Hello friends and family! We spent our morning in Hilo taking care of some errands (groceries and laundry time!) before heading into Hilo to check out their Wednesday market. We visited their stalls full of cool Hawaiian gifts and produce, and I was shocked to see how many kinds of fruit I had never heard of there! We have a list of Hawaiian foods to try (some new to us, and some not) that we are working on.

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We are trying to check off a few of those as we go along. Today’s specials were lilikoi (passionfruit) and ube shave ice (with condensed milk, of course- a favorite of mine from our Hawaii visit in 2012) and spam musubi- basically like a spam snack wrap in rice and seaweed (Rob’s choice, but it wasn’t bad!).

In the afternoon we headed up the northeast coast to check out some sights. We started at the Onomea trail and hiked down to the ocean to see the beautiful views. The area backs up to the Hawaii Botanical Gardens, and the foliage is incredible. We definitely felt like we were in another world!

We had planned to make stops at two animal farms on our route, each separately promising “goat therapy” and “cow therapy” where you can hug the animals, but both were closed today 😭. However, right by the goat farm we found these cuties grazing by the fence, and they seemed happy to let us pet them!

From there we hit the Akaka Falls area, where we hiked the waterfall loop to see two different waterfalls. It was a hot and humid day, but the breezes in the lush forested areas made it bearable, and the sights were beautiful!

Our next stop was the pretty and peaceful State Park at Laupāhoehoe Point Beach. The site has a tragic history following a tsunami in the 1940s (there is a memorial marker in the park and a story board detailing the events) but it is a beautiful oceanfront park with cool lava rocks and some blowholes. We got a lot of salt spray even standing well away from the shoreline!

Our dinner stop tonight was disappointing, but you can’t win ‘em all. We went to a popular spot called Tex’s drive in, known for their malasadas (Portuguese fried doughnut balls), but sadly they were out of the malasadas, and the rest of our meal resembled one of those old school frozen tv dinners from the 70s 😝. This is one of the few meals on the island we have no need to return to.

To console ourselves for the dinner fail 😂, we tried out a local brewery near our rental place in Hilo, and it was very delicious. We got their beer flight (as we do!), and enjoyed their offerings. Now it’s off to bed, with plans (and tickets!) in hand to snorkel, then head to Volcanoes National Park tomorrow! Thanks for sharing in our adventures!