After an all day affair of traveling yesterday and a four hour time change, we were up and spry for our 7:30 a.m. island hopper flight to Hilo, on the Big Island of Hawaii. Let the adventure commence.
Brock, an ex surfer from California, met us and the round sail topped Hawaiian Airlines terminal -- easiest check in I have ever had. And the bags were $17 and then $10 after the first one. Don’t the other airlines increase the cost after the first one?
Sometimes on my trips things just either slip perfectly into place or slide totally off the grid. Angels appear to assist you in ways you would never expect. Today we had both happening.
From the air you could see the Big Island terrain -- mountains and a rugged Eastern coastline, with a great view of the town of Hilo. When we landed (the flight was less than 45 minutes), there was a huge federal airplane also parked at the airport.
Here the tropical air was even thicker than in Honolulu. This airport was also open air and flowers were everywhere.
Peggy, at Alamo, was another angel of the day. You can see the luggage above -- I doubt that it would fit with the four of us in a sweet convertible. Though I would have looked great styling around the Big Island in a convertible, we asked sweet Peggy for a SUV. Chaching - a white Jeep Cherokee pulled in a day early, while we were standing there.
She pulled it for us immediately and had it washed. The guys from the other car companies helped us load up, it was an excellent feat (wondering if we can accomplish it again).
on the way to town -- these are island prices -- no dollar stores here :)
all ready for New Year's
The weather was beautiful but a little overcast, so we broke out the raincoats in case we needed them and hit the local market in Hilo. I love all the local exotic foods and plants you find in the markets. They give you free food samples -- coconut candy was excellent and you haven’t been to Hawaii until you have tried rambutan.
guess all that shopping was getting to him
You could tell from the market there is a large concentration of hippies, I mean free spirits, living in the area. People watching here is excellent. All of the vendors asked if we were from the ship -- a big cruise ship stops here on Wednesdays and on the weekend. That is why the market is open on Wednesday -- it would be like shooting ducks in a barrel. I guess they were waiting for their ship to come in -- bad joke.
My best purchases were a lei po o for my head and I took a photo with the maker -- had to get those flowers in my hair ASAP; a few cheap sarongs - a frog one for me, of course; and a beautiful fairy pendant necklace for my cousin.
Cafe Pesto was an excellent lunch stop -- our first taste of Hawaiian Pizza -- what makes pizza better when there is fresh goat cheese and pineapple on it?
that is potato salad made with the local potatoes - they are purple
We shopped along main street and found a treasure trove of junky souvenir shops (with cheap prices). Awesome art galleries here also, and we controlled ourselves.
locals enjoying the shave ice
I didn't understand that one until 10 minutes later a guy showed up with the amp, very low crime here
This car had a Hawaii license plate and a Southerner on board
It was mid afternoon, so we stopped long enough to check in our hotel -- Dolphin Bay Hotel. I liked it -- it was quaint and a little old and campy. Princess, my sister, did not care for it and let us know.
Princess, you could have stayed here
It was a four room suite -- a kitchenette, with a great Hawaiian print tablecloth; a living room, with two twin beds and a huge closet; a fairly large clean bathroom, with tiled shower and Hawaiian print shower curtain -- and ear plugs; and a large bedroom with two beds.
check out the bag of orange ear plugs
After unpacking our car and listening to Princess and Lily discuss the stairs they had to climb to the room, the local waterfalls were the next on our list -- Rainbow Falls and Akaka Falls.
Rainbow Falls was close to town and the parking lot was within feet of the overlook. It wasn’t a high waterfall but it was very pretty. We went to the top and saw some idiot trekking out on the rocks and he almost fell in -- what do some people think?
On the way to Akaka Falls, we took the scenic route ---
the ship came in
would this be considered a Hawaiian Artifact? I love the bumper through the window
Had a few issues to tend to at Akaka Falls, so half of us took the whole route and the other half took half the route. We went through the edges of a rain forest to get there. The falls were awesome -- extremely high.
The terrain around the rain forest and falls was more like the English moors, it was very odd. There was a little old town area near the base that had a few shops to see. I loved the bottle shop most of all (and no I didn’t buy any).
would this fit in my suitcase?
and we didn't think we had room in the vehicle
that was a sarong
those could fit in my suitcase
yes, the mosquitoes were out here
Our final part of our first real day was our dinner adventure. We had a foodie on the trip. As we only had one night in Hilo, we had already booked a table at the “best” restaurant in town -- Seaside Restaurant. It was dark and raining when we got there. We had dressed up (as much as you would in a tropical location) and were starving.
This is the part about it not fitting in perfectly -- we didn’t have to wait too long but the restaurant was packed. Our salads and delicious sushi didn’t take too long. As we patiently waited, you could tell there were serious kitchen issues. A few tables had their patrons get very nasty with the waiters. Instead, I decided to go to him and request that he cancel our order. As I did so in a nice but firm manner, we had no bill and left without the Mahi Mahi.
We ended up at Ken’s Diner having delicious grilled cheese sandwiches and crispy fries.
when you order the "Sumo" breakfast -- they bang a gong
I could relocate here -- they have one of my required items, but why the directions?
Back at our room, we found out why they had earplugs in our rooms -- the coqui frogs were very musical. Listening to them every night might be a little much - but for our first night on the Big Island it was a perfect end to a perfect day in paradise.
a volcano at our hotel's front door
The room was not that bad because I was so tired I could have slept on the floor. However, I still like air conditioning and a comfortable bed. The water pressure was the best we had on the entire trip.
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