It has been a slow start to the year for Bricole. We would typically do a February trip around Valentine’s Day, but we were schedule limited this year. Nicole is totes busy with coaching the youths. She led the Westside Neighborhood Jets to the playoffs in soccer. Now she is coaching the youths in track. She is tasked with teaching them high jump with no bar or mat or track. It is an unenviable position. She finally had a few days off to work with, so we immediately planned to go away to either Vancouver, Canada or Hilo, Hawai’i.
A cold and rainy Vancouver seemed a bit less appealing, but getting Hilo to work was not without its challenges. Flights were close to full, hotels overpriced, rental cars nonexistent. We were slowly able to get a rental car using my airline discount, then we used my ID90 connections to get one of the last rooms at a hotel in Hilo, and then gambled on taking a flight to Kona from LAX as opposed to changing planes in Honolulu to go into Hilo. (There is also a direct flight from LAX to Hilo, but its arrival time of 11pm was less than desirable.)
At press time (fancy!), Hawai’i still has rules and restrictions about who can visit the islands. You still need either a negative test or vaccine record. We were given wristbands in LAX, which was a shockingly easy process that took maybe 15 seconds. Nicole and I got seats, though not together. In both of our rows, however, someone didn’t show up and we were able to spread out a little bit.
Five + hours later we arrived in Kona. Because of our wristbands we were immediately cleared and were on the Avis shuttle within a minute. Then we spent the next hour acquiring a rental car. There was only one person working and they were definitely on island time. While small talk is nice I suppose, it is a bit inefficient. We were initially “upgraded” to a Chevy Camaro for free, but after barely squeezing our suitcases into the trunk and taking our seats up front, we both remarked on how awful the visibility was through the windscreen. It seemed incredibly confining. We went back in to wait in line, where our friend working the Avis counter had already forgotten us completely and greeted us with a hearty, “Aloha!” as if we hadn’t just spoken to him. We asked to be downgraded back to a more familiar (and practical) Hyundai Accent. EVENTUALLY, we made it out of the Avis parking lot. Huzzah!
We drove across the middle of the island on what I can only assume is a relatively new road as I only ever recall driving a much longer southern route to get to Hilo from Kona. The Hyundai Accent struggled a little bit with straddling the hills near Mauna Kea, but our ascent was successful and we coasted down the other side into Hilo.
As far as Big Island climate is concerned, Kona is typically the dry, sunny, touristy side of the island, whereas Hilo is very green, rainy, wet, overcast, and much less touristed. However, the weather for our long weekend is flipped from the norm. It was overcast when we left Kona and we arrived in sunny Hilo, something I don’t think I have ever witnessed in my life. After getting settled, we went for a mile and a half walk to a Long’s Drug store. Long’s is like the go-to place for acquiring Locals, the ubiquitous rubber slippers (or Rubbah’ Slippahs as real locals would say). Their selection was unfortunately small as if there is a rubber shortage. They only had tiny or giant sizes. Defeated, we returned to the SCP Hotel.
We had dinner at Ken’s House of Pancakes, a local institution which I have frequented on many occasions in my past. Beyond their obvious specialty of pancakes, they also pride themselves on their varieties of loco mocos. That’s why the elderly couple at a nearby table ordered fettuccine alfredo and clam chowder. Nicole and I got a more suitable order of banana pancakes and “original” loco moco.
We then hopped in the car and drove through downtown Hilo, where we briefly stopped at a very lively open market with food trucks, and people selling their wares while live music blared in the background. We didn’t find anything to our liking, so we ended up at a Target to acquire some breakfast items as well as some new locals. Yay!
Tomorrow, Nicole has to take part (digitally) in a panel for the Vancouver Women’s Film Festival. They elected to not do an in-person festival, which is fine with us. We are in Hawai’i with brand new rubbah slippahs!
passports & pepto bismol 