After our morning at Kealakekua Bay, we returned our rented snorkel gear to Snorkel Bob’s. It had served us well. And we considered it a particular bonus that they didn’t charge us for an extra day.
After that, we drove a narrow, winding road up to Holualoa, a hamlet on the slopes above Kona where there are art galleries and a cafe Trudy had targeted. By the time we got there, we figured we’d be ready for a snack. Sadly, when we got there, the cafe and most of the galleries were closed.
We did go into Ipu Hale gallery. Here there were ipu gourds carved in the Ni’ihau method.
And we walked into the Holualoa Ukulele Gallery in the old Holualoa post office.
Sam took us into his shop in back and talked to us about his ukuleles and his workshops (10 days, seven hours per day) where people come in a learn how to play and how to make a ukulele.
But besides the gourd guy and Sam, there just wasn’t a whole lot left to do in Holualoa, since we’d missed the closing bell.
The fair and industrious Trudy got a big bottle of water at the general store, because we were thirsty, and we sat on the curb and guzzled it.
And we took a few pictures of the narrow roads and the funny, zigzag stripes at stop signs and crosswalks.
And as afternoon gave way to evening, we drove back down to Kona in search of gas and dinner.
Don’t ask me just how afternoon gave way to evening when we did so little, but … we were on vacation, we were in no rush, and so we just took our time.