It’s 6am on the Big Island, 9am in Socal and noon in Louisville. Each morning this trip I’ve enjoyed a cup of coffee (OK, several cups) and sitting with my laptop looking out over the ocean. There’s always a flock of small birds flitting about, hoping that a human will lead to seeds or bread crumbs. With the waves crashing against the lava only a few yards away, it’s incredibly peaceful. Here’s the view from my seat this morning. I could get used to this.

During a drive south we discovered a tiny public beach yesterday, not too far from our condo. It’s in an ultra-rich development called Hokulia. Million dollar lots and eight million dollar custom homes. Plus a Nicklaus-designed golf course. Turns out that to get the rights to develop 1300 acres of pristine Kona mountainside and coastline, they had to provide public shore access. So we took advantage of that, drove through all that luxury and walked about a quarter of a mile on a rough trail through lava to find a perfect little cove with bright turquoise water. Ppictures of that are on the Fuji, so will add them later.

We finished off the day with an absolutely perfect meal at Huggo’s. We got there at their 4pm opening, so we got our choice of seats. (They don’t take reservations; it’s first-come, first-served, which I find to be a very civilized way of doing business.) We chose a couch-style seat right on the railing, looking directly at what would be a beautiful sunset. The food and wine were excellent – Huggo’s is a new favorite. Here’s the sunset we were gifted at the end of our stay.

All in all, a great day.