Sunday Stroll at Kona’s Historic Kailua Village

The Sunday Stroll at Kona’s Historic Kailua Village happens once a month when Ali’i Drive is closed to only pedestrian traffic. And dogs, of course. On a leash. It provides an opportunity for locals and tourists to shop and dine. They set up blocks and blocks of vendor booths selling mostly handmade items. I saw many of the same goodies last June on the grounds of Hulihe’e Palace on King Kamehameha Day.

My friend Linda, who lives down the street from our house in Hawaii, is from the Sacramento area. Small world. We had met up with Laura and Judy at Kona Haven Coffee yesterday morning to Talk Story. What I did not realize earlier is Laura and Judy “ride.” Because I’ve never seen Laura’s bike. How would I know? But it does explain the boots. Even the Harley Davidson t-shirt worn by Judy did not give it away immediately.

What I learned from that get together is the motorcycle clubs in Kailua-Kona do not let women become members. That seems so backward. They will let a woman ride with them but she can’t join the club and pay dues. And there is, let’s say, friction in the clubs when the member’s girlfriends allegedly try to dictate rules. Another interesting tidbit is the fact Judy sells homeowner’s insurance. Many of her clients lost their homes in Leilani Estates due to the eruption of Kilauea.

Some homeowners made the choice to buy a cheaper policy that excluded lava flow. They were attracted to the 40%-off rate. According to Judy, there were also policies that did not include a loss payable for the mortgage company. Worse, the mortgage company failed to check on their loans to determine whether their borrowers had secured adequate insurance coverage.

As a result, some banks were not insured. Payments were made to the owners, who did not share any of those claim funds with their bank. Who did the bank decide to sue? The insurance company, of course. Like that makes logical sense, even though from the bank’s point of view it does. If that happened in California, the banks would have put their own policies in place and charged the borrower. Needless to say, Judy has been a bit stressed.

We had hoped that Judy and Laura would join us for the Sunday Stroll at Kona’s Historic Kailua Village, but they did not. However, this event gave me the chance to get to know Vern and Pam a little bit. They are from Roseville and have traveled all over the world. Vern seems to know a lot about orchids and can recite the scientific names. Before Linda moved to the Big Island, Pam and Vern were her neighbors and they came to visit.

Of course, I could not help but buy a few t-shirts. We stopped to chat with many vendors, and everybody was in such a good mood. It was hard not to marvel over and caress the hand-made jewelry, glass jellyfish pendants, chimes, koa wood trinkets and eat the tasty banana bread with fruit.

At one of the last booths, we met staff at KARES: Kohala Animal Relocation and Education Service. They said when I come back to Kailua-Kona in November, I can foster a dog. Check out this cute chihuahua mix. He’s about a year old, with the sweetest disposition. Cannot believe that not one person at the Sunday Stroll at Kona’s Historic Kailua Village adopted this adorable guy. He is still searching for his forever home.