The other day (Tuesday) Kelly and I drove to the 2.25 hours to Hilo on the other side of the island so we could take our helicopter tour we’d booked. We booked it there for two reasons, one, they didn’t offer just the volcano tour from the Kona side (so it would have been a longer more expensive trip) and two, we wanted to see Hilo. It rains a lot in Hilo, and it rained most of the time we were there, but we had a nice lunch, wandered through a farmers market, and explored some of the shops for a bit. Oh, and we also went to the tasting room of the brewery at Hilo (Mehana Brewing). Pretty tasty stuff.
Then it was time for our helicopter tour. I’d never been in a helicopter before, and it was both fun and a bit scary. The tour south over the volcano flows was really cool though, and I was able to snap some shots of flowing lava. The tour was 50 minutes, and while they claimed it was both a waterfalls AND volcano tour, we were shown all of one waterfall, at a distance. It would be my only complaint about the tour. Say it’s a volcano tour and be done with it, don’t lead people to think they’ll see majestic waterfalls (plural) as well.
Afterward came time for the drive home. It was 5:30 PM as we drove away from the Hilo airport, and we decided to drive across the island instead of over the north of it (which is how we drove to Hilo earlier in the day). That meant going over Saddle Road, which we’d heard can be pretty treatcherous, but it’d save us time. Oh, it’s important to note sunset is at 6:20 PM or so, so we didn’t have much time to get over Saddle Road before dark. Long story short, it was a winding, hilly mess most of the way, with blind turns and single-lane bridges, and then we ran into rain, and then fog, and the sun had set. My knuckles were white, and my face went pale during a few sections. There was a section in the middle where it went wider and more straight, but it was very very foggy. Fortunately we made it back to the house safely, but only ended up saving 15 minutes. Oh well.
Yesterday morning we went snorkeling again at this spot about a mile south of the house, and again saw a sea turtle, and of course many brilliantly colored fish. Kelly and I also spent about 2 hours swimming in the pool beside the house, and generally relaxing our last day away. For dinner I had this mammoth burger at a place called Splasher’s Grill, and was full the rest of the night. I had a couple of beers and then I was so full and exhausted that it was time for sleep.
Today we fly home. Yesterday we cleaned the house up a bit (I want my deposit back dammit!) and started a bit of packing. I was up before dawn (which is about 8:30am PST) and made coffee. Here pretty soon I might jump in the pool one last time before getting packed and starting the long day of airports and airplanes on the way home.
And again, photos are in the gallery. Aloha!
This weekend Kelly took me to the coast for a surprise weekend getaway. She’d rented a house near Manzanita, and we spent a couple days driving around, visiting nearby spots including spending some of Saturday at Cannon Beach, hiking through Oswald West State Park, and on Sunday checking out Hug Point (my new favorite stretch of Oregon beach).