More Big Island Wonders

29 March 2008-

My last day on the Big Island was awesome. I started out early and spent a few of the morning hours browsing and shopping at the outdoor farmers market in the center of Hilo. It was amazing how cheap the fresh produce was. Huge heads of organic romaine lettuce for $1. If I were staying longer I would've done my grocery shopping there.

There were also vendors selling jewelry, I bought a few things, mostly earrings. All of the stuff was handmade and gorgeous.

Around noon I met with Brendan's friend Archie, he is from the Big Island. He picked me up near the hostel and brought me back to meet his house to meet his parents. The front yard had a giant above ground swimming pool, and there was also one in the backyard. I found out later from his dad, that they were in fact water treatment tanks. They use only rainwater for showering, cooking, sewage and drinking! With 142 inches per year, this makes sense. They collect it in the swimming pools and treat it themselves, self sustainable.

So Archie took me to the Volcanoes National Park. We went to the Volcano House for lunch and got to see the steaming lava from the window while we ate. The above sign greeted us as we entered the park.

As Archie is not a big hiker, we did part of the Crater Rim trail, enough to view this beautiful phenomena. I can't believe that I was lucky enough to be on the Big Island when the gasses were being emitted from the volcano. Usually these pictures above would be just large valleys looking over the craters, no smoke.

The lava tubes were something we went to have staring at the smoking volcano for awhile. Archie did not seem to be as impressed with all of this as I was. He grew up taking his field trips to lava flows, craters and volcanoes, I took my field trips to museums with little particles of rock behind glass saying "do not touch". For me this was a mind-blowing experience. The lava tubes were kind of like caves formed by hot lava. We didn't venture too far back into them because I am a bit claustrophobic in caverns and tunnels. At one point we got to a point that when we turned off the flashlight, it was COMPLETELY black.

This is a shot I got coming out of the lava tube.

Above was the last sunset, an overcast one on Hawaii. It was still beautiful. The Big Island is the most spectacular place, where nature is a living being.

Hilo, "The Big Island" Hawaii

27 March 08


The airport in Hilo is actually very small and quaint. There was no evident place when I stepped outdoors to hail a taxi. Luckily after about 15 minutes of me looking completely confused, some tourists from the UK pointed me in the right direction; a small parking lot off to the side where a bunch of minivan taxis were parked. The driver and his boss, I think he was doing a training drive, expected me to have multiple suitcases. All I had was on my back. About 14 bucks got me into downtown Hilo, where the weather was overcast and drizzly. I almost had the feeling that I was back in Seattle. It was about 25 degrees warmer than a typical Seattle day though.




Hilo is quite the opposite of Honolulu, not very touristy and very quiet. The drivers tried to talk me into a sightseeing tour for 75$ from the taxi windows. No thanks. I was determined to explore the Big Island by foot, as much as possible. So, this hostel I stayed at was THE MOST BEAUTIFUL hostel I have ever been in. Stained glass windows and carved wooden ceiling fans were in the dorm room. It was so much prettier than the hotel on Waikiki and only $25 per night! I haven't even mentioned the characters I met while staying there. Hostels are great.



Not long after I dropped some things at the hostel, I started exploring Hilo in flip flops...bad idea. It was not long before I was climbing over molten hardened lava rock, slipping and sliding on the rocks near the water. Note to myself, always wear boots here, even if it's warm.




Hilo is a really laid back town on the eastern side of the island. It receives around 142 inches of rainfall per year. As one might guess, it's not the sunny, beachy Hawaii that people think of. That's on the Kona side, where it is dry and sunny most of the time. Hilo reminded me a bit of the North Shore of Oahu, except more country.





After exploring the Rainbow falls at Wailuku River State Park and the Boiling Pots, which were not really boiling pots of water as I expected, I trudged back to town. It was about 4miles each way, most of the time I was walking in the grass on the side of the road. Hungry was how I felt when I got back into town. I ate at this AMAZING Thai restaurant "Nuang Mai Thai Kitchen". I ordered Pad Thai medium w/shrimp that was so tasty and perfectly spicy. I also ordered my favorite spring rolls that were gigantic salads in a roll! The best part of the meal was desert; homemade(in Hilo) ginger ice cream, topped with warm tapioca pudding and frozen strawberries. YUMYUMYUM. It made my mouth happy.



