The flight from Charlotte to Phoenix was comfortable enough on the Airbus A321. The nightmare flight from Phoenix to Kona was another story. Super dave was lucky enough to sit 2 seats in front of me. His row had extra leg room as it was the area between coach and first class. The dolts who installed the seats took leg room from my row which amount to about 4-6 inches of leg room (a BIG deal when your stuck in your seat for 6+ hours!) Did I mention that they also decided not to leave any room behind the seats so you can't recline the seat either? Result...the boeing 757 was the equivalent of being flown over in a coffin. To boot, the punk kid who sat next to me had obviously been preparing for the flight with a steady diet of beans, effectively turning our small cabin into a gas chamber. I frequently took refuge in the bathroom, both for stretch breaks and some clean air. Finally, the plane landed, I was able to inhale again. Here's super dave climbing down the stairs...we got off directly on the tarmac!
With the time change being in our favor, we took off from Charlotte at 7:45am, and we landed in Kona at 1:45pm. The funny thing is that we weren't able to buy lunch until we landed in Hawaii, so we had a steady diet of eggs! We were definately ready for something with a little more sustenance being that it was 7:45pm back home. We picked up our rental car, and headed off to grab dinner (well lunch), after checking in to our hole in the wall, the kona seaside hotel. We went down to dinner at "The Fish Hopper". Although they have "Fish" in their name, they have some of the best damn burgers I've ever tasted. Not to mention, the burgers were on special for $10 with a schooner of beer! So far, me and supa deezahh have been there for dinner 3 nights of the 5 we've been here.
Good eats!
Cheers!
The view wasn't bad either!
Once we got settled into our hotel, we decided to have a few strategy sessions for the upcoming convention. On our second day on the island, Dave found a great local dive bar called "Coconuts". It was a second story bar with the best view I've found so far on the island, and best of all, they served dollar tacos! Now you know where we've eaten dinner the other 2 nights we've been here so far. I've gone through 12 tacos. Combine that with a cold Steinlager (a new zealand beer), and you've got another great dinner. Gonna have to go on a diet when I get home!
Our view from the comfort at a bar stool at Coconuts.
With our plans set, we took a little time for R&R, and went snorkeling! All around the hotel, there were reefs with tons of fish and sea porcupines. I pricked my finger on one. It's tough to stay on the bottom so I made mistake of trying to hold onto the reef for a picture. Doh! We even saw a huge 5 foot moray eel! It was Supa Dave's first time snorkeling. He almost drowned a few times, lol! A few shots:
We also did some touring around the Island in the convertible!
I can tell you one thing so far about Kona. We have yet to meet one sane person who wasn't working. So far we've met Joey, who was bragging about hooking up with a fat 21 year old chick, even though he was married, and his wife was currently undergoing surgery for ovarian cancer. By the way, he smuggled his wife across the canadian border, is on the run from the IRS (who he owes $20k to), and was actually in the Perfect Storm...not the movie, the actual hurricane...he hasn't seen the part in the movie where they all die.
Besides that we met a newly wed couple who was nuttier than your Aunt Fae's 10lb fruit cake. He was busy hitting on a girl that was interested in Supa, while she was in the back of the bar "dj'ing" with the bartender. The guy had a freshly split lip. Apparently the same bartender had to save the guy from getting his butt kicked the night before, only to have the guy walk down to another local bar and get knocked out by a "UFC fighter".
I can say this about Hawai'i. You can't beat the food, the sunsets, or the water. The people are down right crazy, the hotels are holes in the wall, and make sure you fly only first class if you plan on flying here.
