Faith, Folklore, and Friends

Obviously, I would never miss a chance to visit a coffee plantation. This one was on Kauai. There were acres and acres of these coffee bushes, all beautifully manicured.  On Kona, they told us this was a bad thing, because that meant the coffee beans were picked with machines.  The people at Kona Coffee claimed their beans were all hand picked. The smell inside the gift shop was heavenly, but I did not like the coffee samples they gave us.  It was very strong and bitter to me, so we didn't bring any home.  Still, I loved seeing the coffee beans growing.

We booked a historical tour with Carnival when we got to Kona.  There is not a port there; we were tendered to the mainland in lifeboats.  Captian Vito was there to make sure we all got aboard safely. Our first stop was the Painted Church . Unfortunately, there were five tour buses there when we were, and there was little room to walk around or snap photos.  I didn't even make it inside the church. As a true coffee-holic, I was really looking forward to visiting the  Kona Coffee.  Their warehouse wasn't that impressive, as you can see. Kona coffee is very dark and rich, a little strong for me. Our tour driver warned us about companies marketing their coffee as Kona, when it contained only 10% Kona. Most of the coffee for sale in the gift shop was only 10%, so I passed on that.  The 100% Kona was $49 for 24 ounces.  I'll just stick with Pablo at Sam's Club. The town had lots of stores for shopping and some historic bui...