It began to drizzle while I was eating, but by the time I had finished, the rain ceased. As I was walking back to the hostel, I stopped at this store called "All Things Beautiful" where the owner had a love for peacocks. I found this awesome wooden peacock mask for Kelly there.






28 March 2008


As I said earlier, I met some interesting people at the hostel. I met this one girl who was living in Seattle, and had moved there from Chicago about three years ago. Since she had nothing going on, we decided to spend the day together, driving around and looking for the lava flows. YES! There was lava flowing while I was there! It's not everyday that this happens. The volcano erupted about 25 years ago and every so often it spews lava out and the smoke from the lava and volcanic ash can be seen from miles away. If you are close enough to it, you can smell the sulfur in the air.


The site for viewing the lava coming from Kilauea did not open till 2pm so we took a detour and went to Kalapana black sand beach. Hiking over molten black hardened lava rock was one of the greatest things I have ever done. It felt like I had landed on Mars and was in a movie, so surreal. It blew my mind, I can't even believe how alive the ecosystem was there. As we were hiking towards the water, I felt as if we were two miniature persons inside of this giant volcanic diorama. This was probably the most awesome thing I have ever seen.



The black sand is something so incredible, I cannot describe the beauty of the contrast in nature itself, the white foamy water against the black sand was truly amazing.

PS. I had "Loco Moco" for lunch today. I know it might sound disgusting, but it was DELISCIOUS. Loco Moco=two scoops of rice, hamburger patty, fried egg plus gravy. YOu can also garnish it with mustard and ketchup. It's a local delicacy.

This picture was me getting as close as I could to the lava flowing into the ocean, I was about 600 feet away. Sulfur could be smelled in the air and even though it was overcast, the sun was strong.

Mahalo Honolulu

I went running around Kapiolani park before surfing with the kids at Waikiki. I used the shorter board. I caught three waves, the last of them on my own. Peter and I rode this AWESOME wave in. I can't believe he road it all the way in on a body board. Hurrying, I went back to the hotel, packed my stuff and got ready. Mom and Maggie drove me to the airport, so I could catch my midday flight to The Big Island. Wearing minimal clothing and carrying everything in a backpack, I said goodbye to my family. We had such a wonderful time together, and one of the best vacations that I can remember.

26 March 2008

Diamond Head Crater

Maria came over to hotel in the morning with Tony on their bikes. Tony decided to take the kids surfing. Maria and I left on the bikes to ride to the trail head at Diamond Head Crater. The sun was already high in the sky as we started out, and extremely hot. But it was great to ride a bike on somewhat flat roads again. It's been since Chicago that I've ridden on flat land. The distances seem longer when everything is flat.

So there was this Arnold Schwarzenegger look-alike guy at the top of Diamond head. He was the park ranger I believe and every 5 minutes he would repeat, like a machine, a brief introduction to the landscape before our eyes. He offered to answer any questions we have. Maria asked him what that strange teal spot in the ocean was. His half-ass answer was that some dye must've spilled into the water. If it were dye, I think it would spread. Mysterious.


It was so great to hike with Maria. We spoke in German the entire time. German is so great for the fact that nearly no one understands us, so we could talk about weird people we encountered on the hike. Climbing all those steps through the tunnels reminded me of being in Europe and climbing to the bell tower of the cathedrals and castles.

This picture was taken from the top of the steps, before I descended. Monkeys would have fun coming down, they wouldn't use the stairs, but instead swing from bar to bar all the way down. As a child I could never get the monkey bars.

After riding back from Diamond Head, I headed into town on my bike in the 90 degree heat. It felt as if I were in Chicago in the summertime, humid and hot. I was in search of the perfect Ukulele. Eventually I found it at the "Good Guys Music" on Kapahulu. Made entirely of Koa wood, with peach colored pegs and a beautiful finish, the ukulele I chose had a perfect soft Hawaiian sound. I spent 4 times as much as I had planned. The reason for this splurge was simple, I didn't want to buy a Ukulele that had been made in China. Being in Hawaii maybe for the only time in my life, I wanted a genuine Hawaiian ukulele. Sorry I don't have any pics of me with my new instrument yet. But you can see what it looks like here http://www.koaloha.com/KoAloha_Products/SopranoStd.html It's so fun to play.

