My blog has been quiet these past two weeks because Dave and I traveled to Hawaii for a “second honeymoon.”
We spent one week at Kailua-Kona on the Big Island, not enough time to see everything we wanted to see. But we did see alot and ate pretty local. As you know, Dave grows most of what we eat and we wanted to make sure we spent our money on local food. So while we were in Kona we visited two different farmer’s markets. There were many more, but we just didn’t have time or enough days to eat all of that great food.
We visited the Kailua-Kona Farmers Market several times. They are open Tuesdays through Sundays and have lots of local grown fruit and veggies. They also have some local crafts and some stuff that is definitely not local.

The mass amount of tropical fruits was so neat to see (and to eat!).

Dave was pretty excited seeing all of this local produce in one spot and getting to talk to the growers. And we found one of our new favorite fruits – lilikoi.

Then we went to the Keauhou Farmer’s Market which is only open on Saturdays from 8 am until noon. It’s smaller but it’s all local.

In addition to coffee and other goodies, we bought some great oils for soap and lotion making from D. Medicine Woman. We had an interesting discussion with Earl who makes the “lotions.” (I really call them creams.)
So from that trip we brought home quite a nice haul of stuff.

The jar of lilikoi mango jelly was gone before we left Kona!
But we didn’t just visit farmers markets, we also enjoyed these beautiful sunsets every evening from our lanai.

And since I’ve turned into my mother, we had to stop by a fabric store, Kimura’s Fabrics in Kainaliu. I found this great writeup online by a quilter about this shop and since we were in the area, well, you know I had to drop in. What an interesting place with bolts and bolts of fabric!

Here is what I bought at Kimura’s. I fell in love with this Japanese fabric with the lovely irises.

And these other pieces. The red one Dave picked out for his home apron.

You will notice that a couple of pieces include petroglyphs. Love that look. However, we didn’t just look at petroglyphs on fabric, on the Big Island we visited three petroglyph sites.
These included Pu’u Loa Petroglyphs at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, Puako Petroglyph Preserve and Waikoloa Petroglyph Preserve. We were so amazed at the beautiful artwork at these sites and they gave me more inspiration for petroglyph rubbing plate fabric.

One of the snacks I enjoyed four years ago, I got to enjoy again. I brought this bag home.

Between Dave and I we took over 2,000 pictures so I’m sure I’ll be sharing more in future posts. The second week was spent on Maui. I’ll tell you more about that later.
It was so good to get away. The weather was absolutely perfect. But it’s always good to come back home.
It looks perfect Lynda, I’m glad you had such a good time! I’ve certainly never heard of likikoi before! Will you be trying to grow these exotic fruits at home or can they only be grown in those very warm and sunny climates?
I love that turtle fabric on the right! I probably would have bought half the store there :))
Looking forward to you Maui pics 🙂
Kristina recently posted..wiksten tulip skirt
What a wonderful vacation! Love the fabrics!
Robin recently posted..Thursday’s Kitchen Cupboard……….2/02/2012
The vacation looks awesome! I want to experience this too…The food looks awesome!
How I loved reading this post! I have family who live in Kona and am making plans to move there myself this year, in 2014. You visited so many of my favorite spots, it was like going home again via your blog! Aloha ~
Carolyn, We just returned from a two-week vacation in Hawaii, spending the last week in Kona. And you’re going to move there? Oh, my! What a beautiful place – heaven on earth. You are a lucky duck! I brought back more seed pods from that beautiful tree and lots of inspiration. Can’t wait to share. Thanks again for commenting.