Island Sunset

This week, I returned from an eight-day trip to Hawaii. It was the first time either I or my boyfriend had been to the state, and we'd piled up a good list of things we wanted to see.

But the trip actually got off to a bit of a slow start. Our connecting flight in San Francisco was delayed an hour for lack of pilots for the plane. I'm sure that's because of a delay in their previous flight, but at the time, I was definitely thinking, "Come on, guys. We got up before 4:00 in the morning for this. You can't make it to work on time?"

We finally did arrive in Kona on the Big Island, and were immediately struck by an oddity that's actually the norm for Hawaii airports. None of them are really "indoor." Kona in particular feels almost like a bunch of huts just built right on the runway.

Since we were an hour behind schedule, we didn't quite have enough time for our original afternoon plans. But that did let us be a bit more relaxed after the long flight. We grabbed a tasty lunch at Jackie Rey's Ohana Grill, and then spent a half hour or so at a random beach (Kahalu'u Beach) we happened across. We also stumbled around a bit looking for "souvenir towels" (aka, the beach towels we felt we should have packed).

In all, this was basically killing hours until the time we'd originally told our hosts we were arriving to check in. We'd decided to try something a bit different on this first leg of the trip; instead of staying in a hotel, we'd found a bed and breakfast, the South Kona Hideaway. On the up side: it was actually cheaper than a hotel, and with a few more comforts (such as a king-size Sleep Number bed). On the down side: this was a self-contained unit within someone's home, so you'd feel bad showing up at a time other than you'd specified.

But right away, our hosts made it clear we'd made a good choice picking them over a hotel. Besides the ridiculous view of their amazing backyard...

...they had fresh fruit from said backyard already sliced for us. This is when and how my boyfriend discovered that passion fruit is his new favorite fruit on the planet. But it doesn't present the most appealing visual:

You just spoon everything right out of this Alien chest-burster egg thing. It has the consistency of snot, with the seeds ever-so-faintly crunching in a way that suggests you shouldn't be eating them. But it is fairly tasty -- a sort of tart, tangy twist on maybe a grapefruit-mango-lemon hybrid? Maybe? Very hard to describe. But if you can ever get a fresh one, you should try it.

For me, though, that wasn't the highlight of the evening. The highlight was that we had arrived just in time for sunset. The sunset view from the "Lookout Suite" (our room) at this bed and breakfast had been proudly trumpeted online. And it did not disappoint.

I carry strong memories of two particular Colorado sunsets (two in a whole lifetime spent living mostly here), sunsets that were freakishly red-orange and breathtakingly beautiful. They might be in a league with this first night's Hawaiian sunset. But given how far we'd come to see this one, and how it indeed lived up to the hype? Nah, those two Colorado sunsets probably can't compete. Even our hosts sat on their balcony to watch it.

We did go grab dinner after that, but watching that sunset was really the one major activity of day one, and strangely felt like more than enough. Our trip had begun.