Our retreat from the historic site may have been less-than-graceful, but at least it was quick. We made our way through the town of Kona and then just south to our home for the night: the
Outrigger Royal Sea Cliff Resort.
This building is basically a condominium complex, and it appeared to me that the condo owners had some sort of agreement through Outrigger resorts to manage it and rent the rooms out for them. Then again, I also saw signs in the complex advertising it as a Wyndham resort, so I really don’t have any idea how it works. As always, you can’t get this type of crackerjack trip reporting anywhere else.
I can tell you how I found the place. Outrigger owns a series of hotels/resorts throughout the islands, so as I searched for affordable accommodations, I had periodically been directed to their website. So I signed up for their e-mail list in order to get special offers, and it worked—I got an email notifying me of an “Earlybird” sale. When all was said and done, I got a 2-bedroom ocean-view condo for less than the price of most hotel rooms on the island, so it felt like a steal.
Check-in was fairly painless, although they wouldn’t give me the code for the parking garage gate at the front desk. For that, I had to go over to the concierge desk so they could give me a sales spiel about all of the various activities they could book for me. Sigh. They told me I could come down in the morning at 9:00 a.m. for a free presentation about tourist events and exciting opportunities for visitors.
Puh-leeze. You’re not talking to some amateur vacation planner here, buddy. You’re talking to an extremely anal and obsessive amateur vacation planner. We were going to be long gone by the time 9:00 a.m. rolled around the following morning.
Anyway, once we got checked in, we schlepped our luggage up to the condo. Here’s the view from our balcony:
The condo was surprisingly roomy, given the price we paid. It was nice, clean and comfortable, and that’s all we could ever hope to ask for. A brief tour:
Originally we were going to have Sarah and David sleep on those two beds and pull out the sofa bed in the living room for Scotty. But Scotty didn’t want to be alone at night. However, you can see that there was a tile floor, so sleeping there would be awfully uncomfortable. Once again, Julie came to the rescue. She found an extra set of sheets in the linen closet. Then she pulled the cushions off of the sofa bed and put them in the closet in the kids’ bedroom. Problem solved.
Now it was time for some grub. Our trusty guidebook (working from
Hawaii—The Big Island Revealed now) recommended we make a pilgrimage to the original
Kona Brewing Company restaurant, which is also the site of their brewery. A few of their beers are available here in Delaware, and I’d become a fan of their
Longboard Lager and
Pipeline Porter (a seasonal dark beer brewed with Kona coffee). So I didn’t need much convincing to try the place out.
Here’s a close-up of their gecko logo. No word on whether they also sell car insurance.
Everywhere you go in Hawaii, you’ll encounter the Hawaiian language. This includes the restaurants, where you’ll typically see an appetizer labeled as a “pupu”, since this is the Hawaiian word for the light first course of the meal. As you would expect, my family runs a classy operation that is deeply respectful of all cultures, and never once dreamed of making “Pupu Platter” jokes during our time in Hawaii, despite many opportunities to do so.
Being discerning readers of high-class trip reports such as this one, you folks are probably more interested in the food than immature bathroom humor anyway. So I’ll oblige and—wait, just a second.
Heh. “Pupu Platter”. (snicker)
Ok, this time I’m done, I promise. For this meal, we actually ordered not one, but two pupu platters (giggle). Neither one was crappy (ha!). In fact, looking at the menu, you could say we ordered #2.
Really, I'm done now.
We couldn’t decide between the soft pretzels with the beer cheese sauce, or the pepperoni rolls. So we went with both. The verdict? Well, the pretzels were standard-issue, and the sauce was just ok. Nowhere near as good as the pretzel bread/cheese soup combo at Le Cellier, which has probably spoiled us forever as far as these dishes go. But the pepperoni rolls were a big hit. We’d definitely order those again.
They had a beer sampler available where I could try 4 beers for $9, so I decided to try some that aren’t available on the mainland (or are seasonal). The four I got were the
Lavaman Red Ale,
Wailua Wheat Ale, Pipeline Porter (it’s a favorite—I couldn’t resist), and the Black Sand Porter. All of them were pretty good, but I’d reserve my love for the Black Sand Porter. This one is brewed with chocolate instead of coffee, much like the
Yards Love Stout, which is my favorite beer ever. Kona doesn’t currently bottle the
Black Sand Porter, but the server said they get a lot of requests, and I can see why. Add me to the list.
We just got pizza for dinner here, and I don’t seem to have a picture of it anywhere, but it was decent pizza. Much better than the one we’d had in Lahaina. All in all, a solid choice, and we liked this place quite a bit.
Most of the seating is outdoors on a large patio. We took a couple of pictures just to prove we were there, I guess.
Hmmm. Somebody liked those samplers a little too much.
The last question of the evening was: to dessert or not to dessert? Well, duh. We’re on vacation, where the calories don’t count. We could have ordered a Kilauea Lava Flow, which is basically ice cream and chocolate sauce on a brownie. But we’re a big family, so we ordered the Family Size Kilauea Lava Flow.
Which is when Scotty happened.
Six large scoops of ice cream? This would normally a challenge after all the food we’d already eaten, but for one thing…
We’re a bunch of slobs who inhale junk food. Hey, we just own it.
We finally rolled ourselves out of the restaurant, stopping at the little gift shop so I could get a
pint glass to take home. I couldn’t resist the slogan on it: “Liquid Aloha”. It’s also got a tiny map of the islands etched into the bottom of the glass.
We drove back into Kona, found a parking lot, and hustled over to the coast to attempt another sunset shot. Alas, we were a little too late for this one as well. We got one decent picture, though.
We wandered the town in the evening, stopping in the local
Crazy Shirts to check out the t-shirt selections once again. And then it was time to get these munchkins in bed. We had a long day ahead of us.
Coming Up Next: A somewhat trippy breakfast. And they don’t call this The Big Island for nothing. And then: Liquid Hot Magma!*
*Ok, maybe not actual magma. But we finally get to see the volcanoes. So we have that going for us, which is nice.
+1
Please tell me you're sending some over here!
Figures
