Mahalo

We watch the sunrise from bed,very dreamy.  This little peaceful park is where we had morning devotions.  We packed our bags and headed to Shark's Coffee for a light breakfast.  We walked around the town in Hilo and the Farmer's Market was our first stop.  We ate an apple banana which is about half the size of our banana's but sweeter.  Leui bought a pretty necklace with a jade cross on it for me that one of the local's made.  Then we went to the Sweet Shop for some chocolate covered pretzels and rock candy.  This store looked like something out of a movie, it was sooo sweet...

Heading south,  Mehana beer factory was having a beer tasting, so we stopped and had a little taste.  Their Volcano Red is my favorite.  It is 'ono', meaning good in Hawaiian.
Can't leave the island without going to the Mauna Loa Macadamia nut factory.  We toured the plant and tasted lots of varieties of nuts, my favorite was the onion and garlic, but it has MSG so we went with a bag of the sea salted nuts.  They harvest 8 million pounds of nuts a year.

In the town of Pahoa we ate lunch at a restaurant called Kaleo.  Blackened Wahoo wrap with mango and avocado along with a tempura ahi sushi was delicious.

We meandered through the little town and stopped in a boutique and purchased a pretty little sundress, I need to go to a garden  party soon!
The sand is green at the southern tip of the island called South Point.  Stopping for gas the locals shared that rental cars were getting broken into when people got out the walk the 2 miles to the green sand.  We opted to not see the green sand.  The drive around the coast was beautiful.  We made our way back to Kona and ate dinner and walked around the beach shops till our flight was ready.  This is a dreamy, dreamy place.  We feel so blessed to have spent a week together here.                                                                                      

The flight home was long.  We left Hawai'i at 10:45p.m. and landed at 4:20 p.m.  When we got home a sweet balloon was welcoming us home.

But what we have been most baffled about is this mysterious gnome that made its way into our garden.  No one seems to know where he came from...

Hmmmm...