Along for the ride: Kona

The shower in our Ailina house needs replacing, so we are making an emergency trip to Kona to rebuild it. When our friends and family hear about our upcoming trip to Hawaii, they are skeptical about our "having" to go to Hawaii, but we just laugh and point out that the inside of Home Depot and Lowe's is the same in Kona as on the mainland.

Dreary grey day in San Jose
as we prepare to leave

Ahhh - Maui! We're almost back to the Big Island

After landing we pick up our rental car, have lunch at the Harbor House, and then stock up kitchen supplies at the local Costco and Farmers' Market. Since this is the first time we've stayed at Kona Riveria Villas, we are delighted to find our one bedroom condo is right on the ocean with a salt water pool.

View from lanai looking north

salt water pool

Hawaii feels really warm after leaving the cooler Bay Area and we are thankful to have the pool to chill out in. It usually takes us a few days to adjust to the time change and warmer climate. With this short a trip, we'll we leaving just after getting re-acclimated {sigh}.

Peter floating in pool

Fruit and flowers in condo

First Kona sunset for this trip

Mornings are the nicest time to hang out on the lanai and have a leisurely breakfast before heading out to the house to met Victor, our contractor for the shower rebuild.

Breakfast on the lanai

Ailina street just above our house

Now that's a fat gecko

The house is decked out for Halloween and the new appliances give the kitchen an updated look. We quickly decide on a new design for the shower with Victor. Peter finds some much needed accent tiles in a storage area and we make the rounds of the building supply stores to gather the necessary materials for the rebuild. Although it may not sound like much work, it's much harder to come by the tile we want than expected. Many materials are actually stored on Oahu and only make it out to the outer islands once a month (or longer) as enough orders come it to make it worthwhile to ship.

House decorated for Halloween

Love the new appliances

Tile combos for new shower

The cobalt blue surround tiles were especially hard for us to obtain. We ended up ordering them shipped to us in California and then shipping them to Kona. Ouch - it's expensive to ship things to Hawaii. Within a few weeks, Victor has the shower rebuilt. Looks pretty nice. Great job! The glass surround is finally installed in mid December. Doing remodels gives true meaning to the concept of "island time."

New drain & base

Tile installed

Plumbing added

Glass surround installed

Fortunately, we do have some time to have fun. Our friend Paul invites us to a birthday party in South Kona being held on a beach at Honaunau (Place of Refuge).

Birthday Party Kona style

Birthday girl and friend

Cake with dragon fruit and Mac Nut ice cream - yummm

Peter, Paul and Marti

Sunset at Honaunau

Who are these tourists?

Another evening Paul and Liza join us at our condo for dinner and to feed the eels in the tide pools below us.

Tide's coming up and the eels are moving in

Paul and Liza

The eels provide us with a great show at sunset. They come in with the rising tide. One night we see as many as 30-50 in at once. One eel is especially large and he's (we're assuming it's a male) quite a bully towards the smaller eels. We watched in amazement as he grabbed one in a death spiral. Fortunately the smaller eel was able to escape and didn't look too damaged.

One afternoon we meet Paul and Liza at the Pines - a new golf course/housing development built close to a popular surf beach. The new required beach access roads for the public sure make this area easier to get to. We love the public access law for all coastal developments in Hawaii.