Coming Home

If you were wondering why I wasn't blogging much yesterday I had to prepare to come home and fly home from Kona Side of Hawaii. I found myself having a hard time focusing like I needed to to get ready to go. Another adventure.

I found that I couldn't eat so many papayas and drink fruit juices this time without getting spaced out from all the sugar. So, as soon as I gave up all fructose (fruit) and all sugar I found my mind cleared up and I could really focus on what I needed to do to prepare to travel once again back home.

Packing up, deciding whether to wear long pants or shorts on the plane. (When it's 85 out you sort of want Bermuda shorts on so you don't melt into the ground in a place like Hawaii).

So, I decided to put a pair of long khaki white pants rolled up in my day pack with my laptop and Ipad and electronics so I could change on the plane. This worked out quite well.

There were only two really unexpected things that happened regarding coming home in the end. The first was that my flight was delayed and Kona Airport (unless you are in a restaurant there buying or eating food) is not air conditioned. So, you might be able to get under a roof with two walls but most of the time you are going to be in the open air once you go through security year around. So, since this is Janaury (their winter) you might expect 95 degrees and humidity or rain during the summers on Hawaii.

So, High Season (when the most tourists come) is usually from about Christmas Vacation until around April (which is the coolest most pleasant time to be here). However, if you want warm water in January, the Kona side of the big island is best at around 78 degrees to 80 degree water even in January because it is the furthest south of all the islands. And because it is on the desert side there are less clouds like you will have in Hilo this time of year to cool the water.

So, for January warm water snorkeling, Kona side beaches and water are usually the best as long as you watch out for the surf and the cloudiness in the water that comes usually from high surf.

So, either the surfers are happy or the snorklers are happy. It's just that both don't happen usually on the same day.

Had to check out of our condo by noon. We did. Had to fill up with Gas at Costco. We did. Needed some food so found a Subway. We did. A mutual friend was coming in on the same plane I was going out on to San Jose. We texted him to meet us at the rental car agency by free shuttle bus.

That worked out too. Then I unloaded the rental car (a whole lot of stuff and my friend realized all their food (a lot I left too) and all their baggage wasn't going to fit in a compact that they rented for the 3 of them. So, they had to upgrade their car.

I had rented a Dodge Caravan Mini-van which can seat up to 7 people and hopefully all their luggage but we only needed it for 5 of us and our luggage so this worked out great for 10 days. I was given a rate of only 700 dollars for 10 days which I thought was pretty good. But, I wanted walk away insurance for vehicle which wound up being another 27 dollars a day. So, not to have any liability at all cost me a total of about 1000 dollars for 10 days.

So, do whatever you need to when you travel to the islands.

Any way you look at it it was another amazing adventure with my friends.

Mostly we have skied, hiked gone snow caving and done 4 wheel driving together so this was a completely new experience for the 3 of us (with 4 days with my friend's 30 year old son and girlfriend).