...

Our submarine tour was scheduled for 11am, so after breakfast we hung out in the room for a bit before driving into Kona. Before we picked up our tickets we saw a parasailing trip with this huge smiley parachute - way to be cheerful all the way up there! The submarine tour lasted for about 45 minutes and dove down to around 110 feet. The crew even had a Japanese translation tape for the one Japanese couple. Despite repeated warnings, several people tried to take flash photography out the portholes.


We managed to get a few good shots of the underwater life (sans flash of course), but it was a bit harder in deeper water because the light became rather dim. After the submarine ride we did a little shopping in Kona where I got my sister a short sarong and Eric bought a small wooden bowl.

I had read about this sushi place called Wasabi (formerly known as Bento's) that I wanted to try in the Coconut Grove Marketplace. We walked for a little ways and I was starting to get concerned that it wasn't there or outside walking distance. At last, we found the sushi place tucked away in the back corner of a little market area. The sushi was made right in front of us and was very good - although I have had good sushi in Florida that was comparable to this. Eric decided to have a teriyaki chicken bowl that had way too much food in it for lunchtime. All in all, a worthwhile experience.
After hiking back to the car we made our way mauka (toward the mountains) and upland for a tour of the Holualoa Kona Coffee Company. We learned how they pick, select and separate the coffee beans into the quality of coffee needed to become "Kona Coffee."
We also saw how they roast the beans and what they do to flavor coffee. After roasting, they mix a flavor with alcohol, coat the beans, then let the alcohol evaporate after the flavor has soaked into the bean - the whole flavoring process takes less than 30 minutes!
On our way home we decided to stop and create our own coral graffiti on the side of the road. The whole distance from the airport past our hotel (over 20 miles) was covered with natural 'graffiti' that people have designed from white coral placed on the black lava rocks. We spelled out "E + L" with the white rocks and took some photos to remember our experience.
Before going back to our hotel we stopped by the Outrigger Waikoloa Beach to look around and take some more photos along the beach. They have ancient koi ponds on the property along with a bunch of wildlife including a kingfisher and morey eel. When we got back to the hotel I nursed my new mosquito bites and we chilled another bottle of champagne. For dinner we walked over to Donatoni's.

We had to wait for an outside table so we had a glass of wine at the bar and chatted with the bartender about tourists and the other islands. Our waitress from the night before came over to say hi and the hostess rigged it so she got our table again. I enjoyed a seafood medley with black squid ink fettuccini and Eric had spaghetti. It was a quiet night and we enjoyed some champagne in the room while catching up on email.