As we'd cancelled our flat-bottomed boat tour for this morning (we sent Asst Dave) we had no plans before lunch so we had a lazy morning and did some work on my website. Eventually, it was time to meet Dave for lunch so we ambled back up the coast road, re-checking gift shops and visiting the Farmer's Market. We didn't buy much though. As we arrived at the dock we saw Dave's boat return.
He said they had seen a few fish, but couldn't really photograph them in the water - Colin did give me a couple of photos to post. Dave said it was a good job Di had cancelled as he didn't usually have a problem on boats and even he was a little queasy after this trip! Phew! Under the circumstances we decided to hit a few more shops to give Dave's stomach a chance to settle before going for lunch.
We arrived at Kona Brewing Company at around 12.30pm just as it was starting to rain. We were sitting outside but under umbrellas so the short rain shower didn't bother us. The slice of pizza and glass of beer for $9 had been recommended on the tour the previous day so that's what we were planning to have. The choices were cheese, veggies, pepperoni or pie of the day with a choice of side salad. I chose the pepperoni pizza and spinach salad (even though I don't usually eat green stuff). It was quite possibly the best pizza base I ever had! Hand-made and really crunchy. Even the salad - with baby spinach leaves, feta cheese, balsamic dressing and roasted macadamia nuts - was edible! (Great, some salad-eaters would say, but I have my reputation of not eating salad to maintain!)
We got stuck into our beers too! I started out with a Castaway IPA which was a little strong for me so I switched to a Big Wave Golden Ale which was a little lighter and one we hadn't done on yesterday's tour. They describe it as Hawaii in your hand but I guess they hadn't counted on Colin's enthusiasm!
While we were eating there were a few sparrows and little pigeons flying in and out - we were outside - but suddenly we were amazed by a visit of a larger, furrier creature. No, not me! It was - look away now meerkats - a mongoose! If you know Aleksandr Orlov (comparethemeerkat.com) you too will only be able to say it in an angry voice mon-goose! Have to say, though, this guy was really cute - but wouldn't look my way for a better photo. Okay so you might have issues eating around furry creatures (Hey, I'm right here!) but I thought it was very cool!
We took our time walking back to the hotel, hitting a few more gift shops on the way. When we got to Hawaii's oldest church, Moku'aikaua Church, we decided to go and have a look. There's a model of a ship inside and this is the Thaddeus, which was the ship that brought the original missionaries from Boston in 1820. When we came out of the church we spotted a little ice cream shop so I figured I had to stop for a Kona coffee ice cream - it would be rude not to!
After the ice cream we just headed back to the hotel to relax.
Don's Beachcomber Bar had Happy Hour from 4pm to 6pm so at about 5.30pm we headed down there for a drink. It overlooks the sea and was very busy, but we were able to find one of the inside tables available.
Their piña coladas were very good so we had a couple. Dave was sticking to mai tais because, as I mentioned yesterday, this was where mai tais were invented, but I figured I should help him out too! Hic!
We saw a few folks from our bus and had time to catch up a little with what they'd been up to until we decided to head out for dinner. We'd picked the Thai Rin restaurant which Tour Director Pam said was the best Tahi restaurant for the rest of the trip. We figured it was a good choice.
Paul has a shellfish allergy so they advised him to the avoid the red curry (with shrimp paste in it) but that the yellow curry was fine. Di had the veggies with tofu (the white slimy stuff) - someone needs to tell these guys about halloumi cheese, which has a similar consistency but tastes WAY better. Tofu sucks! I stuck with the yellow curry, the same as Paul as I'm not keen on shrimps either. Can't remember what Dave had, but we all agreed it was a very good meal. They had a carafe of red wine which was good value too, so no Teds were dropped here!
After dinner we just went back to the hotel for an early night.
