November 26, Kona

November 26, Kona Hawaii

Kona is the center of commerce and of the tourist industry on West Hawaii, and is famous in the sports world as the site of the Hawaii Ironman Triathlon. Kona was established by King Kamehameha I, originally the chief of Kona, to be his seat of government and the capital of the newly unified Kingdom of Hawaii. The capital was later moved to Lahaina and then to Honolulu. Until the late 1900’s, Kona was a small fishing village, and more recently a real estate and construction boom has been fueled by tourism and investment.

We didn’t have any plans for Kona and had planned on just walking around on our own. Due to the port shifts, today is Thanksgiving and we had no idea what if anything would be open. To our surprise shuttles awaited us on the pier for Walmart, Kmart, and Hilo Hatties. We decided to hop on the Walmart shuttle as Sharon was having scrapbook withdrawals. She managed to find four magazines pertaining to scrapbooking and stamping which made her quite happy, and we did pick up a few other odds and ends.

Arriving back at the pier area we walked along the main road and window shopped at the few stores that were open. Eventually we found a delightful Mexican restaurant where we had a wonderful lunch and drank a couple of local brews. By that time it was getting close to all aboard time so it was back to the ship and the end of a pretty nice stay.

Tomorrow is our last port of call before going home, Hilo on the other side of the island.