June 11

We had a very tasty breakfast compliments of the hotel and started on our way.  Random question to whomever left the whiskey bottle next to our car:  Why didn’t you just finish it? You left 1” of the expensive stuff!!

We are driving the meandering routes toward Hilo and the landscapes of Hawaii are so diverse.  We drove through old lava fields, literally acres and acres and acres filled with lava tracks.  So interesting! Some old tracks and some not so old in the grand scheme of time! 

There was a dry field with one black goat standing in it.  It was just staring into space.  

I know, random thoughts, but that is okay! :)

I did forget to mention that yesterday while we were driving back down Haleakalā, we saw a nene, or an Hawaiian goose! We actually saw a little one as it skittered  across the road.  They are endangered here so we felt lucky to see one.

We stopped at Hāpuna Beach—another beautiful beach, white soft sand with lava cliffs and rock outcroppings!  We saw a dad playing “Max ball” with his son (Ask us about that sometime!), and lots of families having fun early.  

We passed through a town looking for a store to be open so we could grab a few waters and saw a help wanted sign.  Every place is hiring and some places have notes on the doors explaining that due to a lack of workers, they have reduced hours or are even closed! The summit of the Haleakalā visitor’s center was closed for that reason!  If we decide to move here, I could make $20 an hour being a cashier, and $15 to stock shelves!  Hmmmm.

As we are driving it occurs to us that we can clearly see Maui!  These islands are close! 

While enroute from San Francisco, we chatted with a lady who was born and raised on Oahu and still owns a house there.  She spends her summers here, as she lives primarily in New Jersey now. (She is a district/regional manager for Hallmark cards and manages people that set up the cards in retail stores like Walmart.). Anyway, she gave us some hints on what to do and not to do while exploring the islands:  eat a donut from Leonard’s (Oahu) as they are the best!  They were okay, even though it was crowded to get one.  Go to a town called Hawi (on the big island) as it is a “hippy”’town.  It certainly was and it was every interesting!! She told us to avoid certain towns—we forgot the names so we probably went through them anyway! She did tell us to wear rash guards when riding bicycles down the volcano—we didn’t and it turned okay!

While near Hawi, we popped into a beach park called Keokea. Almost all of the parks have such great amenities, like really nice shelter houses, tables, views (!), etc.  This beach was not sand at all but round rocks.  It was a small cove and lovely.  This park also had non-traditional seating as someone put a bench car seat out for an additional option!  

Today was King Kamehameha Day so many business were closed and some communities had activities planned.  As we drove through Kapaau, where the ORIGINAL statue of King Kamehameha stands, we noticed crowds around the statue and leis and other flowers draped on or surrounding the statue.  King Kamehameha was the founder and first ruler of the Kingdom of Hawaii! 

As we drove back through Hawi, Andrew wanted to show me something he’d discovered while I was buying postcards.  Remember the little “toy store” we encountered? He found a little “pantry”!  It had an assortment of things in it that we could take or leave behind, including recipe books, puzzles, flowers, mints, etc.! I was tempted with a tiny whale, but passed.

The drive “over” the island was mesmerizing.  Fields of cows and lush grasses, trees, ocean views, cool temperatures—everything more beautiful as we drove through.  

It was mid afternoon by this point so we opted to grab a quick bite and settled for a restaurant in the Waimea-Puukapu Homestead and had the best fish tacos ever! OMG! And since we shared, we opted to also share homemade banana cream pie—it was stupendous with graham cracker crust, and a layer of bananas, then a layer of cheesecake-ish cream and another layer of bananas and then homemade whipped cream with drizzles of chocolate and caramel!!  It is fair to say OMG again! 

 

We stopped at the Waipi’o Lookout —it is hard to describe how beautiful everything is.  We are standing at the top of an overlook, and looking out to the ocean with cliffs across from us.  These cliffs are particularly important as it is a sacred place for the native Hawaiians and you can almost feel its rich history and reverence for the land. 

We stopped to take in some waterfalls, the Akaka Falls and the Kahuna Falls.  The park has it set up as a big loop with steps and a trail to keep people on the trail!  It is a big loop but is is so lush and green—a rainforest! There are so many large trees and plants, foliage and ferns and giant flowers, birds, and tall waterfalls!  The Akaka Falls actually free fall 442 feet!  The Kahuna Falls are cascading falls (They drop into various pools instead of just one big drop) but do an impressive 400 feet even though they were harder to see and get the full falling effect. 

We stopped by a fruit stand to get fresh pineapple, coconut, and sugar cane.  The gentleman had waved big to us earlier to get our attention so we stopped on the way past him!  The pineapple was tasty, the sugar cane interesting (chew but don’t swallow as it’s tough!), and the coconut seems bitter? We are still trying to figure that out! 

In Hilo we headed to our hotel for the evening and checked in.  Andrew’s travel schedule is busy but the benefits and perks are nice: they upgraded our room so we had a magnificent view! We changed into our suits as we wanted to snorkel yet and the front desk suggested a beach just down the road!  We went to grab snorkels but they were already closed! We drove anyway and it was the most unique beach—black sand and piles of volcanic rocks!  The water was crystal clear and cool!  It was a pretty busy area with many people lulling about or snorkeling or swimming! We are hoping to go back tomorrow with snorkels (they open at 7) to see what we can see before we head out again.  Our Hawaii days are coming to an end.