We declared today a shopping day, which is code for we didn’t want to drive anywhere. We spent the first part of morning buying an SPF shirt for Jeff, a ring for me, and a surprise for Mitchell that I can’t reveal in case he reads this. Then we spent the second part of the morning picking up the receipt for Mitchell’s surprise that we left at the store, exchanging the shirt for a size that fit and adding an engraving message to the ring purchase.
After lunch, we decided to pop into the Hulihe’e Palace museum, since we had walked past it about 20 times since arriving in Kona. The palace is a small, 2-story, 6-room house that had passed through several members of the royal family before finally ending up in the hands of the Daughters of Hawaii, who maintain it as a museum to host a modest collection of Hawaiian artifacts and royal family memorabilia. It was good, although not quite as interesting as the little history museum we happened across in Maui.
Gate to the Hulihe’e Palace
On our walk back to the hotel, I noticed (after also walking past it 20 times) that the little beach in front of our hotel is teeming with tropical reef fish. We quickly changed into swimsuits and each took a turn swimming with the 2X goggles. Turns out this is a pretty good place to snorkel, so if you are ever in Kona, remember that the little, unassuming beach by the pier is more awesome than it looks.
The Olympics started today, so after dinner (cheeseburger in paradise for Jeff and a salad for me) and watching the sun set over the Pacific Ocean, we drank beer in the hotel room and watched team pairs skating and mogul freestyle. We are so old.
Always a beautiful thing to see.
Our species checklist grew again today:
- Yellow-billed cardinal, very cute little red-headed birds with (you guessed it) yellow bills
- *
* I could add about a dozen little fish but I’ll save the list until tomorrow. Or maybe I’ll be so overwhelmed by the number I’ll just skip the details. I will just mention the Orangeband surgeonfish, because I obsessed over identifying it all through dinner, much to Jeff’s annoyance.