Saturday, March 27

Saturday morning means you’ll find our kids in one place — the iPad zone. With no school on the docket, Tory and Aden bee-line for their screens the minute they wake up to play games or stream their favorite show-of-the-moment on Netflix. I barely noticed Aden curled up in his bed this morning while I was putting away laundry.

Since the kids are Saturday morning iPad zombies, Andi and I decided to walk across the street from our condo resort complex to the Keauhou Farmer’s Market held every Saturday morning from 8:00am - Noon. I’m glad we arrived as soon as the market opened because the vendor stands were hopping! It felt like we were on an episode of Supermarket Sweep as shoppers moved from stand to stand as quickly as they could purchasing all kinds of exotic fruits and vegetables.

I love a good farmer’s market, especially while we’re traveling. It’s a great way to get a feel for a community and try new foods. The first stand Andi and I visited had purple star apples and ice cream beans — two fruits I’ve never seen before.

Most of the stands sold papayas, mangoes, bananas, lettuces, radishes, beans and tomatoes. Andi and I purchased an herb salad mix, some English cucumbers, a bunch of radishes, beets, carrots and a few dessert bars to eat later. We also purchased a bag of longan fruit after one of the vendors gave us a sample. Longan have a hard outer shell that when peeled away leaves behind a squishy, clear fruit about the size of a grape. It has a mild, sweet taste.

Andi and I returned from the market to find Tory and Aden in the exact same positions we’d left them in. Now mid-morning, we encouraged both kids to put down the electronics so we could go for an adventure this afternoon. Then, with swimming suits on, sunscreen, and beach towels in hand, we drove to the Wawaloli tide pools near the Kona airport on the west side of the island.

Definitely Saturday afternoon — the beach was busy! We parked our car right under a tree on O’oma Beach. It was super convenient to set up our beach chairs right in front of our rental SUV so we didn’t have to schlep any gear down the beach.

O’oma Beach has lots of thick salt and pepper-colored sand and tide pools along the shoreline with sandy bottoms. Smooth, flat, pahoehoe lava rock along the beach created the naturally shallow pools which were perfect for lounging in. We even saw a few green sea turtles swimming close to shore.

I’m not a big fan of the ocean, so I asked Andi to take my picture in the water. It took me 11 days to get wet and, who knows, it might be the last time! Better capture the moment. Both Tory and Aden exclaimed, “You're getting in the water, Mom!”

Andi packed us a picnic lunch for the beach, so we sat together and ate a simple meal of deli meat, crackers, and cheese sticks with fresh sliced cucumbers and radishes.

After lunch, Aden made friends with a little boy named Finn and the two of them climbed around on the lava rocks together. Meanwhile, Tory and I sunned ourselves on the beach while Andi sat on a beach chair with his toes in the water keeping a close eye on Aden.

Around 2:00pm, we left the beach because we had reservations to swim in the resort pool — rough life, I know! Kona Coast requires all guests to make pool reservations on the weekends to regulate the number of people using the pool at once. We made an appointment today for 3:30pm. For whatever reason, Tory and Aden love swimming at the pool, so Andi and I made an effort to get us there.

There were quite a few people at the pool this afternoon, but not very many kids Tory and Aden’s ages. They swam for two hours and then we made our way back to the condo for dinner. Aden wouldn’t admit it, but he was exhausted from non-stop sunshine and swimming today.

Back at the condo, the kids showered and put on fresh pajamas and then the four of us walked down the street to catch the sunset. Our condo overlooks the Kona Golf Course, but we have a north-facing view so no sunset unless we search for it.

After we returned home, Andi pan-fried fresh mahi-mahi filets for dinner. It was seriously the best tasting fish I’ve ever had — amazing! The fish monger said the fish was just caught this morning.