March 19 - Waikoloa

In the morning, from our hotel room, I could see Mauna Loa looming over the shoulder of Hualalai. Mauna Loa is bigger and flatter, by far.

Before we left the room, we ate a snack of coffee and macadamia nuts. It would tide us over for a little while.

We took a walk around the resort. At the far end from our hotel building, there was an enclosure with a few flamingos. They weren't too active.

Another enclosure had a few nene, the local goose. It's the state bird of Hawaii and related to the Canada goose.

Hilton had also brought in cultural objects from around the Pacific, like this orator's table from Papua New Guinea. Apparently it was used in meetings such that whoever had his hand on the carving could speak and was required to speak the truth (or face divine punishment, I think).

The resort is a big park. Fish, fish, and more fish swam in the lagoon. Snorkelers, kayakers, and a paddle boarder plied the waters, as well.

We left the Waikoloa resort for a couple hours, heading up the Hapuna Beach. Sunny. Pretty. Fun.

Eventually we had enough. We got back in the car, but we weren’t ready for the hotel yet. We thus turned up the hill to Waikoloa Village. It’s a golf course resort island five miles from the sea, but there are few houses and a grocery store. We bought sandwiches, sushi, and smoked marlin.

Back down the hill, we stopped briefly at Anaeho‘omalu Beach, but didn’t get out. There was no good place to park and watch the ocean while we ate, so we headed back to the hotel.

Since the canal boat was waiting at the lobby, we took it back to our building.

When the sun descended westward, we ventured forth to watch one last tropical sunset before our vacation ended.

A couple hours later, at about 8:30, we decided to go have a mai tai or two. This turned into just another walk around the resort, however. At that hour, all the bars in the resort were closed and the restaurant service was glacially slow. We never did get that last tropical drink.

We sat on the grass and stared at the stars, enjoying the warm evening.

At 9:30, Chunlin wanted to watch another movie. I picked _Seven Psychopaths_, which turned out to be a very bad movie for Chunlin to try to fall asleep to. Lots of quiet conversations interspersed with gunfights and explosions. I watched it to the end, as I always do. I get sucked in to movies so easily.