Wednesday, March 24

Moving day! We’re staying in several condo units during our time in Hawaii, so today we moved from Hali’i Kai Resort in Waikoloa to Kona Coast Resort in Kona. Moving is a lot of work — even when traveling — so Andi and I spent a few hours this morning packing our bags, filling coolers and tidying up the condo that’s been home for the past week. How did we accumulate this much stuff already?

We all felt a little sad saying good-bye to Hali’i Kai as we drove out of the gate around 10:00am. We had a really nice time there. “What will the pool be like at the next place, Dad?” Aden wanted to know. Tory and Aden are stressing because the next few spots we’re staying require guests to make pool reservations in advance to manage the number of people using it at one time + so the resort can sanitize the pool between sessions. Thanks, COVID. Andi and I assured the kids it’ll be fine — there will still be plenty of pool time in their future.

Aloha Hali’i Kai!

It took us about 30-minutes to drive from Waikoloa to Kona. Our new condo wasn’t ready for check-in yet, so the four of us went to Target. I wanted to buy a sweatshirt (parts of the island are cooler than I expected) and the kids had some souvenir money from Grandma & Grandpa burning a hole in their pockets.

We bought the kids a slice of pizza & breadsticks from the Pizza Hut in Target and then Andi and I got take-out from Broke da Mouth Grinz. I wondered where in the world Andi was taking us for lunch when we pulled into the parking lot of a strip mall in an industrial area, but then I noticed the line of people inside the restaurant. The whole menu looked fantastic, and the restaurant staff was cranking out orders! Andi and I decided to spit the 3-choice mixed plate so we could try several items & ordered the restaurant’s popular furikake chicken, kaluha pork and bbq beef with brown rice, kimchi cucumbers and crab & broccoli salad. It was enough food to feed both of us.

From the shopping area in Kona, we drove along the infamous Ali’i Drive. Neither Andi or I were very impressed with all the traffic! Finally at 3:30pm, we were able to check into our new condo unit. We’ll be staying here for the next 10 days. The new condo is bigger than the one we stayed at last week, but Tory and Aden will be sharing a bed … so we’ll see how that goes.

Today turned into a long travel day! With an hour left before sunset, the four of us decided to check out the pool. At first we had the entire place to ourselves, but then a handful of people arrived just as the sun was going down.