"Treasures of Cruising the World" with Bill & Mary Ann: Report #17 Hilo, Hawaii October 10, 2016 Monday Sunny & 82 degrees Part #1 of 2 85 Pictures

We were told by the Customs and Border Control agent at the port gate that we had brought the sun with us today. Guess up until today, it has been raining here in Hilo. It is a fact that Hilo gets up to 120 inches of rain a year. But we were happy that it held off for much of the day.

The island of Hawaii is the largest, about 4000 square miles, with 173,057 residents. The city of Hilo is the second largest city in Hawaii, and has a population of 38,000 people. It is believed that Polynesians from the Marquesas arrived to this island around 700AD.

The highlight of this particular island is Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, where the Kilauea volcano has erupted daily since 1983.

The volcanic peak of Mauna Kea is 13,796 feet high. But if it is measured from the ocean floor, the actual height is 31,796 feet, 2700 feet higher than Mt. Everest.

Mauna Loa is the largest active volcano at 13, 679 feet. It is not uncommon to see the summits on both peaks covered with snow in the winter time. On one of our first visits here, the road to this volcano was closed to traffic due to snow and ice. Unfortunately, the guide did not tell us that until we were halfway up there.

A sample of some of the tours offered were a helicopter ride for 2 ¼ hours to see Kilauea for $300. A drive to Volcanoes National Park with a lunch for 6 hours ran $200. We have done that tour twice, where we got to see the lava fields up close. We remember the warning about not taking any lava for souvenirs, or bad luck could follow us all the way home. Of course you could buy some lava, just don't take it. It's a no-no.

We did see in the tour booklet that you could "upgrade" your tour by paying more for a small van with under 20 guests. These tours are restricted to folks without wheelchairs or scooters. From past experience, we would recommend taking a shorter duration excursion without a lunch, which most of them are just a bag lunch at picnic tables along the way. They ran from $60 to $80.

For the braver souls, you could take a zipline tour for 4 hours for $200, or a Kilauea bike adventure for 6 ½ hours for $140.

We chose to take the complimentary bus to Walmart first. Usually, one of us will purchase tropical fabrics for blouses, but the stash has grown at home, with little time to catch up on the sewing. We were also looking for a projection alarm clock, the same as we found here a couple of years ago. Too bad, they are all gone.

If we had more time, we could have walked across the street to the Kuhio Plaza, where there is a Macy's and a Sears. There used to be a Hilo Hattie's on the corner, but it has been leveled. A new restaurant has been planned to replace the old store.

The bus was running every ½ hour, so we jumped on it, and rode back to the ship. From here, we walked the road towards town. It was a very warm and humid morning, but there was an occasional breeze. This is an area with the older-style hotels. Perhaps from the 50's or 60's. Several hotels here include Reeds Bay Resort, the Bayview Banyan, Uncle Billy's Hilo Bay Hotel, and the Hilo Hawaiian Hotel.

Following Banyan Drive and the old-growth banyan trees, we spotted a nice golf course across the road. Coconut Island Park is a good place to visit, as is Liliuokaliani Gardens.

But before we would explore all of these areas, we headed for lunch. Right by Reed's Bay Beach Park, is a place called Pond's. It is a small restaurant that sits out over the water's edge. They have killer hamburgers. We had a nice lunch there, while watching local kids jumping and diving off of a roadside railing into the shallow water below. We think there was no school today, because it was Columbus Day. On past visits here, we did see kids deliberately diving cannonballs to get folks wet as they passed by them. Kids being kids……….

After lunch, we continued our walk to Banyan Drive and the hotel area. Massive banyan trees lined the road, and had signs from the donors dated by to the 1950's. Once we reached the park grounds at Reeds Bay, we spotted some critters running under the trees. Expecting them to be squirrels, we soon discovered they were actually mongoose. These animals had been imported to keep the rat population under control. However, mongoose are day animals, while the rodents are active at night.

We strolled through the Japanese-style Liliuokalani Gardens full of ponds and streams and landscaped beautifully. Benches and restrooms make this park a great place for families.

Coconut Island is located across from this park. More kids were jumping off of a monument and the bridge to the island. Showing off mostly for the girls we think. Since today was a holiday, many local families were out enjoying the warm day near and in the water. We probably could have hiked to the old downtown area of Hilo, where the tsunami of 1946 leveled the town. The Pacific Tsunami Museum there has an excellent display of the cataclysmic natural event that struck here twice. From past experience, we knew that a shuttle ran to downtown from the pier, but they stopped service earlier in the day. Nothing was advertised in our daily newsletter, so there was no guarantee that the bus was still in operation.

All aboard time was 6:30pm, but we headed back way before that. The skies began to cloud over, so we did want to be back in case there was a good sunset. Turned out, the sunset fizzled, and it simply became dark. We did get to see flocks of egrets in flight and a large green turtle swimming around the aft of the ship. Rumors were circulating that the Amsterdam might go south, and there was a chance we could see the lava flow to the sea. That was wrong, since the ship headed around the north end of the island towards Kona.

Dinnertime found only four of us to enjoy the Canadian Thanksgiving. Three of us had the turkey dinner, complete with mashed potatoes, stuffing, and gravy with cranberry sauce. For a change, the dining room was decorated with Canadian flags and red and white streamers. It was most festive, like we used to see it more often in the past. Another traditional to bite the dust. The meal ended with a slice of pumpkin pie….really tasty.

A local singer was the entertainer this evening. He is Elika Santos, and was joined by hula dancer, Celeste Akeo. We did see them the last couple of years, and they were every bit as good as last year.

One more port in Hawaii, Kona, and we will leave Hawaii. Time to say Aloha.

Bill & Mary Ann

PS So far, we have not noticed a change in the breakfast room service menu. And only the far end of the Ward Center is being remodeled. We were told that the existing stores and restaurants in that older section will close only temporarily, until the new building is completed.

Decorations for Canada's Thanksgiving in the dining room