This morning we woke up while we were docking at Hilo, Hawai'i which is on the Big Island. We had breakfast and got off the ship early in the morning and were walking towards downtown Hilo whenever Bobbi said she felt as if her back was burning already and wanted some sun screen put on. We stopped and were putting on sunscreen whenever a woman in a white van pulled over and asked us where we were going - we thought it was a taxi taking a woman from the ship and she must have recognized us - but we then figured out that it was actually two locals (Clemente and Jean) that were offering us a ride. we took their ride and they told us that they wouldn't accept any money, but only required that we correspond through letters after we return home. First they took us to Banyan Drive - which was lined with huge Banyan Trees planted by famous people such as Babe Ruth, Richard Nixon, and Amelia Erhart, and a bunch of other important people we didn't know. That connected to a park which had really pretty ponds and bridges which we drove through. We then drove by a fish market and then into downtown Hilo. From there they took us to Rainbow Falls where we got out and saw the falls and took a bunch of pictures. We then drove up to the Boiling Pots, which were more waterfalls where we took more pictures again. Then we drove through an older section of Hilo and out to the Muana Loa macadamia nut factory. Then we went to Big Island Candies where all Clement really wanted was the free coffee and samples of candy. During this whole trip, Jean and Clement were telling us native stories, etc. At the end of all this they asked us to drop us off at the Banyan Drive park to take some pictures. We exchanged addresses, took pictures and walked back to the ship. We came back, ate lunch at the Key West Grill and then headed off for our Circle of Fire helicopter ride. We went to the Blue Hawaii Helicopter place at the airport and randomly were assigned to seat in the front two seats next to the pilot in the helicopter. We flew about 45 minutes over the island - seeing the same waterfalls and parks we saw earlier in the day, but this time from the sky. We learned that people not in the city have huge collecting pools with black tarps that collects all their rain water off their house to be used as their only water supply. Thank goodness that the Big Island receives over 12 feet of water a year, and Hilo is the wettest city in America! We spent most of the time over Volcano National Park which had many different lava flows from different eruptions over the last 20-50 years. You could see entire towns that were destroyed and a select few houses that had survived by luck. We saw one active volcano that has been active for 26 straight years and is still dumping lava into the ocean. On the way back to the airport we passed by the macadamia nut factory, which was neat to see from the sky. Then we came back and had dinner, got some professional pictures taken, and waited up on the deck to pass by the active volcano at night. They turned off all the lights on the boat and when we passed by where the lava is being dumped into the ocean, it was all lit up. It was really cool to see at night, especially having seen it during the day. After that we came back to our balcony to eat our cake and drink the wine they had given us on the first day. We popped the cork and it bounced off the ceiling and bounced around - we could have pointed it out towards the ocean and let it fly if we would have known it had so much force.
Rainbow Falls
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