Hawaii - Big Island life

Sightseeing in Kailua-Kona includes this view of a cruise ship

Herewith some impressions of the Big Island and the State of Hawaii.

I was surprised to see a cruise ship in the harbor at Kailua-Kona, but it mades perfect sense, as tourism is the state's number one industry, followed by the military and then agriculture.  Sugar and pineapple used to be a big deal in Hawaii, but not so much anymore.  Which leads me to my second impression...

They say it's expensive to live in paradise.  I know this already, hailing from the other paradise of San Diego.  But when you are on an island that is 2,500 miles from the mainland U.S. and even farther from Japan or any other point of civilization, it gets real expensive.   I'm told 95% of the goods in Hawaii are imported, mostly by plane.  At ABC stores (a combo of groceries, deli, clothes, and everything needed for snorkeling), all the eggs are from the mainland.  All the milk seems to come from the mainland too.  Apparently, there aren't too many diary farms left in the islands. 

It's dark at night, and you need a really good car, preferably four wheel drive, because you'll inevitably be parking on a boulder strewn road.  On west coast (Kona) side of the island, where most of the tourism exists, you can travel miles between resorts.  And everyone drives slowly here.  Mohala.    

Lava, close up.  But imagine acres of it.  

There is lava everywhere on  the Kona side.  It's like that last lava flow just happened yesterday, though you know it didn't.  (That's on the Southeast side of the island. )  But you can see how the lava flowed down the mountainside.  I haven't hiked through any of these lava fields yet, but looks like it would require steel toed shoes. 

There are cats (feral) and goats all about.  We're renting a condo at the Hali'i Kai resort (beautiful), and the main rule here seems to be DON'T FEED THE CATS.  My first night here one of those cats was sitting pretty in the lava bed just outside our unit, talking to me.   But, I did not feed her.

The place names here are all Hawaiian, with so many vowels it should be illegal.  And they can be very long (like Pu'uhonua O Hananau).  Our Greenwell coffee guide (the 21 year resident of the island) said it took her five years to get used to the names.  It wouldn't be so bad if there weren't so many of them, as they begin to merge in my mind.  But Hawaii wouldn't be Hawaii without them.