KONA, HAWAII

Kona, Hawaii 2

When Marika’s parents invited us on their trip to Kona, and we knew we had to jump at the opportunity to go back to the Big Island. They were going for their anniversary and got a two-bedroom hotel condo for the week, meaning we’d just have to cover our flights. We decided to stay at the Waikoloa Beach Marriot Resort the first night to give Marika’s parents one more night to themselves and revisit the hotel we got married at before joining them for the week. It was a nostalgic one-night stay at the Marriot before we joined them at Kings’ Land by Grand Hilton Vacations. The Kings’ Land Hotel was awesome; the condo had a kitchen so we were able to cook a lot of our meals. The pools were massive, and there were a lot of pool varieties: kids pools, adults-only, cold plunge, hot tubs, and a water slide. We held a contest in the cold plunge pool to see who bought drinks. 15 – 30 seconds to cool down is the usual use but Jeff (Marika’s dad), Marika, and I stayed in there for 15 minutes until Deanna (Marika’s mom) offered to buy the drinks.

It was a great week with the four of us; we got to explore Kona, at length. We went to Splashers, of course, a mandatory food stop. We went up to the Mountain Thunder Coffee Plantation where we got to go on a tour and see how they harvest, roast and make their coffee along with a lot of amazing coffee sampling. I highly recommend visiting a coffee farm while in Hawaii, they are all amazing. We did a submarine tour; it was a cool experience and way to check out some tropical fish and a sunken ship that’s now part of the coral reef. We took Marika’s parents out to Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse located at the Mauna Lani for their anniversary and to thank them for letting us crash at their hotel and vacation. We also went to the Kona Brewing Company, had some great beer and food. On top of visiting a few new places and a few familiar places, it was just nice to relax in the pool, get some sun and have some family time.