We stopped so many places and saw so much of the Big Island of Hawaii today. The first stop was to fuel up - ourselves - so we picked the Pink Mocha Cafe for a cold brew Kona with caramel for LouAnna (L), the Passionfruit Watermelon juice for Chris (C), and a couple of warm breakfast crossanwiches. Very nearby was Mrs. Barry's cookie shop so we stopped in there and bought a sampler bag of 12. Since it's the weekend and most things are pretty busy - we decided to see the island via the rental car.
We decided to go get some macadamia nuts. We picked Hamakua Macadamia Nut Company. It was up north in Historic Kawaihae. They were so nice and the video showed us how the nuts get from farm to store since the factory was closed due to it being the weekend. They had free tastings of their mac nuts, brittle, ice cream, and two types of Kona coffee that they also sell. We bought so many things because they were all so yummy. What you don't see in the pictures are the two types of ice cream we devoured - vanilla mac nut caramel - yummy and C's fave of the two, and the Purple Yam - Ube, which is L's favorite.
We decided to go on to Hilo, which is on the eastern side of the island. We stopped at a grocery store to buy apple bananas since we heard about them at the coffee tour and now we want to try them. What you also don't see in the picture is shaved ice. While in Hilo, we also stopped at Kula Shaved Ice. L got the 1/2 pineapple, 1/2 blueberry ice and C got the passionfruit ice with chocolate shell topping. Then, we set the GPS back to the condo.
This island is so large that it has different terrains throughout. We drove up in the clouds for many parts of the trip and our ears popped like Rice Crispies for those ~4 hours we toured around. We saw lush and green and leafy parts, then the desolate black lava parts, and then the parts that looked like we could be driving through the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. We didn't stop and take pictures. We just took in the day. Driving up and down the top 1/2 of the island - stopping to gather snacks.
Once we returned to the condo, we ordered dinner from a local Mexican restaurant because L was in the mood. We ordered two types of tacos, a chicken/cheese empanada, a big ole burrito, and chips with queso. The refried beans and the chips were good. We wouldn't recommend it. Everything was either very greasy or bone dry. Fear not, we are rich in snacks!
The pool and hot tub were too busy for us to get in this afternoon so we just sat on our balcony and enjoyed the last 2 hours of sunlight. We both took many photos of the sunset tonight as it was just glorious. We're showered and ready for bed. It was another fun day in Hawaii.
Realization #7294: Chris and LouAnna hardly ever take photos of themselves! 😂
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