On account of the time zone changes, we woke up before 7am. I decided to go for a run around the nearby park and along the coast toward downtown Hilo. It was another lovely sunny day in Hilo town, a statement not often said on this side of the island. I made it back to the hotel for some muffins and danish we purchased last night. The hotel evidently has some items for purchase, but most of these items are various forms of kombucha.
Nicole had to be back at our room and with access to WiFi before 11, so we ventured out to explore Liliuokalani Gardens, a short distance from the SCP Hotel. It was the most crowded I have ever seen the park, most likely because I usually see it in the rain. We walked across the Japanese bridges and amongst the banyan trees while trying to break in our new locals.
After some further strolling, we made a quick stop at 7-Eleven for some beverages and spam musubi before getting Nicole all set up for her film festival panel. The panel itself was a bit of a train wreck mostly due to the moderator’s internet connection being marginal at best. She would begin by saying, “The manager’s job is crucial to . . . (Five minute gap) . . .Donkey Head! And that’s the importance of diversification.”
We had a fairly basic lunch of splitting a BLTA and a spam musubi before heading down the coast in search of a nice beach. One major downside of the nice weather occurring on a Saturday of all times, is that every beach was inundated with locals doing barbecues and other family events. Parking was nearly impossible. We had hoped to find a fairly calm place to perhaps spot some green sea turtles, but the large amount of keikis (kids) in the water pretty much guaranteed that no mentally sound sea turtle would dare venture into these waters.
We walked a little bit around Onekahakaha beach park, but despite a nice older lady telling us that she had seen some whales earlier in the day, our luck was nonexistent. As a result of our beach day being cut a bit short, we went to Big Island Candies. I have a bit of history with this establishment as it was my “award” for getting 2nd place in the Hilo marathon. I believe I got something in the vicinity of $50 worth of sweets back in 2006. It has changed a little bit since then. It seems to have expanded in size and apparently has another store in the Ala Moana center in Honolulu as well. I told Nicole that I remember the brownie bites being quite good so we got some of them along with some macadamia nut chocolate.
All the walking around in the sun left us a bit parched and in need of beverage. Unfortunately, the SCP doesn’t really have any sort of restaurant/bar, so we went over to the DoubleTree/Grand Naniloa to grab a couple local-ish beers. They were rather refreshing and we enjoyed them with the nice backdrop of the ocean and Hilo bay. We went back into the town of Hilo for a quick dinner, which on Hawai’i took much longer than anticipated. We ended up getting pizza, but the service was a bit on “island time.” We stopped at the neighborhood Long’s on the way back to get some beverages for our adventures to the volcano tomorrow.
passports & pepto bismol 