Day 15 & 16 - Ali'i Stroll & Seahorses

Yesterday, Sunday, we took it easy in the morning, did some laundry, etc., then went up to Sam Choy's for lunch.  Gorgeous view from high above Keauhou Bay.  The building used to be a Wendy's, but Sam makes much better use of it as the view deserves a nice restaurant up there.  Katie and Mom had chicken salads, which were huge; Margie had the seared poke plate; and I had fish & chips, which were actually fresh Alaskan cod.  We guessed the cod swam over here trailing the humpback whales -- whatever, it was good.

On the 3rd Sunday of every month, Ali'i Drive is closed off through downtown Kailua-Kona for the Ali'i Stroll, where just about every artisan on the Big Island has a booth to sell their wares.  It's fun to walk along the street, looking at all of the different stuff you can buy, and nearly all of it is made in Hawaii, if not on the Big Island.  I spotted only a few booths that had items that looked suspiciously imported.  Then at 4:00 there is a concert at the Hulihe'e Palace which is on the ocean side (makai) of the street.  Most people bring their own chairs or put down towels, some sit on the sea wall, but they risk a soaking when big waves come up behind them.  A few chairs are put out for the kupuna (elders) and Mom, Katie & Margie were able to get one of them while I sat on Mom's walker.  It was a good concert - a brass band playing traditional Hawaiian songs and a group called the Merry Monarchs singing.  Mom said it reminder her of the band concerts they had in the park when she was a kid in Minneapolis, Kansas.  There was also a hula troop that danced traditional hula with chants.  I think all 4 of us enjoyed this concert more than the one on Saturday night.  Of course, after the concert we had to walk back through the street vendors and everything looked different going back, so we actually bought more on our way back to the car.  Probably the fact that it was a lot cooler when we went back to the car helped.  We got an added bonus in that we decided to park in the pay lot so Mom wouldn't have to walk as far and the meter box was broken so we didn't have to pay! What a deal!

This morning we left a little after 11:00 and headed to Hilo Hatties, which is a gift shop that has all sorts of Hawaiian souvenir stuff as well as Aloha wear.  We make it a point to stop at Hilo Hatties at least once each trip -- they give you a shell lei when you enter the store, and I have quite a lot of them accumulated by now. 

We had lunch at Taco Del Mar before going up to the Ocean Rider Seahorse Farm.  They raise seahorses to sell to aquarium hobbyists.  Seahorses are nearly extinct in the wild because of loss of habitat as well as over fishing.  They have been harvested for sale in pet shops as well as for other purposes.  Unfortunately, they do not survive long in captivity.  I did have some seahorses that I sent away for once and I don't think they lived very long.  In the wild seahorses eat only live shrimp and they are monogamous, so when wild ones are placed in captivity and forces to eat dead frozen shrimp and are separated from their mates, they get stressed and die.  At Ocean Rider, they have conditioned the seahorses over time to eat frozen shrimp and keep several of them together, so that if the mates are separated, they will bond with another one.  They are raising some seahorses to be reintroduced to the wild and these are fed only live shrimp.  At the end of the interesting and informative tour, we got to put our hands in the water, holding them like a "coral reef" while one of the biologists wrapped a seahorse tail around our fingers so we could "hold" a seahorse.  It's pretty neat.  Mom and I did this tour two years ago, but had forgotten about the killer gravel they have out there and it was very difficult for Mom to get around.

Tomorrow morning we are driving over to Hilo for an overnight stay.