Day 6- Hawaii Recap

Today we arrived in Hilo!

Today I planned a tour of the Hawaii National Volcano Park.

Once again, I chose to plan this ourselves and not use 

the cruise line or a tour group.

This is SO much cheaper.

 The tour would have cost us $100 per person vs

the $10 fee (total not per person) to get into the park.

(The rental car was free thanks to points from a credit card,

but even if we paid for a one day rental it's still cheaper than $400!)

Our ship was only in Hilo for one day, so we had to get up early

to go get the rental car & drive to the Volcano Park.

The drive took us about 45 minutes.

 Once we arrived, we paid the $10 fee and started exploring.

We chose to drive through and stop along the way.

There were lots of people who chose to bike though.

More power to those people!

There were too many hills and long winding roads for me!

Our first stop was the erupting volcano Halema'uma'u.

It is STILL erupting!

We later got out to walk through a cave created by a lava tube flow.

It was so cool (temperature cool) in this cave.

Tip: Make sure you take a bag with plenty of water & snacks!

Some more of the devastation caused by lava from previous eruptions.

 

Did you know it's considered bad luck to take a lava rock 

back to the mainland? 

 

Look at the size of that crater caused by lava!

FYI there was lots of sulfur in the air!

It looks like fog, but you will see electronic signs that will tell

you to roll your windows up due the amount of sulfur in the air.

We drove the entire park, all the way to coast line!

We definitely enjoyed going to the Volcano Park!

Although I wish we could have explored Hilo a bit more,

seeing a volcano was a must see on our list for Hawaii.

 On the way back we also stopped at the Mauna Loa factory.

If you are in Hilo, you MUST go!

They had the best Macadamia nut cookies & ice cream.

The pic below is the factory side where you see the actual labor.

We skipped that and went right to the store.

This place was packed with tourists. 

It felt like we were in a small club trying to get past each other.

There were so many samples available too.

I bought some cookies that were the absolute best cookie ever!

Did I write down the name? 

Of course not!

So I now have yet another reason to return to Hilo!

After this we took the rental back.

The rental car company happened to be at the airport.

So since we had to wait for the cruise shuttle, Keith and I walked to the designated 

smoking area which was about 150ft away from the airport.

(Smoking might as well be prohibited in Hawaii because they are

very strict about where you smoke. Fines are enforced!)

 So anyways, we're standing there smoking and I happened

to look up at the handicap sign and in one of the little holes there was a 

plastic bag. I looked again and noticed it was a bag of weed! lol!

I told hubby and he grabbed it, smelled it, laughed, and put it back.

How's that for Maui Wow-i? 

Back on the ship, we returned to this:

I'm not sure if it's a swan or a cobra?

What do yall think?

Dinner was at another fancy place onboard.
My mom prefers buffets all the time so she wasn't
feeling this place at all.

  After dinner smoke for hubby & I

 I know yall are sick of seeing this same pose! lol

The show for the night was a tribute to Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons!
Lots of good old school music!
It was at this show that we realized we were probably the youngest
people on the ship. We asked one the crew about it and he
said the cruise ship crowd in October is considered:
"Either Newlyweds or Nearly Dead!"

Up Next: Kona