Our itinerary for today included a couple of popular tourist spots, so we were out the door early to beat the crowds. Since our hotel stay didn't include breakfast, our first stop was Hawaiian Style Cafe. Two of us had boring run-of-the-mill dishes, but the other two ordered more local fare: Kalua hash (left) and Hawaiian sweet bread french toast with, what else, SPAM!
On the northwest side of town is Wailuku River State Park. In order to catch the namesake rainbow in the mist from Rainbow Falls, we needed to view it with the morning sun behind us. Amazing that this beautiful waterfall is a only a few minutes from downtown Hilo!
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| Can you see the rainbow? |
Just a mile or so upstream from Rainbow Falls is Boiling Pots, so named because the succession of big pools appear to roll and bubble when the water flow is high.
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| Peʻepeʻe Falls in the distance |
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| 442 feet tall |
Next we drove to ʻAkaka Falls State Park, about 30 minutes away. Although the parking lot was full, we were able to find a spot along the road just outside of the entrance, which saved us a buck ($5 per car versus $1 per person). We walked the 0.5-mile loop trail to view ʻAkaka Falls, encountering a lot of lush tropical vegetation along the way.
Then it was back to Hilo to check out Kaumana Caves, a lava tube created by an 1881 flow from Mauna Loa. (It would have been more efficient to come here right after going to Boiling Pots since it's only a 5-minute drive, but avoiding tour buses and getting the mid-morning sun at ʻAkaka Falls trumped saving gas.) When part of the roof of the lava tube collapsed, it created an entrance to the "caves", which can be accessed via a steep staircase. We explored both the left and right sides of the tube.
The plan for the afternoon was to go snorkeling, so we just grabbed a quick bite from Cafe 100 (again) since we were close by. Based on the recommendations I read online, we decided to go to Richardson Ocean Park on the northeastern tip of Hilo. We found a nice spot to plant our chairs and took turns going in and out of the ocean.
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| Lavender tang (left) and threadfin butterflyfish (right) |
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| Trumpetfish |
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| Ballerfish |
Before going back to the hotel, we made one final stop at Two Ladies Kitchen for mochi. Since it was late in the day, the selection was limited. We ordered a few to eat right away, placed another order for pickup tomorrow morning, and bought a prepackaged assortment as a gift for R's cousin. So good!
We ended the day in the same shopping plaza where we started - eating dinner with R's cousin S and his wife M at Miyo's, a Japanese restaurant next door to Hawaiian Style Cafe. So fun to talk story with family!
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