Arrived on the plane around noon.  Loved the Kona airport – it’s all outdoors/open air – even the baggage claim.

 

Met with my friends and we went straight to Kahalu’u Beach just south of Kona for snorkling.  A nice shallow cove that had a fair number of sea turtles and tons of tropical fish – even puffer fish.  It also had a shark after about 2 hours of snorkling fun, so we all headed back in. 🙂

 

So, sunset was arriving and we headed to the Royal Kona Resort to sit on their most excellent open-air back bar/patio to enjoy a mai tai and watch the sunset.  There was also an awesome old marimba player that sure-enough played ‘The Girl from Ipanema‘.  An extremely fun and classic start to a great week.