My last night with Mom, Peter and I was Wednesday night, they head back to Chicago on Thursday. We decided to go watch the beautiful sunset on Waikiki. Being the tourists that we were, we took tons of pictures of the sunset, us with the sunset behind us, etc. Some of my favorite I've posted below.

After the sunset and watching this parade of tourists on the main strip, we went to a fancy hotel to watch some hula dancers. Their body movement is so relaxing to watch. Oh yeah, we had fruity cocktails with umbrellas too!

The North Shore-25.03.08

I started the day out right by running down Waikiki to meet Maria and then run with her all the way to the Hilton Hawaiian Village. We met Tony briefly and then I ran back to our hotel alone.

Lucky me, I got to sit in the front seat for the entire drive to the North Shore, approximately an hour at the speed of 50 mph. I received a call from my former host brother in Germany. No one in the vehicle liked it that I was speaking in another language and no one knew what I was talking about even though I was extremely animated.

The North Shore felt less touristy than Waikiki right from the start.

We decided to have lunch before we hit the beach and found this AWESOME healthy food cafe. The burrito my mom ordered was so tasty. It was also gigantic so we all took turns eating from it, while listening to a Johnny Cash hour on the local radio station. Vacation couldn't get much better than that. Everyone in the cafe was super laid back and friendly. The ceiling had underwater/beach murals painted on it.

After lunch we went to Sunset Beach where plenty of dangerous breaker waves were crashing into shore. They were larger than at Sandies, probably 5-6feet. The professional surfers were out further catching the waves; it was so awesome to watch them. There was this one dude, he looked like he was from California; a blond surfer dude. He rode this entire wave all the way across and into shore, then effortlessly walked himself out of the water with his board. He made it seem so easy, but for us it was far from easy and we did not even attempt to bring any sort of board in the water. The waves were so powerful and dangerous with the current trying to drag us out. I tried sitting on the sand and letting the waves crash over me. It was amazing how the water could lift me from the ground and carry me about 4 feet. Sand filled every crevice of my swimsuit after that endeavor.

We decided to part ways after that beach; Mom, Tony, Pete and Mags went to Waimea beach and I decided to go to the Waimea Falls and wildlife park. The hike to the falls was not super intense with mud sliding and steep inclines, but it was extremely scenic and beautiful. The park was almost completely empty, so all the sounds I heard were coming from animals, mostly birds. Calming and peaceful. Happy to be in freshwater again and rinse all that sand from my body, I decided to situate myself underneath the pounding waterfall for ten minutes and just let it drench me. Because I was alone, I have no picture to prove this, but it was extremely refreshing.

24.03.08-Chinatown in Honolulu

A mile down the Waikiki tourist strip took us to the end of the strip, the Hilton Hawaiian Village and the Wailana Coffee house. We had breakfast at this famous longstanding coffee house. Pancakes with coconut, pineapple and guava syrups were served there, as we talked with Tony about LA and Chicago. He is moving back to LA with Maria in May. Pete and Mags were trying to talk him into visiting Chicago.

On the way back to our hotel, we stopped at the International Market, an outdoor marketplace where you can find anything Hawaiian; t-shirts, jewelry, knickknacks, wooden animals, sandals, body boards, straw mats, towels, etc. I could easily spend my entire allowance there. After about 30 minutes walking around there you could definitely get overwhelmed with "aloha" t-shirts and Orchid print things. Nevertheless, I found some cool things to purchase.

Tony took us to Chinatown in the afternoon. It reminded me of my old Vietnamese neighborhood in Chicago, except larger. We hit up an Oriental grocer. $25 got me plenty of goodies to bring back to Seattle with me, including banana chips, ginger candies, tea, and flavored dried mango, among other things.

Before seeing the $1 movie, we watched a beautiful sunset next to a fisherman at the Ala Moana Beach Park.