The Honeymooners, Pt 1
Our honeymoon officially started at 4:30pm on a Monday. Our wedding was on a Saturday however it was a semi destination wedding so it took us a day to get back home and there was an company event I didn’t want to miss on Monday so our plane wasn’t scheduled to depart until 6pm.
Monday, Seattle // Kailua
After a few seconds going through airport security (get TSA pre-check even if you travel once a year), the first thing Mr. Mustang said to be caught me by surprise - lets get a drink. He really wanted to get in the honeymoon mood and getting a celebrator drink was the first step. We stopped by a bar near our gate and shared a beer and a glass of wine with each other as we discussed the events of the wedding. 20 minutes later we arrive at our gate and Mr. Mustang lightly mentions to the agent that ‘our honeymoon begins now’. As we settle into our seats near the very back of the plane, the same ticket agent came up to us and presented us with a complimentary upgrade to the front of the plane. I also heard of this happening but this was the first time I got to experience a flight upgrade and we took full advantage.
As the plane reached cruising altitude, we were already into our second glass of free wine. 5 hours and a couple of movies later, we land in Kona Airport on the big Island of Hawaii. It was 9:30pm when we landed and I was feeling pretty good at that point from all the champagne. We grabbed the next rental car shuttle, picked up a vibrant red jeep and by 10pm we were on the road heading south, past Kona and into Kailua territory.
I tried to make the itinerary simple. The big island took me by surprise on how big it was since I originally planned to stay in one hotel during the honeymoon and just drive to place to place every day. The miles, time and gas that would of taken was too cumbersome so instead we decided to stay at three different locations on the island. During the week, we’ll be exploring the island counter clockwise first staying on the Kona side in a Sheraton hotel in Kailua. The next two nights will be exploring the Hilo side but staying at an AirBnB in Puna followed by the remaining three nights at a Hilton in the Waikoloa Village area back on the Kona side. The plan was to drive around the entire island and try not to miss a single thing - boy were we wrong about that plan.
We checked into the Sheraton just shy of 11pm and as we arrived at the front desk we discovered that our entire flight crew from our plane was checking in at the exact same time. Instead of leis, we recieved white shell necklaces as we were greeted at the lobby and was told that our room was upgraded to a waterfront room. In the moment we both thought that was nice of them but as we walked into our room, it was a ground floor unit that had so much vegetation in the way we could barely see the sky from our room. By this time we were exhausted and collapsed in the oversized king bed and fell right asleep.
Tuesday, Kailua // Puna
We awoke to the rising sun around 7am and attempted to fall asleep for a few more hours but even with the ‘block out curtains’, the rays still managed to seep into our room. We checked out around 10am and I guided Mr. Mustang to the first stop of our day - breakfast at L&L. I later found out that apparently Washington State has several L&L locations but at the time I thought they were exclusive only to Hawaii.
L&L Hawaiian BBQ is a rustic fast food chain restaurant and when I say rustic, I don’t mean Seattle hipster version of exposed polished wood interior. L&L is Hawaiian rustic with plastic chairs and tables, an extensive menu on a laminated piece of paper and a run down kitchen you can spot through the greased up window. This was our first meal of the honeymoon and we started by ordering a dish that originated on the Big Island, the Loco Moco. The Loco Moco consists of a bed of rice with a slice of ham and two fried eggs on top that is swimming in gravy. The dish also comes with a side of macaroni salad that we learned early on that everything you order on the Big Island comes with a side of macaroni salad. I on the other hand ordered a more typical asian influence dish of a grilled chicken rice bowl with a kind of teriyaki sauce on top. It was only 11am when we finished our meal but the humidity was already climbing fast and despite me daydreaming about having the top down in our jeep during the entire honeymoon, we kept all the windows up and the AC blasting throughout the week.
Our next stop was a nearby coffee plantation, Halal Coffee where we got a private tour of the grounds and a detailed description on how coffee is made from the soil to the coffee mug. Most coffee grown on the Kona side are from hundreds if not thousands of small 2-3 acre farms that grow coffee beans and sell them to bulk buyers that roast them in large batches and sell them as “Kona Coffee”. I deliberately scheduled tours with coffee plantations on the big island that grow, dry and roast their own beans because I like the farms who take pride of their own strain of the bean and try to improve on the flavor to make a one of a kind unique cup of coffee. The Halal plantation we visited also makes a tea from the leaves of the coffee trees as well as honey made from bees that pollinate the plantation giving it a unique caffeine like honey.
