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A Day of Rest
This was going to be our last day in room 519 at the Royal Kona. They wouldn’t let us reserve a specific room for Thursday saying we would have to take our chances at the time we checked in. This seemed strange but the front desk was often not as helpful as we would have liked. It would depend on which wahine was working; some were great others were difficult. John asked about an oceanfront room, an upgrade from the ocean view that we had, and after some hassle he was even able to get the same good prices that I had found on the internet. They assured us that they had vacancies for the remainder of our time in Hawaii except for the next two days so we decided to wait before booking a room. After a swim in the pool we walked to the other end of town and enjoyed another breakfast at Aki’s. We lazily made our way back to the hotel, stopping in shops to browse and admire, mingling with a colorful variety of other tourists. John bought a pair of shorts with colorful fish on them and I bought a sarong. John even considered a blue flowered Hawaiian shirt but only said he’d think about it. He never did buy one. We stopped at a vacation rental office to find out about renting a condo for at least the next two days. We went to check out a condo in the Kona Makai complex about a mile from town. It was a very large complex and this particular apartment was in the back the furthest from the ocean. It looked like a very comfortable place with a nice lanai with distant ocean view. The only problem was that the bedroom was directly across from the parking garage where there was a lot of in and out traffic. We decided that we would rather be nearer the ocean and so John booked us a corner oceanfront room at the Ohana Keauhou Resort. Back in our room, we sat on the lanai and read. John was engrossed in "Hawaii" and I was reading "The Girl with the Pearl Earring", a book I picked out because I liked the picture on the cover, which I guess was the same motivation that prompted the author, Tracy Chevalier, to write the book in the first place. Another luau was being prepared down below us. We photographed the hula dancers demonstrating their art to the gathering crowd of hungry people and we were all treated to another magnificent sunset. After dark, we watched the hula show from our room. As we walked down to the King Yee Lau restaurant for another delicious Chinese dinner, we stopped to admire the silver sliver of the moon and dazzling Venus descending over the dark ocean. It was not as busy at King Yee Lau as on Saturday night so the service was faster. This time I had the breaded shrimp and pineapple which was a little heavy but scrumptious. Afterwards we walked it off with a stroll into town. Many people were out and about in the warm evening air and most of the shops were still open. There is a holiday atmosphere in Kailua, reminding me of "Mr. Hulot’s Holiday", a Jacques Tati film from the fifties. There were tourists from all over the globe, surf bums congregating in their favorite hangouts, pretty girls dressed in colorful sarongs and native Hawaiians. We sat on the rock wall with the sea at our backs and watched the volleyball game being played on the lighted sand court next to the Hard Rock Café before heading back to our room. I remembered the conversation we had with the pilot who flew us to San Francisco about his trip to Hawaii. He said that he just wanted to relax, maybe do a little snorkeling but his mother-in-law had them on the go constantly because she wanted to see everything. In my research of the island, I also had ideas about seeing all parts of it. But this easy, relaxed day felt perfect. Something about the tropical air made hurrying and agendas seem inappropriate. With great appreciation, we slept to the rhythms of the sea.
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