Kona, HI - Day 10

Friday, April 2

Today, Andi and I made plans to take Janie to Puʻuhonua o Hōnaunau National Historical Park for a sunset picnic dinner. Puʻuhonua o Hōnaunau (also known as Place of Refuge) is one of the prettiest spots we’ve visited on the island thus far, and we were excited to share it with her.

In the morning, Tory, Aden and I did school on the outdoor patio. We had a pool time scheduled for 10:30am which motivated the kids to get their work done quickly. While Janie and I took the Tory and Aden to the pool for an hour, Andi stayed back at the condo and cooked us chicken stir-fry for lunch using up the leftover rotisserie chicken from yesterday.

After lunch, the five of us watched our home church’s Good Friday service steamed from Facebook. Their 6:30pm CST service broadcast at 1:30pm Hawaiian Time, so we pulled the curtains, lit candles and listened to a very spiritual and emotional service together.

Afterwards, we drove south of Kona to Puʻuhonua o Hōnaunau National Historical Park. It costs $20 to enter the grounds unless you have a National Park pass which is probably the reason why this place is never busy. We used Tory’s “Every Kid in a Park” 4th grade national park pass again, so our admission was free.

We parked our vehicle in the picnic area by the basalt tide pools, and then walked over to the royal grounds to share the park’s history with Janie. This park is beautifully kept. The grounds are breathtaking with the historic stone structures and waterfront views. Doing this visit, we saw schools of brightly-colored yellow tang fish swimming close to shore.

After a while, we strolled back to our picnic spot climbing over the flat lava rocks to get there. Tory, Aden and I continued exploring the tide pools for sea creatures, shells and coral while Andi and Janie worked on dinner. Andi prepared pineapple chicken kabobs for us with onion, bell peppers, mushrooms and zucchini.

The kids and I didn’t see many sea creatures in the tide pools, but we did find a few pieces of pretty sea glass stuck between the lava rocks.

The air temperature was perfect as the sun went down over the horizon. The five of us ate dinner together at the picnic table and talked about how lucky we were to be here enjoying this moment together.

Tomorrow is another moving day as we pack up our things and leave the Kona Coast Resort. Our next location is back to the northwest side of the island in Waikoloa Village. This time, we’ll be staying about five miles inland so it’ll be interesting to see if the weather is different that it was our first week here in Hawaii.