There’s something about Hawaii that makes you wake up early despite your best efforts to sleep in like a mofo.

We went to the beach for a while and came back to the condo and showered and it was only 1pm. The waves were pretty tame so the boogie boarding wasn’t so great but thanks to my developing Wave ESP I tend to identify which waves way out in the distance are going to be worthy ones when they hit the shore so I managed to catch a few good ones. My favourite part is scaring the people standing on the beach. If you catch a good wave you can slide almost up to the dry sand and they never believe you can do that until you are about 5 feet away and then they do this great panicked, clumsy hop to get out of the way.

After a pit stop at the condo for a shower we had a notion to go to the little town of Hawi but decided to drive into town (Kona) instead and save Hawi for a trip to the botanical gardens and Hilo tomorrow. Here is what I learned today — Hawaiian businesses and especially restaurants close whenever they can get away with it.

We tried to go to a cafe 10 miles on the far side of town but it was closed from 2pm to 5pm. Then we read about a place called Buns in the Sun near the Kona Jamba Juice and decided to go there. Turns out they are open from 5am to 3pm. WTF? So we ended up at Kona Brewing Company again because we were starving and it’s just that good. After slunch we hit the Kona Market. Closed at 5pm. At least Macy’s (home of this signage) and Kmart were open. I love the Kmart electronics section. They actually had those old school black tape recorder decks for sale. I think I also saw a Vic 20 hiding in the corner covered in dust.

Speaking of things covered, the island is covered in volcanic fog (a.k.a. vog) which casts a creepy darkness over everything.