Drove to Hilo in Big Island from our hotel in Kona part of the island. It took about two hours to reach the garden (as we stopped to take photos along the way)
Today we saw:
Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden: (25-00$ per adult). What I loved about this place is the scenic rocks and cliff in the sea, several types of orchids growing freely on the trees, the lushness of the garden, the enormous variety of leaves, flowers and the gigantic size of the trees and plants!
Next we drove to the ? downtown and parked (free parking for two hours) and had a lovely lunch.
Then walked to the Mokupapapa Discovery Centre (free) and spent about half hour seeing the fish in their aquarium and learning a bit about Hawaii, ecology, etc.
Then we drove to Rainbow falls and then to boiling pots.
We drove back to our hotel in Kona on the 73 mile route...on this route you see no houses, no animals, no birds, sparse vegetation, lava fields, a few flat topped mountains a few miles away from the road, a US military base and the international observatory on top of a mountain. You can see for miles and miles on either side of the road as there is nothing to block your view. You are at a higher altitude and it is supposed to affect you. The only thing I noticed is that when we came down(I think) below a certain altitude, my ears went pop.
We made the extremely foolish decision to go to the observatory on this way back as we thought we had plenty of time. So we started driving up with a half tank of gas in an impala car which is not a 4 wheel drive! After driving up a bit, we were terrified to see that our gas started getting low at an alarming speed and we still had a long way to drive up to the observatory! We panicked. As soon as we saw a spot where we could safely park and Uturn/return we did!
Then the malfunction sign showed up on the car's monitor and we were both silent, anxious and tense as we drove. We wondered if the car engine was affected as we drove up the steep mountain. We decided to go back to the car rental near the airport about this. The tension cut out our usual chatter. ...what will low fuel in the middle of nowhere and a malfunction sign on the dashboard.
We calmed down a bit when my husband realized that we have enough gas to reach our hotel. As we were driving 'down' the car did not consume much gas on the way back. After some calmness returned, we decided to check out the cause of malfunction ourselves before going to the car rental. After parking and checking, we discovered that we had not closed the gas tank lid properly after filling the gas. Problem solved! We were back to our usual chatting and joking selves again!
We roamed around on the beach behind our hotel and discovered that there's a palace steps from our hotel! We are going to see it tomorrow.
Below are a few photos of our day.
Above...Bogunvilla flowers of various hues on the compound walls of houses on Alii road in Kona on Big Island.
Below the lovely Farmers Market on Alii road. The colorful, tasty, sweet and delicious shaved ice I had in the farmer's market is here below
The colorful, tasty, sweet and delicious shaved ice I had in the farmer's market is here above.
This beach was a mix of white (shells, coral, maybe sand) and black lava rocks and pebbles. It was an interesting color combination.
Today we saw:
Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden: (25-00$ per adult). What I loved about this place is the scenic rocks and cliff in the sea, several types of orchids growing freely on the trees, the lushness of the garden, the enormous variety of leaves, flowers and the gigantic size of the trees and plants!
Next we drove to the ? downtown and parked (free parking for two hours) and had a lovely lunch.
Then walked to the Mokupapapa Discovery Centre (free) and spent about half hour seeing the fish in their aquarium and learning a bit about Hawaii, ecology, etc.
Then we drove to Rainbow falls and then to boiling pots.
We drove back to our hotel in Kona on the 73 mile route...on this route you see no houses, no animals, no birds, sparse vegetation, lava fields, a few flat topped mountains a few miles away from the road, a US military base and the international observatory on top of a mountain. You can see for miles and miles on either side of the road as there is nothing to block your view. You are at a higher altitude and it is supposed to affect you. The only thing I noticed is that when we came down(I think) below a certain altitude, my ears went pop.
We made the extremely foolish decision to go to the observatory on this way back as we thought we had plenty of time. So we started driving up with a half tank of gas in an impala car which is not a 4 wheel drive! After driving up a bit, we were terrified to see that our gas started getting low at an alarming speed and we still had a long way to drive up to the observatory! We panicked. As soon as we saw a spot where we could safely park and Uturn/return we did!
Then the malfunction sign showed up on the car's monitor and we were both silent, anxious and tense as we drove. We wondered if the car engine was affected as we drove up the steep mountain. We decided to go back to the car rental near the airport about this. The tension cut out our usual chatter. ...what will low fuel in the middle of nowhere and a malfunction sign on the dashboard.
We calmed down a bit when my husband realized that we have enough gas to reach our hotel. As we were driving 'down' the car did not consume much gas on the way back. After some calmness returned, we decided to check out the cause of malfunction ourselves before going to the car rental. After parking and checking, we discovered that we had not closed the gas tank lid properly after filling the gas. Problem solved! We were back to our usual chatting and joking selves again!
We roamed around on the beach behind our hotel and discovered that there's a palace steps from our hotel! We are going to see it tomorrow.
Below are a few photos of our day.
Below the lovely Farmers Market on Alii road. The colorful, tasty, sweet and delicious shaved ice I had in the farmer's market is here below
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