Day Three Hundred and Ten: Kona, Hawaii

If Glenwood is Taylor and my place, then Kona is the place for me and my family.

I often tell people I grew up spending a lot of time in Hawaii. It’s true. My family would fly to Kona about two or three times a year. Sometimes it was for family vacation, sometimes to visit my uncle and sometimes to help him on his ranch (which has since been sold, sad day.) Either way, I grew up spending more time in Kona than I did anywhere else away from home.

Before you go off thinking that my family is loaded (we’re not) there was a perfectly logical reason for Kona being our family destination vacation. My mother’s boss at the time, whom we always called Uncle John, had a condo in Hawaii that he allowed his employees to use free of charge. My mother also traveled a lot for her job. She traveled enough to get us four first class tickets to Kona two or three times a year (imagine how much traveling that would require and ask how often my mother was home. The answer, not very often.) As a result, our airfare, our lodging and our car rental were nearly free. We paid for food, and I have family out there, so sometimes we didn’t even pay for food. Basically it was cheaper for us to go to Kona than anywhere else in the world.

Hawaii is the most beautiful place in the world that I have ever had the pleasure of visiting. Especially Kona. Nothing beats a tropical island and a small town without much tourism. Not to mention bomb coffee. The condo was right outside of town so every night we would walk into town for dinner or to visit the farmers markets.

My mother has since changed jobs and while I’m happy that she was home more often with her new job, I do miss Kona fiercely. The place always reminded me of my family because growing up it was the only time we were really fully together as a family. I know my family misses it too. Hopefully we’ll get to go back soon…maybe for a wedding.

Yeah, wedding.

Challenge to my Readers:

Travel is very expensive. Some places are worth it. Even if you can only go a few times a life time, return to the places that you deem worth it.