March 15 - Our First Evening in Hilo

When we got to Hilo at 2:30 p.m., we hunted down the Kuhio Grille for dinner. It's in a strip mall, but the guide book said the food would be good, local cuisine.

Laulau is meat wrapped with leaves and apparently boiled in a salty broth. Whatever it was, exactly, it hit the spot. Hunger was abated. Chunlin had oxtail soup and wish she had discovered it sooner. Her new favorite.

We headed across town to the Hilo Honu Inn where we had two nights reserved.

Baking banana bread is an intoxicating aroma. The bed & breakfast would be full the next night, but we were the only ones there Friday. The hostess, Gay, usually doesn’t open on weekdays unless someone is spending multiple nights (as we were). Chunlin and Gay chatted while I wrote and looked at books and maps. The baking bread and chirping birds put me to sleep.

After checking email, we drove the short distance to Rainbow Falls.

It struck me like a small, tropical Palouse Falls.

Back in the car, we followed the muddy river down to the sea. We walked around the Lili‘uokalani Gardens as the sky darkened and the rain dripped down.

We crossed the footbridge to Coconut Island, out in the bay.

A palm tree on the island has bands with tsunami levels on it. 1946 is 26' up. No tsunamis since 1960, thankfully. All the areas wiped out by the tsunamis mid-century, the city turned into parks -- except for a couple hotels...