Day 11 south of Kailua-Kona

Today we drive south from the resort, past the Little Blue Church, which is a popular spot for photographs and weddings. It was cute but I didn't see what the big deal was. Then we stopped by Fair Wind Cruises so Larry could pick up the cap he left on the snorkeling boat. It was fun to walk on the pier with the boats gone, the water was so clear and we could see a lot of fish without snorkeling.
Then we headed up the volcano of Mauna Loa, found another quilt shop and a cute little group of antique, boutique and thrift shops and wandered through them, but didn't find anything. Later I learned from my cousin Shelley that my aunt Dorothy had worked at Kimura fabrics for many years! We passed a street BBQ place selling chicken and ribs and got a combo platter with some of each. It was a generous prion that s enough for us to share. The chicken was so good! We sat in the car to eat as it was raining. After our lunch we visited Greenwell Coffee Farm and did a tour, learning how coffee is grown, picked by hand, and processed. It was so interesting but made me feel guilty about how labor intensive each cup of coffee really is. They also let us have unlimited samples of their 100% Kona coffees. We did get some to bring home. It rained off and on during the tour but we had umbrellas. One more cool site for today was St. Benedict's Catholic Church, also known as the Painted Church. The inside had paintings all over the inside, they were beautiful and interesting. I will add a second post with extra pics because this version of Find Penguins only lets me add 6 pictures per entry.
Then the highlight of the day was visiting my cousin Shelley and her husband Paul. They had fixed a wonderful dinner for us and showed us their gardens and unique home that they had built. Shelley also gave us a tour of her studio where she does her palm sheath art, such an interesting medium, and her works were beautiful. We had such a nice time with them, I had not seen Shelley since the late 1960s when we were teenagers. It was much cooler in the higher elevation where they live, in the 60s, and as we drove back down to the coast and our resort, the temp went up over ten degrees. Tomorrow we are driving north!Read more