Kona Maka’eo Walking Path and Community Garden

We found a sign at the Maka’eo Walking Path noting if we walked around the path 3 times, we’d surpass 2 miles of steps for the day. Oh, man, what did we do before we counted our steps and distances? Didn’t we just walk, by putting one foot in front of the other without any goal to reach a certain number of steps before the end of the day? How did we ever make it through the day back in those dark ages without this knowledge?

Apple knows. In fact, there is a way to turn off the STAND or BREATHE function on my Apple Watch but I’m too lazy to look for it. So, instead little irritations build. Further, I am irritated that it started with 5,000 steps and then lord knows who proclaimed, no, we must do 10,000 steps a day. Screw those people. And Apple, too. Don’t let your watch tell you what to do. Resist.

Reminds me of the story about running into Patricia Clarkson at Safeway in Kona and mistaking her for Cyndi Lauper.

If you are looking for a relaxing stroll without being forced to count your steps or maybe you want to run or jog, the Maka’eo Walking Path offers all of those options. The day we were there last week, it was fairly warm, middle of the afternoon, and not very many people on the paved path at all.

We spotted large numbers of mongooses runningamuck. Feral cats live in this community garden, too, but we didn’t see any.

It is a little difficult to find if you don’t know where the Maka’eo Walking Path is located, and GPS is not a lot of help. So here are my directions. Drive down Kuakini until it ends by the Old Pavillion. Park there. On the mauka side of the road, walk beyond the store with the sign that warns: no skateboarding, no camping, no loitering, no NOTHING, at the canoe place. Go north a little bit further past the skateboard park and you will find the Maka’eo Walking Path.

This is an Australian Fire Tree, which I believe I’ve also discovered in Golden Gate Park, except this is in Kona. There are many sections devoted to certain types of plants and cared for by individuals as well as non-profit organizations. Not as many flowers were in bloom this time of year, though.

We have been searching for a tall lipstick palm for our front yard since our gardener Charlie removed our pathetic dwarf avocado. His irrigation friend Alistaire seemed to think the avocado tree was diseased. The tips of the leaves had all turned brown, and this has been going for on years. Our local celebrity gardener Barbara Bolton said it might be because we watered it too much, and that 10 minutes a day every other day is too much.

Who knows why the avocado tree responded so negatively to the sun and sea air of our yard in Hawaii? Charlie found a front-yard replacement plant, a lipstick palm at Lowes, but he claimed $200 was too much to pay for a 4-foot palm. He assures us we could find at least a 7-foot lipstick palm for around $300.

These palms in the Maka’eo Walking Path are not lipstick palms, and I don’t think they are bottle palms, either. They could very well be Madagascar palms, originating from Madagascar, an island off the coast of southern Africa. Otherwise known as dragon trees.