Kona Coast and The Saddle Road


 We’ve been staying on the Hilo side of the island on this trip. It’s the cooler and much rainier half of the Big Island. 

On this days adventure we went over The Saddle Road to the Kona side. This was a great day for it as it rained all day in Hilo. 

We wanted to show Megan the Hawai’i that people imagine. We wanted to run by Costco to get more water and gas up the car. We wanted to go meet my Great Aunt Olga who lives and works there. 

To get over to the other side you can either go around or go over. 

We went over. 



The Saddle Road until fairly recently was a super dangerous sketchy route. Now it’s only heavily crash ridden and full of unpredictable weather. 

We drove up into the heights and saw the high volcanic desert. Our ears popped and the phones lost signal. I had lots of pre downloaded music from the flight so we listened to Hendrix and marveled and the scenery. Also we marveled at the wild goats.

They were everywhere!



After 2 hours of driving we descended into a hot sunny Kona and drove straight to The Olganic Creations studio of my Great Aunt Olga. 

Check out her one woman show designed fabrics and patterns.

She is a highly creative and conscientious textile artist. Follow that link to check out her stuff.



She showed us her materials, tools and processes and took time to talk making-a-living as a creative with Megan.

 

Then she shared an excellent recommendation for lunch and we bid her a fond adieu to go get lunch. 


Kona is a cool, artful and very warm place.




This is where Meg really got to see tourist Hawai’i. We ate at Kona Brewing Company and then she and David went off to do window shopping and watch seaside people.



 I went to Costco.

The food court is outside.

We met up and all drove out to Hapuna beach.  



We passed donkey crossing signs. We looked it up later and discovered the Nightingale Donkeys of Kona. 


Once we got down to the beach we were greeted by a picture postcard view of a golden sand turquoise vista. 
There were basically no waves and we even managed a little shade for poor Megan’s sunburn. 



It was uncrowded and peaceful despite the many beach chickens and live ordinance signs. 


After about 40 minutes we packed up and headed back across the Saddle Road to Hilo side. 
This time we drove into the rain. It got dark and chilly and we got back to the house ready to eat and go to sleep. 
We watched some Drive to Survive and passed out hard by 10.

Only a few more days here for us. I’m starting to think about flying again.

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