onion rings for breakfast too (yes, they prepare their onion rings from the moment they open to the moment they close) but somebody forgot to buy them. I guess I survived though, because here we are, safe and sound and back to the grind.


Thanks for reading everyone. Hope you enjoyed our adventures and found the blog entertaining and informative, and hopefully not too many typos!

Final photos will be posted in the next couple days.

Please continue to check back to our blog occasionally as we try to update it whenever an agent travels.