While Kauai is nick named the garden island for its lush foliage, green valleys and flowers, Kona is named the big island, because it is just bigger.  Driving to our hotel yesterday from the airport, all we saw was fields of lava rock, dried up brush and unwanted grass.  The warmth of the people is the same as the other islands.  We all slept late this morning and took our time to make coffee and had a continental breakfast on the second floor covered deck of out our condo.     We can see the ocean in between the roof tops of other condo style hotel rooms.

Our first trip of the day was to the local farmers market.  They had lots of fruits and veggies.  Scallions the size of tennis balls and avocados that looked as if grown on steroids.  A particular banana called ” Lady fingers ” is our favorite and the pineapples are very sweet.  This does help as we are not fans of fast food chains or any place that has food that is buttered battered then fried.  What does help is a full kitchen and outdoor gas grill to use at our convenience.   This trip to the farmers market and a follow up trip to Costco and Walmart will make sure our pantry and fridge is full of fresh groceries for the week.  Now we are starving and it is lunch time.

We heard of a place called Lulu’s on a road very close to the ocean.  It is on the second floor and in a building that looks run down. When entering Lulus you will notice all the signed photos of famous people, mostly movie and sports stars.  There is a signed photo of David Robinson with 2 boxers. One photo of the original ” Charlies Angels and many more. The photos alone make you want to walk around and take a trip down memory lane.  Look, wait,….it is Loyd Bridges in scuba gear !  This bar and grill has all of its walls plastered with autographed dollar bills.  They are all very well secure and not useable for tips as the signatures are big and noticeable.  There are all kinds of curiosities, such as the wooden mermaids, and hanging lamps made from puffer fishes.   The menu is different and only a prude can be offended by the colorful metaphors used to describe the dishes.  One of the plates is nachos, and they bragged that it was bigger than your head.  They have obviously not seen the Espinoza male head. Well it did live up to the expectation. It was big and full of all the good stuff of famous nachos, and the choice to put pulled pork on it made it grand. This plate and feed 2 people easily and this was the half order.  I had the fish taco salad with blackened mahi mahi, avoacado, beans and all the good salad stuff, while my lovely wife had the shrimp tacos.  I have to say I am not missing home style Mexican food too much with the fresh salsa cut with mangos.  Their burgers are great and varieties include a layer of crab cake, under the cheese.  Wait ! That red lobster could be singing this to Ariel sometime,  Under the cheese, Under the cheese,  ok, enough, and this is with out my first mai tai of the evening.    We followed up the great meal with a swim at our resort pool and hot tub.  now to relax and enjoy some home made spagetti and meat balls.  Then some relaxation and planning ahead.  A snorkel tour at night to visit the manta rays and a trip to volcano land.  Aloha !

Written by: Dan