Kona, HI - Day 8

Wednesday, March 31

Today was the first day of Grandma Janie’s visit to the Big Island, and Andi, Tory, Aden and I had a lot we wanted to show her. Not that we’re island experts by any means, but we’ve already discovered some favorite sights.

Having just adjusted to the time change ourselves, we also know how it feels for your internal alarm clock to be flipped upside down. Last night, Janie slept on the pull-out couch so that she had the freedom to get up in the middle of the night if she needed to. Hawaii is five hours behind the Midwest, so it will take her a few days to adjust.

Andi and I decided to capitalize on a willing babysitter this morning and go for a walk when the sun came up around 6:15am. The streets and sidewalks around Kona Coast Resort were a busy place first thing in the morning — so many people out walking & recreating! Mornings are simply beautiful on Hawaii’s Big Island. It’s sunny and warm (but not too hot!), the birds are chirping, and the air carries a feeling of fun & adventure ahead.

Andi and I strolled together along the street for about two miles. We walked to the ocean and watched a few sailboats in the harbor, and then found a little walking path that led to a quiet overlook of the bay. It was nice to have a conversation about life and our future.

Aden was still sleeping when Andi and I returned to the condo around 8:00am. Apparently, he got up in the night when he heard Janie awake in the living room and was so excited about her arrival in Hawaii that he’d stayed up from 3:00-5:00am.

Once everyone was awake and dressed, the five of us drove a few blocks from our condo to a farmer’s market taking place at the Sheraton Hotel. It turned out to be more of a craft fair than a farmer’s market, but it was enjoyable to sit outside and listen to a talented musician play Hawaiian songs on his ukulele. It was already a sunny 82 degrees at 10:00am and Tory was overheating into a pool of unhappiness. I bought her a dragon fruit lemonade to cool her down and together we sat in the shade for a while people watching and listening to the music. Meanwhile, Andi milled about the vendor stands and found a good deal on 100% pure Kona Coffee there.

After the market, the five of us returned to our condo and made lunch. The adults ate leftover meatballs over salad greens and the kids had leftover COSTCO pizza. Janie loves mangoes as much as Aden, so they also shared a fresh mango. It’s peak mango season in Hawaii March - May.

This afternoon, Andi and I planned to take everyone to Big Island Bees in Captain Cook, Hawaii for a private tour. We visited this honey farm last week and fell in love with the place! So many good-tasting honeys and the staff was very welcoming and friendly.

Our tour began at 1:00pm with samples of passionfruit peach tea and a honey caramel macadamia nut tart overlooking the bee company’s beautiful property and the Pacific Ocean. Tory and Aden weren’t big fans of the tea, but we all loved the caramel tart — yum!

Next, we watched a 10-minute video about the company’s history and bee practices while the beekeeper used a smoker to calm the bees before our tour. The video was very informative. One little boy in particular was on Cloud 9 having his grandma there by his side.

Next, the beekeeper brought us over to the “show girls” as she called them; a stand of bees used mostly for demonstration. Big Island Bees had just a few hives when it began in the early 1970’s and now has over 2,500 hives today. They are the biggest honey producer on the Big Island and sell their honey in grocery stores, shops, markets and even in big box stores like COSTCO in Hawaii and Whole Foods on the mainland.

During our tour, we learned about different types of bees and the jobs each of those play in a productive hive. We also learned that bees use an alarm pheromone that smells a lot like bananas to alert other bees in the hive to danger (so never eat a banana right before you visit a hive!). If a honeybee landed on us during the tour, the beekeeper cautioned, just gently shoo it away (don’t swat!) to prevent being stung. Tory and Aden were really nervous to stand close to a stand of bees. One landed on my shoulder and crawled around my arm for quite a while, but never stung me.

The tour was super interesting! We were able to see the queen bee in the hive, the drone bees, worker bees and even baby brood bees.

Our tour concluded with a honey tasting. Andi, Tory, Aden and I tasted the honeys once before when we visited the farm last week, but it was Janie’s first time. She liked the O’hia Lehia honey best. We shopped around the store after our tour concluded and brought home different honeys to try. We loved this tour! Not only was it educational, but it was delicious too.

With to-go honey sticks in hand, the five of us hopped back in our rental SUV and continued south along Highway 160. Andi pulled over at a roadside stand & the adults shopped for fresh fruits (Tory and Aden were busy watching their iPads in the car). I appreciated that this stand wasn’t manned so I could finally pull out my phone and Google what all these different fruits I’ve been seeing are! Most notable were jackfruit and breadfruit. We’ve tried soursop in Costa Rica before.

Andi also cracked a handful of fresh macadamia nuts for us to try at the fruit stand. Surprisingly, it was a lot of work getting into the white meat of the nut. There are two layers of dark-colored shell to crack on the outside of it .

From the fruit stand, we continued on down the road to Bay View Coffee. Andi pulled into the parking lot when he saw a sign that said, “free farm tour.” The woman working inside the gift shop was very friendly and gave us free samples of their farm’s 100% Kona coffee. The view of the valley below was spectacular from their back patio. She also set up a binoculars so the kids could see the Captain Cook Monument below.

Next, the woman gave us a tour of the working farm. We saw pineapples growing, fruiting avocado trees, apple banana trees, and their small coffee production facility. I was surprised to learn that pineapple plants and banana trees produce fruit only once & then they have to be cut down and planted again.

Although Hawaii is warm year-round, it does have growing seasons. March-May is prime mango season, much to Aden’s delight. He’s been at least one fresh mango a day while we’ve been in Hawaii. It’s also papaya season and avocado season.

The coffee harvest takes August - December. It used to be that the school season in Hawaii ended in August to allow children to be at home to help their families pick coffee beans when they’re ripe on the trees in the fall. Right now, the coffee trees are covered in little white flowers affectionately called “Kona snow.” The white flowers eventually mature into dark red cherries that are harvested for coffee.

We all enjoyed walking around this beautiful farm. Aden’s favorite part was chasing around the farm dog named Honey.

After our visit to Bay View Farm, we continued along the road to the famous St. Benedict’s Painted Church. This was the second time we’ve visited this church to tour the painted interior, but missed the opening hours. Today it closed 30 minutes before we arrived. Oh well, I guess we’re just not meant to see it on this trip.

On our drive back to Kona Coast Resort, we purchased fresh mahi mahi and snapper filets from the fish monger. Andi pan-fried the fish for dinner which we ate with salad. Fortunately, Janie’s already watched the Netflix show Heartland so she fit right into our nightly wind-down ritual. The five of us sat around the living room and watched an episode of the show before bedtime.

Tomorrow, we’ve got another fun day planned in South Kona.