Big Island: 4. South of South – Black Crabs and Coffee

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Before walking to a coffee shop, we called to wish Mike’s Grandma a happy 99th birthday, made pancakes that resembled tiki statues, and created some domino runs. 🙂

The coffee shop was nearby (about a 2-mile walk) that we’d passed by several times in the car, and I’d read good reviews about it.  It was a lovely little place and in such a beautiful location with a wonderful new, open-air building for events.  The owner and barista were super friendly.  It turned out that as we were walking, the owner had passed us on the way to pick up her kids from school and thought about stopping to see if we needed help. There wasn’t really a sidewalk/path, so we were just walking in the grassy shoulder. I’m guessing that there aren’t a lot of people walking that route. 🙂

In addition to the coffee/gift shop, the owner’s mom runs an orchid greenhouse in the back as well.  Both the coffee shop and the orchid farm are the southernmost of their kind in the U.S. 🙂  (Mike’s Note: At the time, I was the Southernmost left-handed brown-eyed Math major in the U.S. as well.)

 

Spent another afternoon at the black sand beach (Punalu’u Beach), but we parked on the other side this time and walked out onto the big lava rocks and watched the waves crashing on them.

There were also some super cool black crabs crawling around, but they were too fast (or shy) for us to get any pictures. Below is a picture from a web site with more information and about them.

After the beach, we headed to the Punalu’u Bake Shop (again) for some pastries.  We each had $4 to spend.  G and L were so excited that they were able to choose two things!!  G got a pinwheel and a vanilla malasada (Portuguese donut).  L got a vanilla cream puff and a vanilla malasada.  I got a traditional malasada.  Mike got a bag of pineapple candy.  Yum!

The malasadas are the best donuts I’ve had!  I think it’s the consistency. 🙂

We headed home and the kids convinced Mike to stop at the coffee truck since I’d not spent my full $4. 🙂

Backstory — One day while we were sitting on the lanai of our house, we saw a coffee food truck drive by.  I was hoping it was like an ice cream truck in the neighborhood.  I was listening for a bell or music or something and was ready to run down the street with my money. 🙂  Sadly, that didn’t happen.  Happily, though, we spotted that same coffee truck (The Flyin’ Hawaiian Coffee Co.) parked on the lawn of a church in Naaleu on our way back from the beach! 🙂

I got a tasty cafe au lait with a little foam for the road.  The kids ran around in the yard, hoping someone would offer them some espresso and a kitten like a sign on the truck warned. 🙂 Thankfully, that didn’t happen! 🙂