Kona Adventures!

June 8, 2015June 8, 2015Leave a comment

Our last day in Kona started off at Island Lava Java for brunch. Probably one of the busiest beach side brunches in town (and for good reason). Live music, delicious food, and a view of the ocean – can’t beat that!

Delicious (and huge) cinnamon roll

Beachside breakfast

Matt and I shared the famous cinnamon rolls. I had macadamia nut banana pancakes with Portuguese sausage and he had a kalua pork omelette. Both of us had humongous coffees because #Konacoffee.

We did lots of sightseeing afterwards, but mostly I just wanted to lay out on a beach after driving 7+ hours this whole trip.

Our historic stops included Pu’uhonua o Honaunau National Historical Park and the Painted Church.

While we did stop by Kahaluu Beach Park to spend the rest of the day, we decided instead to go up a bit more north to avoid the crowds. We made a pit stop at Umeke’s to share a poke lunch plate and then enjoyed most of the afternoon at Mani’owali Beach (Kua Bay).

Avocado poke, special garlic aioli poke, crab salad, lomi salmon, and furikake brown rice.

Fresh catch being prepared right behind the counter

And because we need to kill an hour before our flight, we stopped by Kona Brewing Co. to try a couple of the beers we can’t get in Oahu.

: Beer flight

: Cubano slow-roasted kalua pork, canadian bacon, provolone, sliced pickles and cuban mustard. baked on our house-made herbed flatbread

: Special Greek pizza and caesar salad

And that’s it! Maybe next time I’ll get to check out the Hilo side of the island, but I probably need to go on a few other adventures before then 🙂

I Saw a Volcano!

June 1, 2015June 1, 20152 Comments

The Big Island is. . . big.

It takes us about 2 hours to get down to the Volcano area from where we were staying, so we planned ahead, grabbed some to-go Kona coffee and cranberry macadamia nut scones and started our road trip down there.

Our first stop was Punalu’u Beach – a beautiful black sand beach which was a big mix of Asian tourists and locals camping out for the weekend. You can’t really go in the water because the ground is so rocky in the water, but it’s nice that the sand wasn’t sticky and you wouldn’t find it in weird places later (I promise it wasn’t dirt).

We also knew we wanted to stop by the farmer’s market over in Maku’u (driving passed the Volcano) which was huge and had a crazy assortment of things for sale. We grabbed $2.50 bags of lychee and rambutan (my favorite! one bag in Oahu is about double that price and you can’t even find rambutan on the mainland), a bbq smoked meat plate, corned beef and coconut milk wrapped in tea leaves, a haupia cheesecake, poi balls, and macadamia nut chocolate chip cookies. We kind of have a sweet tooth.

Poi balls

Red bean cake

Smoked Meat Plate

This looks like poop, but it’s corned beef, coconut milk, in taro leaves!

After stuffing our faces at the farmer’s market, Matt and I met up with his family who took us around the Volcano National Park. We checked out Volcano house (it was a pretty rainy and foggy day unfortunately), walked through the lava tubes (which reminded me a lot of the caves we checked out when I was in Australia), and even checked out some of the lava trees – which is a pretty interesting concept in itself if you look up what a lava tree is!

It was a pretty foggy day unfortunately =(

In front of the lava tube entrance

Inside the lava tubes

Lava tree!

Make a wish in a . . . steam vent?

I forgot what weather was under 70 degrees

Matt’s aunt and uncle own Village Teapot in the area (if you’re ever in the area, you should consider staying there!) which is just a very cool, cute, and comfortable property.

How cute is this place?!

His aunt even hides teapots and teacups throughout the property!

We snacked on some lilikoi cheesecake before dinner (cause life is short. Eat dessert first) and then headed over to the Crater Rim Cafe in the Kilauea Military Camp for dinner. Forgot to snap some pictures of this meal, but it was super delicious and was a great deal! I highly recommend if you get hungry in the Volcano area.

Lilikoi cheesecake. . . our appetizer?

After dinner, we headed up to the Jaggar Museum to finally see the volcano! It was super crowded, cold, and muggy, but we did get to catch the reflection of the lava in the sky. We didn’t stay too long because we had a 2 hour drive ahead of us, but I’m pretty proud to say that I’ve finally seen a volcano!

Very faint outline, but you can see it from afar + the reflection in the sky

Up next – eating our way through our last day in Kona!

Big Island Adventures – Day 1 – Up North on the Kohala Coast, Waimea, & Eating All the Things

May 31, 2015May 31, 2015Leave a comment

This Memorial Day Weekend, Matt and I took a trip over to one of the neighbor islands (my first neighbor island trip ever!) With 3 days, a full tank of rental car gas, and a Google Doc planned itinerary we started out our first day up north on the island.

Oh! But first here are some pictures from Matt’s birthday dinner at Roy’s. He was a good sport and let me take the pictures of him in the birthday hat they provided (thanks Roy’s!)

Round 1 of Matt’s birthday dinner! Roy’s Beachwalk Canoe: Szechuan Baby Back Ribs, Shrimp Sticks, Crispy Mini Crab Cakes, Chicken Spring Rolls & Spicy Tuna Roll.

Our entrees for the night: Beach Walk Trio: Hibachi Salmon, Macadamia Nut Crusted Monchong, Misoyaki Butterfish & Rice Crusted Hapuu’puu with Tomato Raviolis.

Happy Birthday Matt!

Also had a sushi-ritto from Up Roll Cafe in Kaka’ako for lunch on the day of our flight.

Salmon roll from Up Roll Cafe

Okay! Now for Big Island adventures. 🙂

The first place we visited was Hapuna Beach – white sand, lots of space (and convenient parking!), but because it was the first stop of the day it was a bit too cold to enjoy the water. Afterwards we visited Pu’ukohala Heiau (Temple of the Hill of the Whale) where King Kamehameha I built one of these last major Ancient Hawaiian Temples.

We even saw that there were a few newer offerings left at the site.

Since we hadn’t eaten anything since dinner on Oahu, we appropriately decided that our first real meal on Big Island should be the best burgers up north in Waimea.

Kahua Ranch wagyu beef burger with avocado and an egg, goop parmesan fries, and part of Matt’s chipotle goat cheese veal burger.

We also stopped by Waimea Coffee Company to load on caffeine before we hit the road again. I had a really yummy iced dirty chai, and Matt had the special of the day – a hand crafted spicy espresso beverage spiced up with cayenne pepper! We also shared a macaroon cause they were basically calling our name through the glass case.

The drive up the Kohala coast was beautiful – very different than driving on Oahu (we were pretty much the only ones on the road for most of the drive). We stopped by the original King Kamehameha statue (the one that was lost at sea) and drove all the way to the end of the highway at Pololu lookout.

After exploring Hawi for a bit, we rushed back to try Da Poke Shack before they closed – the #1 place on Yelp!

Wet Hawaiian poke, sesame baby octopus, & teriyaki calamari over furikake rice.

And because Matt knows I love eating al fresco, we booked dinner at Cafe Keei to watch the sunset and enjoy a really tasty dinner (although, my appetite was cut short from all the burgers and poke in one day).