We are trying to get out of our condo around 10:00 to hit the road for the Hilo side. We have opted to take the southerns route which is not the shortest, but has some sites we have yet to see. Annie and I head out early to Walmart to purchase some staple items we may need for the next few days and return to the condo to get packed to leave. It is a miracle that everything fits in our car with any visibility out the back - but it does! We head down the highway and hope to stop at a coffee mill to get a better understanding of how coffee is made. When we get there, the kids have a fit. "We don't even like coffee" they all chime in. "This is a learning experience and counts toward your grade" we explain. Drudgingly, they all go into the shop. It turns out that this is a farmers cooperative and it has a host of wonderful, home-grown products including coffee, macadamia nuts and local, tropical fruits. It is a self-guided tour and once you are finished there is a path through the tropical gardens with fruit trees and bushes from all parts of the tropics. Many of the plants or seedlings were brought to the islands by immigrant farmers that came to work on the sugarcane fields. We enjoy an ice cream before departing for the painted church - a small, island church that has a wonderful interior that is painted from head to toe. It is a short drive to the church - ice cream isn't even gone yet - and we get out for a brief look inside.
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| The Painted Church- Saint Benedicts |
Once back in the car, we head south toward the southernmost point in the USA and also the green sands beach. There are only two green sand beaches in the world. One is here and the other one is in Guam. After a rather bumpy ride past lone stands of farmland, pastures, cows, windswept trees and old, rusty wind farms, we arrive at a parking place along a steep hill. We walk to the bottom of the hill expecting that around the corner we will be awarded with our view of the Green Sand Beach, but alas, we find out that the beach is a hike of about 3 miles in over some pretty treacherous terrain. Oh well, one chance to see it, right? We trudge onward through the windy, dusty, rocky, steep paths in hopes of discovering something that not everyone gets to see. After an hour of hiking, we stop at a very tall cliff and see around our feet some green sand. It is actually the breakdown of Olivine which is commonly known as peridot. Imagine that, a beach made up of semi-precious stones all ground into fine sand. Weird and Wonderful. As we glance at our watch and see that it is 3:30 and we were supposed to be at our destination at 3:00 and know that we have another hour of hiking to get out.....well, we mostly agree, that this green sand is what we really came to see. I collect a sample (proof, right?) and off we go back across the very rocky, dusty, windy turf to our car. At this point, I decide that we should engage the "emergency" telephone to call our appointment in Hilo to tell him we are running late. Wouldn't you know that the battery was dead. Good thing this wasnt' a real emergency. We get back in the car and retrace our "off the beaten path" steps to get back on the highway toward our final destination. We come upon a small country store and stop to ask if there is a pay phone there. The nice lady lets us use her phone to call.....wait for it....Winston Churchill (our contact on Hilo). Winston assures us he will be here when we arrive to give us the keys....aside from that...he is a little sparse on the details of how to get to where we are supposed to go. We soon path through Volcano National Park where you can clearly see, off in the distance the plume of smoke from the active volcano spewing lava and giving birth to new island land. After about an hour, we turn off onto the know road to our house when all of a sudden there is a fork in the road. HUH? By now, it is pitch black outside. Paulie decides to go right which seems like the path to the water and we soon find our street, wind through a dark neighborhood and come upon a wonderful house with lights on. Winston Churchill is there waiting for us with his dog, Coco. The house if fabulous, lots of wood, cathedral ceiling, breezes passing through the screened windows and door, wind chimes and birds all chirping outside. It feels like we are in the middle of a botanical garden. We gulp down some burgers and off to bed. Our feet are killing us and we are bone weary. Good night.
We awaken refreshed and ready to see our neighborhood. Although, we manage to only get out the door around 10:00 for what was supposed to be an early start. We walk down the street to get to the Wai Opae Tidal pools. These are areas that have been created by the lava that traps beautiful, tropical fish and where coral reefs have established themselves. The ocean water replenishes the pools during high tide, so the water is alway circulating. The snorkeling is amazing, but the water is cold. It takes a while for us to get a spot where we feel comfortable diving into the chilly water, but we soon find a perfect spot and go for it. This is awesome. I can't believe the variety of sea life here in this one spot. Here are some of the fish we saw.
The corals are awesome as well. some very unusual shapes and colors. After we dry off and walk back home, we all shower off because the Tidal Pools trap a lot of bacteria in them that is not fully washed off by the changing tides. We get cleaned up and head into Hilo to see the famous farmers market on Saturday mornings. This is a really cute town with nice shops that line the downtown on one side and the beautiful blue ocean on the other. We walk around and check out the shops....the kids seem to latch onto a surf shop everywhere we go. We continue onto the Farmer's Market and enjoy seeing some very unusual produce. Many items are of an asian origin including huge ginger roots, sea beans, papaya, tons of local honey, purple potatoes, and of course macadamia nuts and kona coffee. There were also jewelers and local crafts people. We eat an enormous lunch at a Mexican restaurant and once we are stuffed walk around a little more before returning to our house to rest up. We have the ambition of going out at 5:00 to drive a ways up the road where we hear that we can see the lava flows from the road. When 5:00 arrives, we get into the car to go off on an adventure. We quickly realize that we are in a little over our heads. The drive is much longer than we thought and it is now pitch black as we are driving down the narrowest, darkest, windy back roads toward who know what. We end up turning around and getting back to the house in time for writing in our journals and eating dinner. We hit the hay early and prepare for another beautiful day in paradise.
