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A Day to Chill in the Heat
I woke up hot and sweaty and thought a swim would be perfect. We put on our suits and went down to the pool but it was closed, still being cleaned. So we took a cold shower instead which helped a lot. We breakfasted on the lanai with delicious fresh local strawberry papayas and outrageously delicious mac nuts. We learned that only the Beach Building was without air conditioning so John braved the front desk people again to see if we could get a room in another building. They said there would be a room available in the Village Building which is the northern most building closest to town. Like the Beach Building, it is built around an open center courtyard, this one with a waterfall rather than a fish pond. We considered the possibility of moving again. It would supposedly only be one more night without air conditioning although neither of us had faith that they would get it fixed when they said they would. That did not seem in keeping with what we had seen of the Royal Kona. In another phone call, John spoke with the helpful Ann and told her of our problems with the neighbors and the heat. She was very sympathetic and told us that our neighbors had checked out, which was good news. She also said that we wouldn’t like it in the other building because it was noisier being right next door to Huggo’s and their nightly music, farther from the surf and the room was a smoking room. So we agreed to stay in 654 of the Beach Building. We walked downtown, visiting with Mark who was having great difficulty with his wind socks in the swirling gusting wind. The waves were absolutely tremendous splashing over the barriers into the street in many places. The streets were still littered with leaves, flowers, branches and soggy papers. We made our way down to Aki’s which was opened today because of a fluke of luck for Aki. A scow that had been moored in the harbor across from our hotel at the beginning of the storm had broken loose and was scuttled there against the rocks directly across the street from Aki’s. It shielded Aki’s from the splashing surf. So we sat at a table outside and had lunch. We were entertained by a group of kids that were taking advantage of the incredibly high surf. Riding on boogie boards they were tossed high in the air and then dropped precipitously. I was worried that they’d hit the rocks but they never did. It was quite a sight to see. Unfortunately, there was so much salt spray in the air that I didn’t dare take out my camera to get a shot of it. We learned that two other boats had met similar fates as the scow in the storm. We saw one of them, a fairly large boat that would take people out for sunset dinner cruises, smashed against the rocks by the pier. We stopped in at the Farmer’s Market and bought some more macadamia nuts and another papaya. I watched a man deftly demonstrating the art of weaving straw hats and admired some beautiful sarongs. Josie, our waitress from Aki’s, was there selling some handcrafted items from Bali. She said she helped support her entire family back home. I wanted to buy one of her hand-carved and painted masks but didn’t know how I would fit it in my luggage. That was one lesson I learned on this trip. Leave room in your suitcase for all the things you want to buy while on vacation. Back in the room, with the doors opened for cross ventilation we read, took some pics, surfed the web and generally took it easy. After a relaxing afternoon we photographed another perfect sunset. We walked across town to Bianelli’s Gourmet Pizza and Pasta which was recommended in "The Big Island Revealed". We tried their all you can eat pasta dishes. John enjoyed the marinara but I was not happy with their specialty pink sauce mainly because they didn’t give me enough sauce and the pasta seemed dry. I’m a great lover of pasta so this dinner was a disappointment for me. We had a nice long walk home after dinner. We stopped in at a marketplace with lots of little shops selling clothes and souvenirs. In the courtyard, they set up chairs in the evening and a one man band performs lots of oldies. He sometimes has a friend join in and they can play and sing just about any request. We had to cool the room down again by leaving the doors open. We had no neighbors to the right of us this night so there was no competing noise to the surf which continued its mesmerizing pounding. In spite of the heat, we slept soundly.
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