This morning, we explored the area near our hotel, beginning with the King’s Trail (part of the Ala Kahakai National Historic Trail), which led us to the southern part of the Puakō Petroglyph area (the area extends north for a mile or so beyond what we explored). There are ancient (pre-European contact) petroglyphs, some from the 19th Century (with Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic lettering, reflecting the changes in culture), and even a few modern smiley faces (sigh).
The part of the trail we visited adjoins a golf course, and nēnē have set up shop there.
After the trail, we had lunch at Kona Brewing Company; the beers they serve there are all locally-brewed, unlike the ones you can buy on the mainland (brewed by Anheiser-Busch breweries on the mainland). Then we continued south so I could taste and buy Kona coffee (and chocolate-covered macadamia nuts) at Greenwell Farms. We could have taken a tour, but we’d done that last year – and we wanted to have more time to see one of the botanical gardens in the Captain Cook area before going back to the resort.
We chose Paleaku Gardens Peace Sanctuary; it was not your standard botanical garden, though it did have many wonderful flowers and plants to enjoy, along with a view of the Pacific. They also have a variety of shrines devoted to many world religions, a Galaxy Garden (it was too big to take a photo of the whole thing), and they even sell Kona coffee from their neighbor a few hundred yards up the road, Kona Lisa Coffee. We spent nearly two hours there and could have stayed longer if they’d let us…recommended!
I’d originally planned to leave the garden by 3:30 so we could stop at the Donkey Balls Store before they closed for the day, but the garden was much too nice to leave before it closed, so I’d resigned myself to missing out – but when we drove past the store, the door was still open and there was even a parking spot available in front. We now have two bags of Donkey Balls to sustain us until our next trip to Hawaii.
Tonight’s foofy drinks were part of our complete dinner at Roy’s Waikoloa; we got there in time for the Sunset Prix Fixe special (only $58/person for a three-course meal). Everything was good, but the Chocolate Decadence was the star!