The Big Island--Petroglyphs and Gardens

Church didn't start until 11 a.m. on October 23, 2016, so Dave and I took an early morning walk along the Old Hawaiian Trail, near the Mauna Kea Resort.  The Trail was a monument to the Big Island Planning Commission.  Islets of volcanic rock containing crumbling walls and caves of the ancient Hawaiians remained, stubbornly, amidst the ultra green of the resort's golf course.

 We paused by a beautifully preserved ancient Hawaiian fish pool.  The Hawaiians stocked such pools with fish for the aristocrats' dinners.

We also walked the trail to ancient Hawaiian petroglyphs near the Fairmont Orchid Hotel, north of Kona.  The entire Kona coast is spectacular.

 We always enjoy attending Church in foreign places.  In addition to the audience responding "Aloha!" to the "Aloha!" greetings of each speaker, the fire alarm went off while the sacrament was being served.  It kept ringing, intermittently, throughout Sacrament Meeting.  We were impressed with the discipline of the congregation.  There were virtually no snickers, and reverence prevailed despite the shrieking of the alarm!

 Waimea is the site of the Parker Ranch, which used to cover thousands of acres of upland Big Island.  We saw steers in the fields as we drove along, and our guidebook recommended "Village Burger" as the place to eat.  We tried the mushroom burgers with crispy fries and we were converted.

 Our Sunday drive was along the north coast of the Big Island, with its wild surf and cliffs plunging into the sea.  I promised myself to return someday and ride a jeep down into the remote Waipio Valley, rather than just savoring a tantalizing view of it.

 We spent our week in Hawaii hunting the perfect "malasada," or Portuguese donut.  The Big Island has traces of many cultures, from the days that the sugar plantations imported workers from around the world--Portugal, Japan, China, the Philippines.  Our guidebook said the best malasadas were at "Tex's," in Honokaa, along the north coast.  We stopped at Tex's twice, and each time we were told, "The donuts will be out of the oven in 30 minutes."  There were crowds patiently waiting, but patience while on a vacation is not one of my talents.  We finally bought malasadas in the southernmost town of the Big Island--and decided they were not worth the wait!

The Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden, northwest of Hilo, was a highlight of our trip.  It was lush and jungly, with brilliantly colored tropical flowers, fern and bromeliad collections, waterfalls, and a walkway down to the crashing sea.

 

The Big Island--From the Kona Promenade to Old Hilo

My journal entry for October 22, 2016 began, "By this evening, I had seen as much of the Big Island as I did that day, thirty years ago, when David and I drove from Kona around the whole island in one day, lickety-split."  We began our day with a three-mile, early morning walk along the Kaihlua-Kona seawall.  Kona is the biggest city on the Big Island, with a waterfront lined with huge hotels.  Seeing the "Body Glove" boat anchored in the bay created just the right sensual anticipation!

We walked past the old rock church, built by Christian missionaries in the 1830s, and the Hulihee Palace, where Hawaiian royalty lived.  We saved them to explore another day.

We stopped at a farmer's market for huge mangos and ripe pineapples.

We stopped at the Royal Kona Resort and looked out to sea past Roy's Mai Tai Bar.  That's a part of the Hawaii experience Dave and I will never know.

The west coast of the Big Island is dry, with seams of volcanic rock throughout the countryside.

We found a biker enjoying the lookout point with us.  People enjoy Hawaii in lots of different ways.

Whenever we arrive at an RCI time share exchange, we cross our fingers--they range from drab to elegant.  We were pleased with our condo at Paniolo Greens.  It had two bedrooms and two bathrooms, a comfortable living room/dining area, and a well-stocked kitchen.  It also had a golf course, swimming pool, and hot tub that we never used.

We drove the "Saddle Road" over the slopes of the Mauna Kea volcano to Hilo, on the east side of the Big Island.  Hilo is a sleepy town, headquarters for sugar plantations before World War II.  It gets 100 inches of rain per year, so the major resorts have been built on the west side of the island.  Hilo feels like Old Hawaii.  We rummaged through the Hilo farmer's market, filled with tropical fruit, Hawaiian food specialties, orchids, and crafts.

We bought spring rolls with peanut sauce for breakfast.

World War II servicemen brought Spam to Hawaii, and it is beloved there still.  This shop advertised "Spam or Bacon Breakfast Burritos."

Old Hawaii still exists, with anthurium bouquets selling for $5!

Next stop was the Imiloa planetarium and museum, run by the University of Hawaii.  We watched a planetarium show about how the ancient Polynesians navigated by the stars in finding their way to Hawaii.

Our guide book recommended "Cafe 100" for its authentic Hawaiian food.  We tried the "loco moco," with rice, potato-macaroni salad, gravy, and our choice of meat, topped with fried eggs.  We opted for fried fish, rather than spam!

We loved the Lyman House and Museum.  The Lyman House was built by Christian missionaries during the 1830s.  They were from New England, and so the house had the clapboard style found in Connecticut and Massachusetts.  The Lymans ran a boys school, including a furniture shop where the boys learned a trade.

The Lyman Museum focused on the natural history of Hawaii, including the fish, trees, and volcanoes.

We drove a few miles south of Hilo to visit the Mauna Loa macadamia nut factory.  Macadamia nuts and coffee have replaced sugar as the Big Island's main crops.

Macadamia nuts are processed with different flavorings, from Maui onion to toffee.  We brought home many cans.

We finished our visit to the east coast of the Big Island with a stop at Rainbow Falls.

From the Sublime to the Ridiculous

 We plumbed the heights and depths of earthly and ethereal, sublime and ridiculous during the week of October 15, 2016.  We spent the weekend in St. George, with a temple session and a performance of The Odd Couple at the Utah Shakespeare Festival.  Just before the show began, the two stars of The Odd Couple flipped a coin to see which of the two parts each would play--the obsessively clean fellow or the sloppy one.  It was comedy and farce at Neil Simon's best.

 This was also the week of the third Clinton/Trump debate.  Farce?

Fleeing the Storm

 We have family living on both coasts--Jonny and Jenny in Florida and the Flindts in Seattle.  Usually, coastal living is delightful, with beaches less than an hour away from our children's homes.

We worry about our coastal families, though, when the storms and hurricanes rage.  Hurricane Matthew devastated Haiti in early October 2016, and then moved up the Eastern Seaboard.  Jonny and Jenny boarded up their house in Florida and joined the crowded freeways heading west.  Hotels were full all the way to Mississippi, but Jonny and Jenny were able to find an AirB&B in Tampa for the weekend.  Their home was not damaged, although the power went out. Jonny described the exodus as "a bit of a false alarm."  He says his family will always follow the storm warnings, though, because the storms are so unpredictable.  

Haiti was hit hard and some areas of Florida were flooded by Hurricane Matthew.

The very next week, there were storm warnings in Seattle.  Lisa's family was fine, but there was some flooding in the coastal areas.