The TRIP - Day 4

June 16, 2009
Today, we first went to a condo sales meeting where they tried to get Larry and Wanda to upgrade and Gloria and I to buy. The sales lady was very aggressive and made it sound very appealing. After an hour and a half, we had all completely resisted. (Sorry family. :)) We went to this meeting because we got bigger discounts on some of our tours.

We dropped Larry and Wanda off at a golf course, and Gloria and I went site seeing. We first went to a seahorse farm were they breed seahorses in an attempt to keep the wild populations from becoming extinct. We wanted to take a tour but we felt the cost was too high.

Moving north, we stopped at Hapuna beach which was very nice; nice beaches are few and far between on this island. Most shorelines have a lot of rocks.

Hapuna Beach

Leaving there, we stopped at Cafe Pesto for lunch. Gloria and I split a hamburger (1/3 / 2/3) and fries (4 of them) for $12 (drinks were extra). The most memorable thing was the iced tea. I thought that it had a hint of raspberry in it; Gloria disagreed. I asked the waitress what was in it and she said passion fruit. It was delicious.

Next we stopped by a wind farm called Hawi, with 16 windmills that were generating electricity. It was neat to see conservation at work.

Hawi Wind Farm (only one of the 16 windmills shown)

We continued north to the very end of the road at Pololu Valley Lookout. I mean the VERY end. It ended. At that spot was a very nice view of the coast line.

The View of the Coastline at the North End of the Big Island

On the way back, we stopped in Kapa'au where is a statue of King Kamehameha.

It has an interesting history. In 1878, a statue was commissioned of the king and was cast in Spain. While it was on ship, the ship sank near the Falkland islands. The statue was insured; so, it was recast and delivered.

Sometime after that, the captain whose ship had sunk was in Argentina and saw the first statue. Someone had salvaged it. He purchased it and made delivery. And, it has stood in Kapa'au ever since. Gloria thinks that I look like him (see pict. below.)

Statue of King Kamehameha (I'm the one in front)

We continued back to pick up Larry and Wanda, and then went back to the condo for some rest.

We had dinner at a place called Merrimac's Restaurant. It was excellent and expensive.