Today is day 7, Sunday. So much for writing every day!!

Saturday – day 6, June 27. Nice lazy morning! Then we went exploring down to the King’s and Queen’s shops in the Waikoloa. Rosie had a job interview at the Sunglass Hut in the Queen’s Shops … time will tell.

We went exploring up the coast to find Hapuna Beach. First, we found Pauako Beach and Ascension Church. Mass is at 10:00 on Sunday. We found beautiful beaches at both Pauako and Hapuna. Both are north of the Waikoloa turnoff and you can get from Pauako to Hapuna via the little road that parallels the shoreline. Hapuna is a nice, sandy beach for swimming. It has been written up a lot in various books and such.

We hit the pupus at the Waikoloa Marriott on Saturday, we were going to stay for dinner, but the pupu platter was HUGE! We’ll come back for the ocean salt crusted PRIME RIB!

Sunday – June 28: This morning we went to Assumption Church in Kamuela (Waimea) for 8:00 Mass. It is about 1/2 hour away. Nice and cozy Church and the pastor ministers to Ascension Church in Pauako for the 10:00 a.m. Mass too.

Breakfast at the Paniolo Inn. Seat yourself, good food. Half orders of Eggs Benedict and Huevos Rancheros, recommended for return.

After breakfast, explored the local area and found the Waimea Farmer’s Market, every last Sunday of the month next to the Waimea Golf Course. It is at mile marker 51 on the way to Hio, just keep going on highway 19! A huge bouquet of flowers for only 10.00 dollars. I have never seen WHITE antheriums.

Came home and changed the screen on the screen door, saved us some money on a new one!

Dinner time = BBQ – Ahi (again?) and Tube Steaks!!

Oops, things are slowing down already, this is not a good sign.

Friday – a day to relax! Rosie went to the movies with Elyssa to see the new Transformers 2 movie, while I did the insurance add-on for the Subaru. Hung around and just chilled out.

5:00 happy hour every Friday at the pool and we got to meet some of our neighbors. Nice folks. Everyone brings a pupu to snack on …

Thursday – drove down to Kona for a 10:00 a.m. meeting with the Subaru owner, it became 10:30 and then finally 11:15 by the time we got there. Rosie went with her friend Elyssa to Hapuna beach with their family.

Mr. Makoota had a 1999 Subaru Legacy with 56,000 miles for 5,000 dollars. It is forest green and gently used. He was a very nice and pleasant grandfather who handed us the keys to test drive it. He did not want to go with us – I was so shocked that I gave him the rental car keys to hold while we drove it. Long time ago, when the kids were small, we had a Subaru. It is a little worn outside but very clean inside. No power-anything in the car! Speedometer replaced, so the car reads 2,600 miles – LOW LOW MILES!

We went to the car dealers and visited a few other prospects. Nothing jumped out at us – but we did get lead on the best Mai-Tais on the island. Don’t Mai-Tai Bar in the Royal Kona Resort down on Alii Drive. Sandy and I had lunch and a Mai-Tai and decided to buy the Subaru. We called Mr Makoota, got his full name – Philip S. Makoota and went to the First Hawaiian Bank to draw a cashier’s check for 3,500. He had told us the price dropped from 5k to 4k to 3.5k, he wanted to move it! What a deal!!

Being a small community, we did the DMV thing quickly and now own ANOTHER CAR!

Taco Bell taco kit for dinner, just add ground beef! Yum!!

Did the sunset pictures out on the bench!

Wednesday – day to hang around and fix stuff. We got 2 new shower heads, fixed the light in the closet (we just couldn’t find the switch AFTER I put in a new replacement fixture). Replaced the broken shelf in our bedroom closet as well.

I read through the West Hawaii News and craigslist for a car. This was gnawing in the back of my mind – that we needed to find a vehicle SOON. We picked up the TV from Costco, it fit fine in the Ford Explorer that we rented, we needed to find something to replace it and be practical and economical. A few leads surfaced .. lots of cars with lots of miles, greater that 100k is not uncommon.

Lined up car dealers down in Kona and talked to 2 Subaru owners, one in Hilo (willing to meet 1/2 way on Saddle Road) and one in Kona. We were set for Thursday to check out the one in Kona. I got excited about Honda CR-V’s. There was one at the Chrysler-Jeep dealer, a little expensive but … Our purchase limit was 7,500 dollars.

Wednesday, we had Ahi for dinner at the pool bar-b-que. I overcooked it a little, maybe 4 minutes on each side next time. It was delicious.

Lots of stuff to do today. Ran around down to Kona, looking for a car, new thermostat, new shelving for our bedroom closet, new shower head, new LCD TV, new tools to fix stuff around the condo. I love this Vizio 42″ TV! Looks great for the laptop!!

Cars here have LOTS of mileage, over 100k is NOT uncommon, ouch.

We had breakfast at the Waikoloa Village market, hot food section. For 4 dollars, you got a huge scrambled egg, potatoes (or rice) and your choice of meat. We ordered 2, for the 3 of us, plenty of food.

For lunch, we made a run at Killer Tacos, next to the Hula Lamp place in Kona. Great lunch special for 5 dollars, 2 crispy tacos (choice of meat) and drink!

Pizza for dinner from the Anthony’s Bistro and Bar – fair, not great. (808) 883-9609

ALMOST missed the sunset, got one so-so shot. Yesterday’s leaving the Costco, was truly awesome … but missed the shot traveling back to the condo.