our last day and the journey home

Tuesday morning the beach at the hotel was taped off as well as the bay with signs that said 'no swimming, no boating, no fishing' due to tidal conditions and bacteria, which all the people fishing off the bulkhead wall were ignoring, so after breakfast the girls and I went to check on a few things in town. I wanted to go back to the shop that was selling prepackaged plants I could bring home since my rainbow plumeria stalk had already rotted more than halfway up and they still had a few gifts to get for friends and family.

We checked out when we returned and had the hotel store our luggage since our flight to Dallas didn't leave til 5:40 and then got in the car and drove to see what the next few little towns had to offer which turned out to be nothing so we headed back to Kona and parked on the coast road a little farther than we had previously walked and set out to kill a couple of hours before we turned in the car and caught the shuttle to the airport.

We only made it about a block when we came upon this market very reminiscent of the Mexican markets where you can get anything you can think of...produce, crafts, flowers, clothing, shoes, baskets, etc...and we wandered around in there for about an hour. 

First thing I saw, and bought, was this very cool basket with a net top to keep the bugs out.

Then we had a last meal on the island with a last view of that beautiful water 

and collected our luggage and headed to the airport where we went through security and waited once again for our flight. 

Once the gate opened we had to go through a another security check

and then we were on our way. We reached Dallas, had time for breakfast, and boarded our last flight, arrived Houston, dropped the girls off at home and then finally pulled into our driveway about noon. About all I did the first week back was sleep and water the yard.

last: miscellaneous pictures and commentary

links to previous posts in this series:

1. it took all day but we got there

2. our first full day

3. the drive to Hana

4. another day in paradise

5. the island Hawai'i

6. the long drive and volcanoes