Hawaii Saturday

On Saturday, we had almost an entire day to explore until Amy needed to be at the airport around 7:30pm. We drove to Hilo on the other side of the island, then did a magnificent scenic drive that included a stop at a beautiful botanical garden. We entered some kind of tropical paradise. From the gardens, we continued on the scenic drive until we came to Akaka Falls State Park. We fixed ourselves a lovely picnic lunch with a view of the falls. then we headed down to see the falls more closely. We had expected a longer walk here, but they were doing some work. I hope the work was somehow more positive than it looked; basically they had chopped down a bunch of trees in the valley. In addition, about half of the loop trail was closed, including what was promised to be a view of a pristine Hawaiian valley. In any case, we saw the falls and learned about some kind of amazing fish that can make its way up this 440+ foot waterfall. That's incredible. After the falls, we drove around the north side of the island (including a hilarious detour to find the Hawaiian Vanilla Company for some milkshakes) and back around to a black sand beach just to the north of the airport. We walked a bit before finding Amy some take-on-the-plane food and witnessing a beautiful Hawaiian sunset from the approach to the airport.

After dropping Amy off at the airport, I headed back into the Kona village for dinner at Jackie Rey's Ohana Grill. I had the fresh catch (shutome, a small swordfish found in Hawaii) that was amazing. Then I headed back to the hotel.