July 1, 2006 12:20 pm - Getting to Kona Photo Update
I've updated the photo on the Getting to Kona Page. A couple weeks ago I went to California to attend my son's wedding and was able to take this picture as I was walking out to board the plane.
Aloha airlines fly's straight to John Wayne Airport in California and the chocolate chip cookie with warm milk that they serve is hard to beat.
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July 1, 2006 10:14 pm - Saturday Night Kona Car Show
The place was packed with street rods, race cars, big trucks, you name it and it was on Alii Dr. at the car show this evening. By sundown there must have been a couple thousand people checking out all the cool cars.
One of the nice things about living in Kona is when ever I go to one of these events I see lots of folks that I know and have done business with over the years that I've lived here. It's a good opportunity to catch up and reminisce if I haven't seen them in a while.
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July 7, 2006 10:39 pm - 4th of July in Kona
Eila and I spent a typical Kona style 4th of July. We went to Bubba Gumps for lunch.
Then for desert we decided to stop off at Dairy Queen for an ice cream cone at Coconut Grove Marketplace and noticed a stage set up on the volleyball court.
We just happened by before the start of live music and various other entertainment, such as a contest to see who could sing the star spangled banner the best.
There were 3 contestants and I kid you not, they all KNEW THE WORDS COMPLETELY!. I was shocked. Patriotism is alive an well in Kona.
We only stopped in for an ice cream but the entertainment was so good we stayed 3 hours and then went home to watch the fireworks from our lanai. 
The fireworks show was "Da Bomb" literally. LOL
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July 8, 2006 9:43 pm - Kona's Annual Roots Bodyboarding Contest
Kona Roots Body Board Contest is a locally organized and sponsored event in it's fourth year at Wai'aha beach park. (Read Article)
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July 10, 2006 8:30 pm - Bangkok House for lunch
If you like Thai food the Bangkok House at the King Kamehameha Mall next to Big Island Honda on Kuakini Hiway is an excellent choice. Sometimes I go to lunch with a small group of business people and we make the rounds at different restaurants here in Kona and we have consistently picked the Bangkok House for Thai food.
The service is always good and the food is consistent. The prices are too cheap, I don't know how they stay in business. But we've been eating there for years so I guess they got it figured out.
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July 12, 2006 6:37 pm - Evening Canoe Practice
The canoes above are practicing for this weekends races. Canoe racing is serious business in Hawaii.
The regatta canoe season starts in May and runs through July. The races are short usually from a 1/4 to 2 miles in length.
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July 16, 2006 8:15 pm - Now you can comment on news posts here on Konafriends
Over the last week I've seriously investigated starting a forum here at Konafriends. What I've found is it would require a large amount of time to set up and moderate on a regular basis.
At this point I feel my time is better spent adding more valuable information about Kona. A good compromise for the time being is adding the ability to make comments about news posts. A link following each post will give visitors the ability to add their insight to stories I've written here at Konafriends. Please, go ahead and let me know what you think! Mahalo, Joe
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July 23, 2006 8:14 pm - Lynx comes to Kona
Privateer Lynx is a trip back in time to a day when sailing the seas was a hard dangerous life. (Read Article)
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July 24, 2006 8:10 pm - 47th Annual Hawaiian International Billfish Tournament
July 24 to 28
About 30 teams from all over the world are here in Kona this week for the Hawaiian International Billfish Tournament. Some folks might say Kona's a small drinking village with a fishing problem... I wish I had a fishing problem.
Unfortunately I have a working problem, so today I pau hana'd a little early so I could get down to the Kailua pier to see if any monster marlins were caught during the first day of the tournament. Fishing started at 7 AM and all the boats head back in to be at the pier at around 4PM to weigh any big marlins caught during the day.
You can see here the boats mingling around the pier, each one dropping off their fishing team. The ones that caught fish get their picture taken with Miss Konabillfish and then interviewed by the various press from around the world.
After that's all done then the teams rendezvous at this tent on the pier and get something to drink and tell fish stories, probably about the one that got away.
If I can keep my working problem under control this week, I'll try to get down to the pier everyday till I get a photo of a big marlin for everyone here to see. So check back tomorrow, you might see the biggest fish in your life right here on little old Konafriends.com A Hui Hou
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July 25, 2006 8:00 pm - Pacific Blue Marlin
Check this big bugga out! This was day 2 of the Hawaiian International Billfish Tournament. This is a 399 lb. Pacific Blue Marlin. The fight to board this fish was an hour and a half according to the guy who caught it.
There were 4 yellow fin tuna also brought to the scale today. They weighed from 115 to 191 pounds. A lot of smaller Marlins were tagged and released today.
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July 30, 2006 8:35 pm - Kona Fishing Charter page just added
After watching the International Hawaiian Billfish Tournament and the "Huggo's Wahine Billfish Tournament" come and go, I made an effort to get the Kona fishing charter page built, click here to check it out.
Saturday morning was the start of the Huggo's Wahine Tournament. It was pretty spectacular. There were 100 boats that went roaring off to their best guess of a place to catch a big Blue Marlin. This was a one day competition
The cool thing about the annual Wahine tournament is a large portion of the entry fees are donated to local causes. I believe this year the donation is 10,000 dollars. Not too shabby heh?
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