Originally published: 8/3/2003; 12:04:25 AM
Last day in Kona. We lazed around the Kona Tiki pool for a while, then went shopping at the King Kam hotel. Lunch at the Kona Brewing Co. was delicious–we both had the slice-of-the-day with a salad. I had a Kona Brewing Co. ESB to drink which was tasty.
We dropped a package at the post office, which is just up the street from the King Kam, and then headed to the airport.
After a short flight we were in Oahu. Traffic to the Royal Hawaiian was horrible. Aside from the traffice and other problems you see in most big cities (homeless, for example) Honolulu was much prettier than I expected. It is a “concrete jungle” with super resorts and high-rise condos choking the skyline, but the streets are lined with flowering trees and the beach was gorgeous.
The Royal Hawaiian–the “Pink Palace of the Pacific”–was awesome. We had a room on the top floor of the historic wing so our room was furnished with Victorian furniture. In addition to the exterior, everything in the room was pink–the sheets, the fluffy robes, everything.
We took a stroll down the beach and then walked to Nick’s Seafood Market–a place the concierge had recommended. I had the opakapaka, a pink snapper, on a bed of rice topped with a sun-dried tomato relish of some kind and garnished with a parmesean crisp(!). Christy had a New York Steak that was bigger than her head but she didn’t finish it.
Aside from a domestic dispute two tables over between a moderately-drunk stepfather and a twenty-one year-old who was told, “she was either going to come home by 2:00 AM, go home tomorrow, or by God, pay her own way,” the evening was a perfect end to the vacation. I even had the good fortune to be sitting next to a friendly couple from Kansas City, who, unable to finish their second bottle of merlot, kindly bestowed the remainder to me.
On to Hawaii Day 11 — Oahu