It’s about 10:30AM on the Friday after Christmas, one of the busiest travel days of the year, and I’m sitting in the United Club in Denver, Colorado preparing for a flight out to Kona, Hawaii to visit a friend of mine for the weekend. Many of you will recall that I had to cancel a trip to Hungary earlier this year, and doing so resulted in some rather high-dollar flight credits that I had to use before the 31st.
So… why not Hawaii? – especially when I have a friend out there with an extra room!
This isn’t exactly going to be a standard trip for Free Range Hobo – it’ s a vacation. We may do worthwhile things that I will blog, but we also may not. The highlight of my trip right now? I’m wearing shorts. Long-term plans for the trip? I want to smoke a cigar on a beach and relax watching a football game this Sunday while I enjoy the amazing weather in the middle of December.
Yes, I know, most people would be going for the geology, the volcanoes, the amazing wildlife, and I do plan to see some of those things… I’m just going to be taking it easy, okay? 🙂 It’s going to be one of “those” trips where I don’t stress too much and just let things come at me as they may. We’ll see where the winds and whims take me!
I took an early morning flight from Denver, meaning I landed in Kona just around dinner time, and my friend Mark, with whom I’ll be staying this trip, took me out to what I have been told is the best poke place in all of Kona. I have to admit… we did a “flight” of poke and it really, really hit the spot. It was varied, delicious, and just what the doctor ordered. Between this and a few Mai Tais… my trip to Kona has started off right!
Our poke “flight”, four different kinds – one “chef’s special”. Delicious!
Mark talked about heading into town for some beers… but I talked him instead into a few drinks on his lanai (back porch). We both probably had a few to many scotches, swapped stories to catch up (it’s been a few months since I’ve seen him!), and then it was bedtime for me. What a great way to kick off the trip!
