Hawaii trip Sept. 14

 Thursday, Sept. 14


Well, we have just one more day here before we must say goodbye to the Big Island, and say hello to the Garden Isle of Kauai. It’s been a lot of fun. We just returned from a tour/tasting at a coffee farm/processing plant. And we have a sunset cruise/dinner booked for the evening. But tomorrow, we must arrive at the Kona airport at about 11 a.m. to return the rental car and get checked in for our 2-part flight departing Kona about 1:30.




Last night was a little “weird” with dinner because of that late lunch we had. Neither of us was particularly hungry around our usual eating time of 5-6 p.m., so Julie went to watch part of a hula dance competition taking place at our hotel. People are here from all over the U.S. doing the hula! It’s not quite “Dancing With the Stars,” but it looks like great fun, and there’s folks here from Kansas and Iowa and all over competing in this thing … mostly women, but a few guys here and there. I did not go, but Julie said it was great fun, and judging by the looks of the competitors walking around the hotel (mostly seniors), a great way to stay flexible and in shape, too! I stayed in the room and worked on the blog. Eventually, I did get hungry and after some hemming and hawing decided to simply go the one and only restaurant/bar here at the hotel called “Rays on the Bay.” Our hotel had given us a coupon for two complimentary cocktails, so I ordered two Mojitos, normally $12 apiece, so I got $24 worth of free booze. I then ordered “Da Burger” off their menu, which was a ½ pound burger with all the usual fixin’s including Gruyere cheese, which was really yummy. Some kind of sweet sauce rounded it out to “Island-ise” it, and that was served with fries. I texted Julie a couple of times to join me at the bar, and she finally made it and we got her a cocktail too, something called, “It Takes Two to Mango,” get it? No rum (surprising) but shots of two different flavored vodka, vanilla and mango. Add some kind of fruit juice (probably pineapple), ice, and blend it into a smoothie. Then, she ordered a sampler plate of three different flavors of sorbet, then topped that off with a small bowl of mixed nuts. Like I said, a weird dinner. I thought that the ½ pound burger eaten at about 8 p.m. was going to wreak havoc with my stomach in the middle of the night, but I was OK.



So after a good night’s sleep, we awoke around 6 a.m., and after Julie’s walk we went down to the hotel coffee shop for a light breakfast of cinnamon rolls, fruit, yogurt, and coffee/tea. We talked about what to do this final day, and decided on a coffee plantation tour, a visit to Hawaii’s first chocolate shop, and I booked a sunset cruise/dinner. We’ve been to Greenwell Farms, a coffee farm/processing plant. It is Hawaii's oldest continuing operating plant, going back to the 1870s. Opened by an English settler who had originally intended on raising cattle. Here are a few pictures:






Danielle, our tour guide with torn jeans, next to a coffee plant.







Husk/cherry (bottom) and the two beans encased in a soft pulp




The husks (also called the cherries), are peeled off by a machine. The cherries (which used to be thrown away) are shipped off to another processor and turned into a powder that is sold as a health supplement which has six times the antioxidants of blueberries.



The husked beans are then placed on huge concrete slabs where the pulp in fermented away, and the beans dried.







Coffee beans drying on giant tables. There's about 500 pounds here.





Learned a few things on the tour. For example, dark roast coffees (including espresso) actually have less caffeine than lighter roasts. A strong, rich flavor might seem to indicate an extra dose of caffeine, but the truth is that light roasts actually pack more of a jolt than dark roasts. Second, don't store your coffee in the freezer, like I've been doing the last five years. Store in an airtight container at room temperature. Third, let your boiling water in the teakettle sit for a couple of minutes to bring it down off the boil to about 180 degrees or so.


After the tour, I gave Danielle a fiver, and told her put the money toward a new pair of jeans that didn't have holes in them. *


I had a couple more samples back at the storefront, while Julie bought a can of "Kona Red," one of the brands of powdered coffee cherry antioxidant. Back to the hotel, where we relaxed for a while, then off to the pier for a little shopping before our sunset tour. On the way there, it began to pour rain. I'm talking buckets. We got to the pickup point for our cruise, and called the office to make sure we were at the right place, and the lady said the sunset cruise was cancelled due to weather, and that we would be receiving a refund. Damn! This also scuttled the trip to the chocolate shop, which is at the same pier where we were going to catch the boat. But Hawaii's Original Chocolate Factory has shops on all the major four islands. So we will hit that later!


So, when all fails, EAT, right? We were both kind of hungry anyway. We figured we would pick up a little snack before the cruise (perhaps chocolate?). So we headed back to Jackie Rey's, our first-night restaurant where the food was so good, and feasted on happy hour specials. When we got there, the place was practically empty, but in less than half an hour, the place was packed. So I'm not the only one who thinks "food" when all else fails, but I'm usually the FIRST to think about it! Anyway, we had tropical drinks, spring rolls, crabcakes, clam chowder, fish tacos, and lilikoi cheesecake for dessert (with Kona coffee of course!) while we watched the sky above open a vein of torrential rain. The tab came to $91 plus a tip. Worth every penny, especially knowing that at regular non-happy hour prices, the tab probably would have been $40 more!


We are now back at the Sheraton. I got the front desk to print our boarding passes for the island hop tomorrow to Lihue, Kauai. Our plane leaves Kona at 1:25 p.m., with a changeover in Honolulu. Barring delays or cancelled flights, we should be in Lihue around 3:30.


That's all for now.


Bruce



* Just seeing if you were paying attention. I'm not so old as to not know that pre-ripped jeans are a "thing" right now. But I AM old enough to believe that it's ridiculous! Honestly, though, I handed Danielle a fiver and thanked her for a GREAT narration. She really knew her stuff.