On the Road again...

We left Hilo, and Casa Tortuga on Tuesday. We stopped for lunch at Hilo Bay Cafe, the same place we ate on the way in to town. It was again excellent (who says there is no good dining in Hilo? we were very happy with the meals we had out!).

We took the north route around the island, which is very pretty. I especially wanted to take the brief detour to see the Waipio Valley. We just stopped at the over look, to see the valley and the black sand beach below. Although our rental car is an SUV with 4WD, there is no way we were going to try to take it down that hill.



After stopping at the overlook, we treated ourselves to malasada's from Tex's drive-in. These are a Portuguese sweet, somewhat like a donut or a beignet. Deep fried puffs of rich, eggy dough, sometimes filled with bavarian cream or jam (guava, mango or raspberry). they are freshmade and served warm. We bought a half dozen, and much to my surprise, 4 of them made the trip home.

We arrived at our condo in Kona, the Hale Kona Kai, around 5PM. It's a small 1 bedroom condo, in a building set right on the edge of the ocean. We have a corner unit with a wraparound lanai that hangs out over the rocks, nearly on top of the surf. The view is amazing from all the windows. While I'm typing this at a desk in the bedroom, I can see the surfers out my window, and the pounding of the surf on the rocks drowns out the sound of the TV in the next room.

We are just a short walk from town, so we decide to go on foot to find dinner. But I'm really tired, and its hot and humid out, so we don't get too far. We decide to stop at Bubba Gumps shrimp factory. yes, it's a tourist trap. To get the waiters to take your order, you have to flip over the sign from "Run, Forrest Run" to "Stop, Forrest Stop!". It's really cheezy. But the food is surprisingly good. we both have shrimp...yeah, I know you're really surprised. We have coconut shrimp, and New Orleans spicy shrimp, and they are quite tasty. And the setting right on the water can't be beat.