Day 6: Last day on Big Island

Sadly, we had to pack up and leave one of the best condos we've ever seen!  Did I already  recommend that you stay here?  I thought so! 

After clearing out of the condo, we headed to Greenwell Farms for a coffee tour.  The free tour was very informative and we got to taste coffee cherries right off the tree and taste many samples.  Yum. 

Another photo of Michael taking a photo.....of the coffee trees.

The coffee beans are inside the red cherries.

Rich posing in front of the wet mill, where the beans are crushed out of the coffee cherries.

Tasting and buying coffee.

See the chameleon? 

Next stop was back up to the Kohala Coast area to check out how the other half vacations and snoop around at the Hilton Waikoloa Resort.  All of the "mega resorts" along the Kohala Coast look nice but they are well north of the airport and all the activity around Kailua-Kona.  They are oases dotted along the coast in the middle of barren lava fields.  Look it up on Google Earth.....very weird looking place.  The Hilton resort was huge and very well done, but seemed so "artifical" after all the natural beauty we had experienced.  Lots of man-made waterfalls, man-made lagoons with sandy beaches.  There were a few places to rest in a hammock near the "real" water too. The Palace Tower part looked like an Asian museum with lots of statues, paintings, and china displays in the open air walkway.  It was there that we passed a couple wearing their Alabama shirts (Renee greeted them with a "Roll Tide"....good-sport Auburn fan that she is!).   I guess resort living isn't our style....which is nice since it really isn't in our budget.  Michael took more pictures of the resort.....may post some of his later.  I'm sure they have a website you can check out!  I think it's between $500 and $600 per night to stay here....but I'm sure package deals are out there.  We were happy where we stayed and didn't go into debt to do it!

Watching people swim with dolphins at the Hilton......the fact that these dolphins are Atlantic dolphins seemed "not right" to me.  I believe I read that the Pacific spinner dolphins need deeper water or some other conditions so they imported their dolphins.  Still looked like a fun thing for those people to do.  Michael got good pics of this too.

Finally, we were off to the Kona Airport for a sunset flight to Honolulu.  Upon arrival, the clerk at Dollar Car Rental twisted our arms into upgrading to a convertible for our stay here....more pictures of that to come I'm sure.  Since Rich will be in a conference for the rest of the week, I am the registered driver.....FUN!  With two dead cell phones (meaning we didn't have use of GPS) my two navigators did a good job using the old fashioned maps on paper to get us to our condo at Waikiki.  We are staying at the Waikiki Banyon right behind the Marriott where Rich's conference (International Conference on Arts and Humanities) is held.

The condo is nice enough, but nothing will beat what we just left.....we were spoiled.

Honolulu is a big city with all that comes with it.....traffic (but not too bad at the time we traveled), bright lights, and sirens heard quite often.....typical big city things.  Waikiki Beach may be the "most famous beach" in the world....but it's certainly not the most beautiful.  This is a vacation destination for people from all over the world....so we will enjoy people-watching and people-listening here.

Rich's conference begins tomorrow, so we will slow down a bit and rest!