27 Jan 2024
First order of business (after packing up my gear, which dried surprisingly well overnight) is to meet up with Ross to pick up the fiber optic cable (even though I’m down to one strobe, I will still need a new cable when I acquire a new strobe), since I’m in town, find the good shave ice:
I also did some souvenir shopping and while I was looking at t-shirts, I felt something get me in the neck- it felt like a bite or a sting. I assumed it was a bee since the shop was right next to the shave ice place, but when I went to brush whatever got me out of my hair, I touched something much larger than a bee and this guy fell out:
YIKES! I was too stunned to scream or panic or do anything really. Just stood there and stared at him for a while, then, when he didn’t move, poked him to see if he was still alive. He scurried off; it seems he was just as stunned as I!
The rest of the afternoon was much less eventful: drank some coffee, bought some coffee to bring home, and headed down to the harbor to watch one last sunset:
I even recorded it so you can watch too!
Then it was off to the airport to wait for my flight.
Even though my flight wasn’t leaving until 1130pm, I had pretty much done all the things I needed to do in town, so even though it meant sitting at the airport for 5+ hours, I hunkered down and edited the bulk of the remaining pictures.
Walking across the tarmac to meet my plane will never cease to amuse me:
Lots of late-night flights out of Kona:
28 Jan 2024
I ended up not sleeping a wink on this red-eye flight, and, unfortunately, have a 4 hour layover, so I grabbed some breakfast and continued to work on pictures until it was finally time to fly home:
Hello, foggy, yet not-so-snowy Minneapolis!
Temperatures were just above freezing when we landed, which, while 50° cold than Hawaii, is 30° warmer than when I left. Plus, it seems that most of the snow has melted! I didn’t have to dig my car out of the parking lot!
Not a bad welcome home.