Honolulu
In an effort to save a little money and use up some air miles, our trip to Hawaii was probably a little longer than necessary. We had a several hour layover in LAX (boy, I really don't get how this airport is laid out!) before our 6 hour flight to Honolulu. Fortunately, everything went pretty smoothly and we (and our luggage) arrived as scheduled.
I also took advantage of hotel points and booked the Ritz Carlton Waikiki Beach. A beautiful room awaited us in this towered hotel. Our room looked out onto downtown Honolulu and the ocean. While we were here literally less than 12 hours, I would recommend it for a longer stay.
An acquaintance of ours owns part interest in a boutiques rum distillery, KoHanana Rum, that I had booked a tour on for the next morning. While not a large distillery, we learned about what makes their rum different than most. Two thousand pounds of native sugar cane grown onsite is processed twice a week by extracting the juice through a large press. While this sounds like a large amount of cane, it translates into one wine cask for fermenting. Different processing produces different rums. They can also have a final aging in used whiskey barrels to give it a more complex flavor. Some even have cocoa nibs introduce to give the final product a chocolate flavor which was my favorite.
We followed the tour with a tasting of 5 of their offerings. The white rums are definitely more suited to mixed drinks while the darker ones could easily be sipped. They also have honey that has been stored in the used rum barrels to give it a slight rum flavor. It all can be ordered online for delivery to the mainland. We followed our tasting with a delicious wood-fired pizza they make out back.
We caught a mid-afternoon flight to Kona on the Big Island of Hawaii. This airport seems to be all open air reflecting the year-round temperate climate of the islands. We arrived out our destination for the next few days, Four Season Hualalai, a definite splurge resort right on the ocean.
After settling in our room, we ventured about 30 minutes away to Kona for dinner at Huggo's, a seafood restaurant right on the water. It was fun watching the various fish swimming in the tidal pools while enjoying some well prepared seafood for dinner. We returned to our resort for a very restful night's sleep.
Tomorrow: Exploring the Island
I also took advantage of hotel points and booked the Ritz Carlton Waikiki Beach. A beautiful room awaited us in this towered hotel. Our room looked out onto downtown Honolulu and the ocean. While we were here literally less than 12 hours, I would recommend it for a longer stay.
An acquaintance of ours owns part interest in a boutiques rum distillery, KoHanana Rum, that I had booked a tour on for the next morning. While not a large distillery, we learned about what makes their rum different than most. Two thousand pounds of native sugar cane grown onsite is processed twice a week by extracting the juice through a large press. While this sounds like a large amount of cane, it translates into one wine cask for fermenting. Different processing produces different rums. They can also have a final aging in used whiskey barrels to give it a more complex flavor. Some even have cocoa nibs introduce to give the final product a chocolate flavor which was my favorite.
We followed the tour with a tasting of 5 of their offerings. The white rums are definitely more suited to mixed drinks while the darker ones could easily be sipped. They also have honey that has been stored in the used rum barrels to give it a slight rum flavor. It all can be ordered online for delivery to the mainland. We followed our tasting with a delicious wood-fired pizza they make out back.
We caught a mid-afternoon flight to Kona on the Big Island of Hawaii. This airport seems to be all open air reflecting the year-round temperate climate of the islands. We arrived out our destination for the next few days, Four Season Hualalai, a definite splurge resort right on the ocean.
Tomorrow: Exploring the Island
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