Hawaii Day 4

Mom climbed back in bed after seeing the boys off with Bob. Then we slept in until around 7:30. We finally climbed out of bed around 8 when Melanie brought back breakfast sandwiches from McDonald's. We could take it a lot easier without a lot of calls for "More Snorkeling" echoing from the backseats. We decided to try a couple of short waterfall hikes north of Hilo.

The first waterfall was called Akaka Falls, and it was just a half-mile walk. It was a really pretty, towering single waterfall. Since it is a slow time of year for tourists, there was plenty of time to have it to ourselves, which we enjoyed. 

It was like our first trip to Hawaii many years ago.

Mom's hair gets so curly.

The waterfall is super tall. 

We love the jungle feel.

There were a few smaller waterfalls, too.

Next, we took a short drive to a beach that we saw on the map. It was called Laupahoehoe Point, and it wasn't a beach at all, but a bunch of black rocks with massive waves crashing into them. We tried to catch some pictures with amazing sprays, but they never turn out like the real thing.

The scenery was beautiful.

There were some serious waves.

The color of the water was beautiful.

We went back toward Hilo and stopped at the more commercial waterfall, which has ziplines and gardens and other activities. This one was called Umauma Falls, and we ran into most of the rest of the cousins, who were also just arriving. We walked up to the triple-decker waterfall, which was pretty cool. The kids picked flowers for their hair and even a fruit called strawberry guava, which the Visitor Center told us was totally legal since we'd paid our entrance fee. It was quite a climb, but we went all the way to the top, enjoying being together and seeing the centipedes and millipedes.

Another great waterfall.

Centipede

millipede 

We saw lots of little geckos.

All the sisters were there.

It was after lunch when we left Umauma Falls, so we found a little restaurant. We were getting fishing updates from the boys as we waited for our unspectacular food, and we were really glad that they were having fun and catching fish.

For old times sake, we made a short stop at the Mauna Loa Nut Factory and commented on how run-down the tours have become. Basically, there is no tour, just a gift shop with a few dozen types of macadamia nuts. Then we met the cousins at the zoo. We were surprised how nice the zoo was. The tigers were really active, and one even put its paws up on the fence and threatened us. That was excited since he was about 3 feet away! There were a lot of tropical birds, but we liked the anteaters best. It was a pretty small zoo, but we enjoyed it anyway.

We stopped for just a second at the nut factory.

We took a silly picture.

Stopped at the zoo!

We had fun walking through the animals.

We spent time with the other cousins.

The white tiger was super exciting.

The boys beat us back to the house around 4 o'clock. There were buzzing from their fishing experience, and Bob was cooking up fresh mahi-mahi and tuna. It was really delicious, and he had the tuna cooked in two ways, and rice and salad to go with the fish. The boys really liked seeing the fish they'd pulled in put on their plates. They were great eaters!

After dinner, we wanted to go up Mauna Kea and see the star show. This was the place where Dad really fell in love with the deep sky and telescopes. When he and Mom visited in 2010, there were half a dozen massive telescopes set high up on the slopes of Mauna Kea, above the light pollution and atmospheric pollution. Unfortunately, when we arrived, we found out that that program had become so popular, that they ended it a few years ago. Now, they just do a tour of constellations with a sky guide volunteer. It was a real bummer to drive an hour each way.

The stars were beautiful.

We had fun even though is was different than we thought.