DAY 3 - I finally wake up before sunrise, but now must look for a prime location to capture the moment. Fortunately there are numerous ponds between the Marriott and the beach, so I do not have to travel far
Hmmmm...the clouds appear to be sitting right where the sun will come up
Mauna Kea is visible through a break in the palm trees...I must come back to this spot on another morning
A bird overlooks the anchialine ponds between the Marriott and Waikoloa Beach
A nearby plaque describes this type of pond
A description of the fish found in the ponds around the hotel
View of Hualalai
One of these lanais belongs to our room
Are those poinsettias in the Waikoloa Beach Marriott's lobby?
Henri, Valerie, and I drive to Greenwell Farms in Kealakekua to learn about how they produce (and hopefully sample) Kona Coffee
We take a free guided tour of the plantation
These trees produce Kona Coffee berries
Try to spot red "cherries" amidst the less ripe coffee berries (I did not get any good close ups)
Each berry is hand-picked, but must be stripped of its sweet fruit-like exterior
After being separated from the pulp and fermented, berries are spread on a hoshidana to dry in the sun
The roof can slide to completely cover the berries...useful because it typically rains during the afternoon on these hills overlooking the Kona Coast
Dried berries look awfully similar to peanuts
Scrape away the outer layer and the berry no longer looks like a peanut. Berries that do not split in half like this one are called a Peabody
Each of the large bags on this truck contain 1,000 pounds of 100% Kona Coffee
Greenwell Farms does not just grow coffee. Kona combines perfectly predictable weather patterns with young volcanic soil rich in nutrients and minerals
Obviously this dog has not been sampling the coffee...I have quite the buzz after tasting three different roasts, the peabody, and their private reserve
Our main destination today is Pu'uhonua O Honaunau (Place of Refuge) National Historical Park. We begin our self-guided tour on the royal grounds, stopping briefly at a royal residence
This is a half-sized reconstruction of the Hale o Keawe temple
