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So I went to Hawaii and all you get is this odd photo.

On the big island of Hawaii… in South Kona… the Public Works guys have these crazy crooked stripe situations… before stop signs that are hard to see before you get to them.  Notice how the stop sign is just sort of around a little corner and would be hard to see if you were not familiar with it.  Interesting… and they certainly catch your attention right away.  The crooked lines start about 200 feet back from the stop sign… giving all the stupid tourist (me) time to anticipate the hidden stop sign.

This vacation to Hawaii was the reason I’ve not been posting lately.  We went to Kauai and also the big island of Hawaii (Kona).  Both are interesting.  Kauai is too small for me… “no there… there” if you know what I mean.  Beautiful… yes.  The homes for sale were PRICEY! ( we always look at real estate to get a feel for the real place.  They were between 2 million and 20 million… and nobody actually lived in those… they are second homes for bankers and Dot Com billionaires.  The locals live in normal neighborhoods… which are pretty cool often.. but still 600k for a pretty normal looking house.  What I didn’t like was that the towns all center on tourism… and I would guess that 60% or more of the cars on Kauai are rental cars… If you are a surfer… Hanalei is cool… or just northwest of there. But if you are not a surfer… well you better be a writer or something because it is a bit quiet!  Beautiful though… did I say that yet.  we toured the botanical gardens and hiked and had a lovely time.

The Big Island is more up my alley as far as actually living in Hawaii I think.  People living right.  The locals have figured out life.  No ego… no pretense… just enjoying life rather than trying to show how cool they are… or how much stuff they have.  I really liked this part of Hawaiian culture.   Very few fancy cars… lots of hitchhikers (getting rides actually too… how many of you have seen a hitchhiker get a ride where you live lately)   We also liked visiting with the old japanese families in their old stores.  We avoided most of the touristy areas North of the Airport and stuck to the lower class farm areas around Kona… no mansions… no pushy important people.  South Kona is AWESOME.

We looked at a cool old modern house for sale… a foreclosure… it was 200k  on leasehold land… with 32 years left on the lease at 400 dollars a year.   It sold several years ago for over 600k.  It was on two acres of coffee plantation… so you have a bit of income from the coffee… enough to pay for the lease and the property taxes.    It needed work… here are a couple of crappy cell phone shots of the interior.  No windows in the living room… just screens.  The weather is just so balmy there they are not needed.  What a life it would be.  It was surrounded by jungle on two sides…and totally private… with 180 degree views of the ocean out the front side… but it was about 600 feet away from the highway (two lane)… so a tad noisy … otherwise we would have bought it!

I could live on the Big Island…. surfing every day… warm air… blah blah blah…

Our old buddies Erik and Lou were our hosts for the week. Erik Hinshaw was our realtor/tourguide and we stayed at the South Kona Hideaway two room B&B  run Lou D’Angelo.  A casual and perfect setting in what I consider the real Hawaii… amongst the coffee plantations… away from golfing, hotels, shopping and chaotic tourist destinations.

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