We’ve landed!

Aloha from Hawai’i!

Drew and I landed in Kailua-Kona, Hawai’i yesterday at 2:05pm (8:05pm EST) after 13 hours of travel time.  The Kona International Airport was really cool!  We disembarked the plane onto the tarmac, and all of the waiting areas and baggage claims that we saw were open air and so, so pretty.

We went to a storytelling event last night at the Mauna Lani Resort that was put on by the hotel’s cultural director.  He played ukelele while two other local musicians played guitar.  They sang songs, some traditional Hawaiian, some current hits, and shared stories related to songs they enjoy and people they know, stories of Hawaiian legends, and stories of current events and public awareness.  People were invited to come up and dance hula whenever they felt the desire, and it was awesome watching the impromptu dancers.  The participants also talked about “talk story,” a Hawaiian term referring to the practice of simply chatting with someone to catch up or share stories.  We  watched the sunset as a huge group as the musicians sang “Over the Rainbow,” which was beautiful, and at the end of the night, everyone in the crowd held hands while a Hawaiian prayer was chanted.

During the show, I met a man who had moved to a coffee plantation on the Big Island a few years earlier.  He was my first example of Hawaiian “hospitality!”  In Hawai’i, “talk story” is very popular and include conversations about just about anything.  It’s amazing how much you can learn from someone by simply sharing a snack and asking where they’re from.  I was also lucky enough to be able to trade information and take a few moments to talk to the cultural director about the show and he shared a few tidbits of information about what was going on.  It was a wonderful first night, and well worth getting back to our room around 10pm (4am EST), making for almost a full 26 hours awake straight! It was a long day, haha.

Today has, so far, been slower. We had a late breakfast at Bongo Ben’s, which was across the street from the ocean. My waffle with pineapple, macadamia nuts, banana, and coconut syrup was delicious.  Two little lizards  also joined us, so we fed the one that stuck around some pineapple.

Currently, we’re getting ready to go to the top of Mauna Kea, a mountain 13,800′ above sea level. Should be awesome!  Stay tuned for that story tomorrow!