Kailua Kona Restaurants and a Snapper

   For the last week we were hosts to our son Charles.  We had a great Thanksgiving dinner featuring Costco Chicken and Costco pumpkin pie, backed up by yams, gravy and cranberry sauce ala Bart.  From Kirkland to Kona... a solid winner of a holiday dinner. 

The Familia Hill enjoys a spectacular breakfast at the Coffee Shack.

   While Charles was here we had breakfast at the Coffee Shack down in Captain Cook.   Unless I am mistaken, this was the only morning his nibs made it out of bed before 10 AM so we took full advantage of the early morning opportunity, heading for the best combination of an old Hawaii building with just the right touch of updating.  The place is a charmer.  We arrived around 8 AM and got a great table in the small enclosed room with the wrap around windows.  The service was heart warming, the view of Kealakekua Bay and Honaunau was fantastic and the food delicious.  A delightful time was had by all.

    We left the restaurant a little after 9 AM. And here is the important part:  At this relatively early hour the line was way out the door; I estimate the wait at over an hour.  A little old lady with an English accent was begging me for our parking spot as her son was minding the car on the shoulder of the Mamalahoa Highway.  Although it is a bit out of the way, the Coffee Shack is not a secret.  Lunch is great there, but their breakfast is famous.  If you don't particularly like standing in the sun on the side of the busy highway, the time to arrive for your petit dejeuner is before 0820.   Synchronize your watches.  And for goodness sake, don't miss the cinnamon roll slathered with cream cheese frosting..OMG!

Not a bushel of shakas will return Chris Peterson to the  Montlake Cut.

    We also had lunch with Charles at the freshly remodeled Harbor House.   Surprisingly, the remodel seems to have left this popular establishment with fewer seats.  The food, the friendly wait staff and the boats all remain for your pleasure.

  I'm sharing a picture of Charles and your faithful correspondent.  I can''t recall precisely the moment when this snapshot was created, and in honesty I can't tell you why I was mugging that grumpy face.  Perhaps I had just heard that Chris Peterson has resigned and Husky Nation is once again a ship at sea.  Is that a fog horn I hear in the distance?  Or is it a sad sob.  Arrivederci, Pietro.  And God speed.

    While Charles was with us we did a little snorkeling around the pier which was as expected.  He didn't really want to drive out of town, which was OK with us.  On his last night, we had an aloha dinner at the Big Island Grill.  He and I engaged in one of our family traditions, loco moco at the

Plenty of goldrim surgeons were cruising Ho'okena

BIG.  As usual, it was superb.  As I was wiping the yolk from my stubble of a beard, who should come in but our next mainland visitors,  Kathy and Vernon Yoder, Kathy's brother Kent and his beaming wife, Wendy.

    We bid our son aloha nui loa the next morning at KOA and then spent the rest of the day washing, gardening and recovering,  Yesterday, we reconnoitered at Ho'okena.  Kathy had invited an additional friend, Misty, who sort of lives in Hawaii.  Like many people who live in Kona, Misty  quickly revealed herself to be an expert on all aspects of Hawaiian life, produce and geography.  How we revel in such a font of information. 

    The burgeoning group, now approximating the cast of your average Russian novel, congregated around one of the shaded tables and prepared for snorkeling.  I had my weight belt on the table and Kent and Wendy had a couple boogie boards. Hmmm. 

    Soon we were all at the south end of the beach and I led the mob into the water.  Or so I thought. It

A rare close encounter with a forktail snapper.

took a while for everyone to get their gear on and start heading out. to sea.  After just a few minutes, Wendy and Vernon were having a con-fab over a boogie board.  The conclusion was, they had had enough fun and were returning to terra firma.  In the words of Jughead, from an old Archie comic, the more the firma, the less the terror.  To be fair, this was only the second time that Wendy had donned a mask and fins and Ho'okeana, however calm, is the wide open ocean.  Thus the novice was provided with the opportunity to experience the claustrophobia of a snorkel mask and the agoraphobia of the wide open ocean all mushed together on a double decker shave ice. I felt bad that the group size precluded me from giving them the extra attention that they deserved.

    Those of us that remained were treated to the big three, the flame angel, gilded trigger and garden eels.  Before we got to the eels, Misty decided to return to shore.

   Sandra and I, with Kathy and Kent in hot pursuit, made our way across the bay where we found a cleaning station.  Among the fish being serviced was a beige guy with an unfamiliar shape.  This turned out to be a forktail snapper, formerly known as a jobfish.  No one ever specified what his job

Kathy and I followed this beauty of a finescale triggerfish back to shore.

was, but I assume it was eating other fish.  This species is not an extremely rare fish, but it is usually encountered at a distance and swims rapidly away when approached.  This guy had been lulled by the narcosis of the cleaning station.  In this blissful state he allowed me to get within five feet and nab the picture you see here.  John Hoover would remind you to appreciate the yellowish hue atop his snout.  the fish's, not John Hoover's.

   After the cleaning station, my lovely wife and Kathy's lovely brother headed for the beach.  Alone at last, we swam out about ten meters where Kathy spotted a nice big finescale triggerfish.  "What a wonderful fish to end the snorkel on, " I thought as we followed this big fella towards the exit.

   When we got there, Kathy wanted to swim a little more, so we went along the shore to the deteriorating reef south of the entrance.  On the way we saw a school of big eye scad that were swimming rapidly back and forth, like a flock of birds.  How different than observing them in a bait ball where they are so languid, puttering along in their hundreds.

Nothing like  the picture of a turtle to bring joy to a gathering.

    When we finally made it back to the entrance, we encountered a medium sized turtle in bright, clear water, posing for a portrait.  This, of course, made a big hit back at the picnic table where we cemented our friendships, new and old.   More good adventures with our friends were in the offing.

jeff