Random Thoughts on Visiting Paradise

• Snorkeling is a lot more fun than I thought it would be.
• Dive shops rent digital dive cameras. Forget the cheap disposable models and rent a real camera.
• All those package deals can be pricey, but save trouble. We did a "Big Island Circle Tour" by bus on Monday, which gave us a pretty good idea of what we wanted to spend more time on.
• If you stay in a time share or condo with a kitchen (and you intend to use it), put off grocery shopping until you know your itinerary. We made plans for three "packages" which included dinner; we only had one dinners' worth of food more than we needed, but at Hawaiian prices...
• Speaking of Hawaiian prices, it is still true that almost everything for sale there must be brought in from the Mainland; even most things that are produced on the islands are shipped to the Mainland for processing and packaging, and then shipped back. Fresh fruit and coffee, and fresh seafood, are about the only exceptions.
• I told people we were going to "Kona." "Kona" is a district on Hawaii, "The Big Island". The city is Kailua, referred to as Kailua Kona (link is to map) to distinguish it from Kailua Honolulu, on Oahu. (Where Mrs. Drang lived for a while in the 70s.)
• Kailua Kona may be a tourist town, but it closes at 9 PM. A few stores stay open after that--notably the ABC Stores--but most restaurants close their kitchens at 8:30. Huggo's On The Rocks is open until 10 PM. Lulu's is open late, and we were told that "it's a great place to pick up a black eye after 11."
• I thought Mauna Kea and the observatories were Off Limits. Turns out that several tour companies do go up there. One visits the Subaru Observatory during the day and gets a tour inside. Many go up at sunset, and then go back down to the visitor center for an hour or so of star gazing.

NOTE: Mauna Kea is very high, very cold, and the air is thin. The tour companies will provide parkas, but even in summer you want warm footwear up there. If you have any conditions that might make you susceptible to altitude sickness, consider waiting in the visitor center for the tour to be over, or, better, don't go.