We didn’t have to go through immigration when we reached Hilo because we had already gone through it in Honolulu, even though we weren’t allowed off of the ship. It saved a lot of time in clearing the ship and getting us off. Liz, Matt, and I planned to visit a beach and possibly do a hike, but Matt had a phone interview in the morning so Liz and I went out for a walk while he was talking. Since I had phone service I was able to talk to my Mom in the morning, who happened to be in a book store and could read a Hawaii guide book for me and tell me what would be fun to do while we waited. We decided to walk to Liliuokalani Gardens. A woman in the welcome center gave us directions and told us the walk was less than two miles long, so we started on our way.
Hawaii is the kind place where you smell flowers as soon as you step onto the island… Except when you are in a port, because then it still smells like a port. Once we got to the gardens it smelled like flowers, though. We walked along the roadside passing little shops and restaurants before turning onto Lihiwai St. (we were supposed to take Banyan Dr., but we missed the turn). The garden had a bunch of giant banyan trees and Japanese style bridges, but not many flowers. We walked along the water next to the garden and through several different paths before realizing we should get back to the ship to meet Matt.
It had been a nice, sunny day and Liz had just gotten off the phone with Matt after telling him that he would not need boots, a jacket, or long pants when the pouring rain started. We met Matt just outside the port, where he promptly began to complain about the misinformation we had given him regarding clothing choices. Then we headed to lunch. We stopped at an outdoor restaurant called “Verna’s” that one of the Hawaiian students on board had mentioned. It was still raining, but there were some picnic tables with an overhang where we could sit and eat. I ordered some meal called Kolohe. I don’t know what it was, but there was fried shrimp, breaded pork and some other kind of meat with rice. It was really good! I just wish I could have found a place with taco poki (octopus salad) to eat, but it wasn’t on the menu.
At lunch we decided not to go for a hike or visit the beach since it was rainy and the beach was pretty far away. Instead, we headed down Banyan Dr. (which we found on the first try this time). We stopped by the beach so that Liz and Matt could jump off of a ledge and taking pictures while in mid jump. The people driving by started looking at them weirdly, so it was slightly embarrassing. Liz landed on a piece of glass and sliced her foot open (it sounds bad, but it was only a small cut really). The rain had slowed down a little, but it started to pour really hard while Liz and I tried to fix her toe. Matt had run away to hide under a tree from the rain. Eventually we ended up wrapping Liz’s toe completely with tape so that a wet band aid could stay and she would be able to walk. Then we went to hide under the tree with Matt. We spent the next hour ‘Banyan tree hopping,’ which I thought was really fun, but I may have been the only one.
The rain slowed just as we reached Liliuokalani Gardens for the second time. Matt had called his friend who was from Hilo and asked her what we should do and she suggested going to the farmer’s market in downtown Hilo, so that’s where we headed next. The walk was pretty long, but the rain had stopped completely by this time and we got to walk near the water so it was a nice view.
We reached downtown Hilo around 2pm and got some shave ice. I got the small size (which was huge) flavored with strawberry and banana. It was awesome! Then we visited the farmer’s market just to walk around. I bought a pound of macadamia nuts, which I am afraid I may end up eating before I get home, but I am going to try and save them. We wanted to see if there were any interesting fruits that we hadn’t seen before… Then we remembered that we had just circumnavigated the globe and had already seen the fruits that grew in Hawaii.
Matt’s friend had also told him to try some spam or chicken musubi, so we found a shop that sold some and ate it as we walked back to the ship. It was just rice and chicken/spam wrapped in seaweed, but it tasted pretty good.
It was about 5pm when we reached the ship (on ship time was 6pm) and we stepped onto the gangway for the last time. I wish we had more time in Hawaii, but I am still grateful for the extra two hours of time we were given (originally on ship time was 4pm). Even though we didn’t end up doing too much, it was still fun to get to walk around the island and eat the food.
There was a BBQ that night, so we had ribs for dinner and it was a friend’s birthday so she let us have some of her cake. The Global Studies final exam was the next day so we stayed up alternating between watching the Office and studying.
