Big Island: Day #1

We got up very early on a Wednesday morning and headed out to the Honolulu International Airport for our 7:58 AM flight to Hilo.

The flight to the Big Island from Oahu is only about 45 minutes, but Hawaiian Airlines still gave us all some Kona coffee to wake us up.

We made sure that mom was seated on the window seat.

She was excited to see the observatories on Mauna Kea as well as snow at the summit.

As we were about to land she saw a rainbow!

We were surprised too. I think that's the first time we've seen a rainbow from the airplane.

We got our Hyundai rental car at Hilo Airport and it began to rain pretty hard.

This would necessitate our doing an indoor activity so we decided on the Pacific Tsunami Museum.

There was a quilt hanging in memory of those who lost their lives in the 1946 tsunami in Laupahoehoe. I remembered that a friend of mine had a young uncle who'd lost his life after being swept out to sea during that tsunami. I found his name in one of the squares.  I took a photo of it and texted it to my friend who responded right away, telling me she would share it with her brothers.

There were other groups at the museum who were also taking shelter from the rain.

Everything was in English but the docents offered us a room where mom could see a video in Japanese which she appreciated.

Mom said she could still remember the 1960 tsunami that devastated Hilo because she was working at the Hawaii Times (Japanese language) newspaper at the time.

We then made a quick stop at the Two Ladies Kitchen and placed our orders for mochi to bring home to Oahu in four days.

There are several friends and relatives on the Big Island that we would have loved to have visited, but we wanted this trip to be for mom.

When we meet with English speaking friends, mom will usually sit quietly, smile and wait patiently until it's time to go. We didn't want this to be that kind of trip for her.

I texted my Hilo classmate/friend, Mavis and asked her where a good place to eat lunch was. She suggested Miyo's and it was everything she said. It was also crowded with local people but we were seated quickly and had the nicest waitress ever!

Since mom loves plants, Art thought the botanical garden at the University of Hawaii, Hilo campus would be a fun place to visit.

Although the garden is supposed to have the best collection of cycads in Hawaii we enjoyed the colorful array of bromeliads even more.

I had no idea there were so many different kinds of bromeliads. It was a very, very small garden, but we spent a whole lot of time there admiring each plant.

I learned later that it must have been where I collected my mosquito bites.

Nobody else got bit. Just me.

Our next stop in Hilo was the Pana'ewa Rainforest Zoo and Gardens.

I loved the paintings in the bathroom!

Pana'ewa Rainforest Zoo has two Bengal tigers. The white tiger is a male and the orange one is a female.

We were going to make this a short trip, but mom was so excited that she wanted to continue exploring.

There were more flowers to enjoy all around the zoo.

Mom doesn't care for snakes, but she was entranced by the peacock who stood and posed for the longest time.

Of all the animals, the anteater really drew mom's interest. She was surprised at how big it was.

When we got to the Kilauea Visitor Center, mom suddenly wilted. I was really concerned because she could hardly walk.

We drove to the Kilauea Military Camp and were assigned our two bedroom cabin.

Mom went right to sleep.

When she awoke about 45 minutes later, she felt well enough to go to the Crater Rim Cafe for dinner.

We then had her take a bath and rest while we went to the Jaggar Observation Point to see the eruption that was going on at Halemaumau crater.

The area was crowded and the parking lot full, but we were able to get a good spot to view the volcano.

When night fell, the view was even more spectacular, but it was hard to take photos in the dark. We loved talking to a couple from Canada who had traveled around the world.

It was an interesting, packed, fun day, but exhausting for mom. We decided that the following day needed to be much less strenuous. At least that's what we planned....