February 11, 2025 – February 12, 2025

Today is the day that we sadly leave Hawai’i, but not without a few more fun adventures first.  Our flight from Kona to Honolulu was not until later in the evening, and then we would take the red eye from Honolulu to LAX and then LAX to Charlotte.

We took our time getting around this morning, as we had a 10 am check out.  Unfortunately Nick spent his morning pacing the Airbnb as the first Turo renter was accusing us of damaging the car, so Turo is now charging us an additional $500 for damage, so he was pleading this case that the car that was rented to us was a piece of junk, and not even worth $500, but regardless we did our best to enjoy the last day on the islands.

We started out with breakfast at a place had found on Yelp, Arise Bakery, it was very unassuming on the outside and seemed to be in more of warehouse district.  Once inside it was adorable, lots of tables and comfy seats where you found people just catching up with one another over a cup of coffee, or working on their laptops.  I enjoyed a tropical bubble waffle and Nick a papaya yogurt both and we shared a raspberry brioche.  I had what we sadly be my last coconut latte, I am definitely going to need to change by flavoring game up when I get home.

We discovered that the bakery was just a short walk from Kona Brewing, which was just a short walk from where we were picked up on our tour yesterday, so we decided to make our way back down that way to walk along the coast and check out the shops in Kona.  We made our way out to the pier and sat for a little bit as we watched a huge pod of dolphins playing and eating in the surf, envious of the people who were out there kayaking and paddle boarding as they were getting an up close and personal experience with them.  

We grabbed a drink at On The Rocks, a seaside restaurant where we were able to enjoy one last Hawaiian beer in Hawai’i while watching the waves crashing against the lava rock below us.  We slowly made our way back to the car, again dipping into stores that peaked our interest along the way, I ended up going back to one of the first stores to get a bracelet to remember our amazing trip by.

Nick’s co worker had added a poke place in Kona to her list, so we decided that we would give that a try, Da Poke Shack had a sign outside that stated SOLD OUT, but as I approached there were three guys coming out that said they definitely still had food.  At this poke location they gave you one side with rice and then two poke selections, I chose two different ahi’s with mac salad and Nick chose an ahi and then octopus.  It was good, but definitely not as good as the bowls we had in Kaua’i.  

On our tour the day prior our tour guide had pointed out a Rum Distillery that I thought would be good to try before heading out of town, about 10 minutes beyond that was one of Hawaii’s Historical Sites, where we also were told that there was good whale watching from the coast, so we headed there first.  Pu’ukohola Heiau was had a nice area to watch a video about the history, as well had a historical trail and yes the ranger was right, we would see humpback whales off the shore, they were pretty far out, but still pretty cool to see them.  We made the short drive back to what we thought was going to be the distillery, but actually ended up being a restaurant in a shopping district where they served their rums.  You can do tours at their distillery and then they bring you back to the restaurant for a tasting, there were several people who had just finished and I overheard them saying wonderful things about their experience.  Nick and I each enjoyed a flight of rums and then I finished with a mojito, then off to the gas station to fill up the car and to the airport.  

We arrived way too early to the Kona airport, it had zero lines and the waiting areas were vacant until the very end.  This is one of the coolest airports we have ever flown out of, everything was outside, with the exception of TSA, the waiting area was covered, but it was beautiful to sit there and watch the sunset and the planes come and go.  We boarded our flight to LAX, we had about an hour and half layover when we got to LAX and this is then where the $300 flights come to bite us.  You cannot choose your seats, unless you want to pay, and oftentimes not worth it.  I went to the desk shortly before our flight to ask the attendant if there was anyway that we could sit together, this is the first slight where we have been separated and not even close to one another, she told me the only thing left were exit rows and those were $100 upgrade for each of us, I wasn’t sure that was worth it so I declined.  As the flight was boarding, I started to head for one more restroom stop and she stopped me on the way, she asked us for our ticket and gave us the exit row anyways, what a nice way to end our trip.  Both flights back were uneventful, which was very much a sigh of relief with all the news lately of the terrible tragedies in the flight industry.

This was one of the better trips that we have had of late, Hawai’i was a delightful surprise that I was not expecting.  I would certainly come back again, but think that I need to recover from those LONG flights first.  Now back to reality….