Hawaii Day SIX...

On the sixth day of our vacation - John and I booked a flight over to the Big Island. Sara and Cory stayed back on Oahu. We arrived early in the morning, rented a jeep and headed out to explore. We flew into Hilo, which is a little bit of an older city with a more local feel. The first thing that we noticed was that the airport was an "outdoor" airport. It is much smaller than Honolulu of course. The walkways between the terminal and the baggage area were enclosed, but with one wall open to the outside. There was an immediate humid feeling and beautiful smell - some sort of flowers growing there. Much different than the Honolulu airport. We knew we would enjoy it here immediately. We headed out not far from the airport to Banyan Tree Drive. It is an area where many years ago numerous banyan trees were planted by dignitaries, celebrities, religious leaders and other notable people. My great great grandpa Heber J. Grant has a tree there - so we had to take a picture.

We then took a scenic drive up the coast a bit to Akaka Falls. Such an amazing and beautiful drive. There were trees rising high above us and covering over the narrow road. So much greenery everywhere. Ferns growing up the trunks of the trees. Amazing. We hiked to Akaka Falls which was so pretty. There was also another falls on the hike, Kahuna Falls. It is a little further away from the viewpoint and harder to see, but beautiful as well. This is the stuff of postcards people!

amazing lush green wall all along this road

viewpoint on the scenic road to the falls

postcard picture of Akaka Falls

After our hike - we jumped back into the jeep, grabbed some lunch, and headed out to Volcanoes National Park. We had hoped that there might be some active lava flows somewhere - but not the day we were visiting. Unfortunately our camera battery died shortly after arriving - so the pics I have are from my cell phone. We first stopped at the rim of Kilauea's Crater. You could steam erupting from a vent in the middle. There was steam all along the edge. Cool! We drove and looked at a few other vantage points of the crater. Then we checked out the Thurston Lava Tube. Lava tubes are sort of like caves formed from flowing lava. The outer edges crust - leaving the center hollow. It was pretty neat. This is where our camera died.

going into the lava tube - last pic before the camera died

looking down inside a crater (those little white specs are people)

We then visited some other crater areas and then decided to head to the other side of the park. We drove out to where there are some petroglyphs in the lava field. We hiked out over lava until we came to the place where there were what looked like holes with circles around them. We learned that these are places where ancient Hawaiians would bury the umbilical cord of their children in some sort of ancient ritual. Very interesting. (pics coming from cell phone)

Then we drove out to the end of the Chain of Craters Road. It use to circle around the park - but now ends where a large flow of lava has covered it. There is a sea arch here as well. We walked out the edge of the ocean - where it is a sheer cliff down. All over are signs that say "Do not stand here" - even though it is a clearly man-made lookout. The signs warn that the lava shelf could collapse at any time. If you lean out a little you can see the sea arch that has been made by the ocean carving into the lava shelf. I have to admit - I was nervous and did not stand here long. (pics from cell phone coming!)

After this place - it was time to head back to Hilo. We were going to try to attempt to see a black sand beach. The closest/best one was about an hour or so south of Hilo. We started the drive, but figured it would most likely be dark by the time we arrived, so we turned around and headed back to Hilo. We had a guidebook with us that mentioned some restaurants to try in Hilo. We settled on one that seemed good -Hilo Bay Cafe. It was in a strip mall next to Walmart. We were not expecting what we saw when we walked in. The hostess asked if we had reservations. It was a small but obviously upscale restaurant that was quite busy. She told us she could fit us in, but that we might have to leave if the next reservation arrived. We told her we would be quick and that was fine. Boy, did we feel underdressed after hiking all day as well! The food was absolutely fantastic! John had some fresh fish (Opaka paka I think?) that was delicious. I had a ratatouille of fresh veggies with a pastry crust. YUM! After dinner - we drove around a little bit and headed back to the airport for our flight back to Oahu. What a long fun day!