From Kona, we visited the painted church, Pu'uhonua o Honaunau National Historic Park, and a Kona coffee place that had a small lava tube.
St. Benedict Roman Catholic Church, in Capatain Cook, Hawaii
Monument to St. Benedict
Views from the church, which in on the leeward slope of Mt. Mauna Loa
The interior was painted by Father John Berchmans Velge starting in 1899.
Pu'uhonau o Honaunau is a Hawaiian sacred site. It is also one of the most beatiful seaside locations we have seen anywhere.
The penalty for breaking the sacred laws in old Hawaii, the kapu, was death. Your only option for survival was to make it to the nearest pu'uhonua, a place of refuge. Here you could be forgiven by a priest and allowed to survive.
The ki'i surround the Hale o Keawe, which holds the bones of the chiefs that fill the area with Mana, or power.
A totem in the back yard of a Kona Coffee place
You can see the Captain Cook memorial on the shore of this bay. Later the same day, we were down there on a boat, and saw dolphins in the water there.
There was a small lava tube at the coffee place.
Another shot of the totem.
Here are some details of a little mural below the deck of the coffee tasting place
View of the harbor from the road, with the Pride of America at anchor.
