Days 6-7: From VNP to CCV

Day 6: Back to Country Club Villas

Hana hou (hey, now I know what the name of the restaurant means: Do it again)

Pics: Tutu’s Cottage (outside and in), Kilauea Lodge, Akaka Falls and tourists waiting out the rain at Akaka Falls, prime example of malasadas con guava, SSBD in HI

Weather: Cool, raining then clear first thing near VNP, then warm and threat of rain in Hilo, then warm and raining north of Hilo, then dry on the ride halfway to west coast, back to VOG and 80s at CCV

Breakfast at the Kilauea Lodge: papaya, buttermilk banana nut pancakes for DB and an omelet and home fries for THB, coffee, included. Total for one night with taxes: $225.

We are circumnavigating the Big Island, so we head east and then north to Hilo, stop to do a little recreational shopping, and continue to the Akaka Falls (see pics), where it is raining. We eat at little café just between Falls and main highway: garden burger for DB, ahi burger for THB, shared mango smoothie, $28.

Continue north, taking in the sights, until we get to Tex Drive-in for malasadas. That’s Hawaiian for “really bad thing to eat for you sadists” (see pic). A solid (not powdered) sugar donut, and for the flavored ones they force in filling. We only get two to share, one plain and one with guava (see pic); we are semi-malasadasistas. $2.47.

Head north a bit then turn west and as we go up and over a small mountain (and around a really big volcano mountain), it gets drier and hotter, and now we are in cattle country. Make it back to CCV around 3 to see that the VOG is on its way to closing out the afternoon as usual. However, not quite as usual: around 5, the sky turns crimson and the sun turns orange around 5:30, finally the sun sets into a marine layer around 5:45. So, not a total Vog-out!

Dinner of pizza, salad, local brewski and two glasses of wine: $47.

Day 7: CCV, same as it ever was, same as it ever was

Male 'ana

'Aha'aina male

(A shout out to K&E)

Pics: no pics

Weather: Blue skies in morning, VOG haze in afternoon, 80s

Breakfast: usual

Snorkeling at the usual spot, a little less clarity of water, otherwise great

Lunch: guacamole, leftovers, brewskies

Afternoon: hanging out, waiting for plumber to fix faulty toilet (we would be hanging out anyway)

Dinner: Sam Choy’s, last dinner in paradise: drinks, edamame, rib appetizer with white rice, ahi salad, sweetbread bread pudding, $85. Sunset of sorts, very reminiscent of the beach house with the sun falling into the marine layer; no green flash.