This plantation was the first of many coffee growers we stopped at and by 2pm, we were ready to stop by and pick up some lunch. Looking back, the first half of our honeymoon we ate on the more grubbier side at hole in the wall joints and ‘restaurants’ that were little more than a shack with a tin roof. For lunch, we stopped by a place that people couldn’t stop raving about - Super Js. Located off of Highway 11, Super Js makes one thing and one thing only, Lua Lua. Driving up to the resturant, the door was barely on its hinges and inside there were blue folding tables with plastic table covers over them and every window has iron clad bars. The kitchen was ran by two women in the early 30s who greeted us warmly as we glanced at the menu. The menu consisted of one item, Pork Lua Lua but with different portion sizes. We opted to share one order to-go that contained two Lua Luas, a lump of white rice, seaweed salad and you guessed it, a side portion of macaroni salad.
We got back in the jeep and placed the packed lunch in the back seat since we have plans on where to eat the lua lua. One of the main reasons we rented a jeep was for its all wheel drive capabilities that is practically a must have when on the big island. Our next destination was Green Sand Beach, the only place in the entire United States that has green sand. To get there, you need to drive 20 minutes off road on the most southern end of the Big Island and then drive over a few mountainous hills followed by dusty sand dunes and after another 20 minutes, you will arrive at the green sand beach. Mr. Mustang and I didn’t even make it past the mountainous hills. After our heads kept bashing against the headboard and window, we looked at the sizable boulders and decided we didn’t want to risk damaging the rental. Instead we parked the Jeep in an alcove next to the rocky terrain and sat on the hood, eating the lunch while sipping on our pony neck beers as other cars attempt to cross over the boulders. A majority of the cars making the crossing were beat up pickup trucks driven by locals that were ferrying tourists to the beach by charging $20 a person.
Green Sand Beach is called such because of the naturally occuring peridot in the area that the waves crush up into grains of sand giving it a green hue. When doing research about the area, all the reviews said that if you arrive on a weekday in the afternoon you’ll practically have the beach all to yourself. The amount of trucks and jeeps I saw make the journey over the rocks to the beach was shocking. Each truck was carrying at least 15 people and there was a car making the journey every 5 minutes. I gathered that during the time Mr. Mustang and I were observing the passing traffic, the beach had at least 40 people and I knew from photos that it was a very small beach. Maybe Mr. Mustang and I will try again in the future but I imagine that as time goes by and the more people frequent the beach, the naturally occuring green hue will fade into a dirty brown with all the foot traffic it attracts.
We finished our beers and headed back on the road to our final stop of the day, our AirBnB in Puna. The drive would take nearly two hours and as we reached the last 20 minutes we decided to stop at a local grocery store to pick up necessities like more beer and dinner from the golden arches. I know that as we travel, one of our meals shouldn’t be McDonalds but I always like to see if there is a special menu unique only to that area. When I researched McDonalds in Hawaii, I saw they they supposedly sold dishes involving spam, ramen (or samin) as well as malasadas but when we arrived at the golden arches, no unique menu existed.
It was pitch black by the time we arrived at the AirBnB however as we approached I prayed that I got the address wrong - there were two police cars with the red/blue lights flashing in our driveway as we pulled up. It’s never a good sign that the neighborhood you are planning on staying at is frequented by the PD and when we parked in the driveway, an officer approached us. He explained that there was a dispute between the homeowner of our AirBnB and the next door neighbor. Apparently the next door neighbor knew that we were staying in the house and was trying to scare us off by looking through the windows and stalking the grounds not realizing that the house was empty the entire time. We don’t know what exactly happened to that neighbor but while we were in the AirBnB, we didn’t have anyone looking through our windows during our stay. The police left and we cautiously entered the house.
We’ve stayed at our fair share of AirBnBs and this was by far the best one. The house has been featured on the Travel Channel a couple times and rated as one of the most unique places to stay in the state. Located right on a cliff edge that is mere feet from the ocean, the house was inspired by the design of a submarine where the exterior and interior is decorated with naval finishes and large circular windows that look out to the sea. AC is a luxury in most hawaiian homes and this house relies on the ocean breeze to cool down the inside. Despite the cool breeze, the house faces the east so it can get pretty warm in the mornings as the sun rises. One of the drawbacks about the house was the lack of lighting - with such large windows, there is no need to add many light fixtures inside since there is so much natural light. However when the sun sinks beneath the waves, there are times where it seems the house is lit by candle light considering how scarce the light fixtures were. In the darkness there is a positive - the night sky. There are no major cities on the Big Island so there is no light pollution and Mr. Mustang and I were greeted to a great display of stars for the next two nights.
There are two bedrooms in this house and since we are staying two nights, we decided to spend a night in each bedroom. For the first night we stayed on the bottom floor because despite the dim lights in the house, we shine like a beacon to all the bugs within a 6 mile radius. The bugs got to enjoy the top floor bedroom and we elected to stay on the ground floor. There is no AC in the house but it was stocked with a ceiling fan on each floor and a couple of oscillating fans that we kept at bed height to keep us cool.
We stayed up a little past midnight when we decided to call it a night and got to enjoy the sound of crashing waves and the hum of a fan as it soothed us to sleep.
