Waterfalls galore!!!

January 23, 2009 – Friday – Real Time!

Aloha!

Have now actually caught up with what we’ve been doing until today, Friday, our last day in Hilo! Will be keeping on top of things from here on – I should have known better than to try NOT to blog, as even as we were traveling, I was blogging in my brain! (Which may tell everyone a little bit about my brain, in which case, I’d be frightened!)

Got up about 6:30-ish this morning, to a pouring rain! (Editor’s note: The weather forecast for Hilo had called for three solid days of showers, and this is the first time they’ve actually arrived during the day; so much for forecasts!) Got ourselves together and headed back to Ken’s House of Pancakes for breakfast. Mom had cottage cheese on peaches (and I’ll omit the part about Robert asking her to eat it at the next table…) R had a HUGE BLT with hash browns, and I had sausage and hash browns and chocolate milk. Mom decided that she wanted to just hang out at the hotel today, so R and I took off alone to explore the coast north of Hilo…in the rain! (Fortunately, we’d purchased new travel umbrellas at the ABC store at the Hilton Hawaiian Village, so we were prepared!)

I found a really good guidebook, Hawaii, The Big Island Revealed, at Borders on Wednesday night, and the drive up to Honoka’a was amazing! We dallied on back roads as much as possible, and saw lots of waterfalls and beautiful beaches. Akaka Falls was especially beautiful! This side of the island has been devastated twice since 1947 with tsunami’s, which wiped out entire communities and lots of people. Stopped at a memorial site; so hard to imagine the size of the waves that were able to take out roads and bridges and buildings! And, just like in California, people then rebuild in many of these same places! Duh!!!

Arrived in Honoka’a right about lunchtime, but this was one time that we really chose poorly! Opted for Café Il Mondo – UGH! R had a very odd veggie calzone – unlike any calzone we’d ever seen! And my pork sandwich with onions and spinach really truly needed a HUGE jolt of bbq sauce! From there, we headed into Waimea, past the observatory office (and no, we didn’t stop…) and on to the Saddle Road. Now, for anyone who has been to the Big Island, it is noted on most car rental contracts that coverage does NOT extend to the Saddle Road! So, please don’t anybody tell Thrifty on us! It is a really good highway now, though, but because many tourists believe that it’s a terrible road to drive on, there is very little traffic; made a good way to get back to Hilo in a much shorter time! We did enjoy some blue skies and sunshine while on the Saddle Road – which quickly turned back to rain and clouds the closer we got to Hilo!

Have now decided to go back to Café Pesto for dinner tonight. Hopefully not too much of a crowd, and we’ll be able to see what’s happening in Hilo on a Friday night! Tomorrow morning we’ll pack up and move towards Kona and the Kona by the Sea condo, where our last three nights will be!

More later!
m