Hilo, Hawaii

            Thursday, 7 Feb 2019 – Since we were scheduled for an excursion this morning, we sat our alarm for 7:00 AM.  At breakfast, we watched as Matson trucks hauling CONEX containers arrived at the pier, and then the huge cranes lifted the containers from the trucks and stacked them in various locations.  Jesse was thinking that would have been a great career for him!  (It looked like fun!)

Rainbow Falls

            Then we waited in the Insignia Lounge for our excursion number to be called.  Our excursion was a two-hour “Panoramic Hilo” tour.  Hilo is located on Hawaii, the big island.  Our driver and tour guide, Dennis was very tall and portly, with a heavy Hawaiian accent.  We first set out for Liliuokalani Gardens, where we rode past numerous large and very old banyan trees, with smaller growths along the side.  One tree was named Amelia Earhart, who was there in about 1936.  We continued on past Coconut Island to Rainbow Falls, where we stopped for about 30 minutes and we climbed steep, uneven, rough stone steps to be about level with the falls.  Of course, Hawaii is part of the U.S., so there was a safety railing alongside the steps.  From there, we had an excellent view of the 80-foot waterfall as it rushed into the large pool below that is almost 100 feet wide.  Also, a viewpoint below gave us a different perspective.

King Kamehameha Statue

            Our next stop was the Shinmachi Memorial that was erected in honor of the many residents of Hilo who lost their lives to the 1946 tsunami.  Adjacent to the memorial was a small art museum, where local artists display their work.  Sally especially enjoyed the paintings of the recent volcano.  Also, nearby was a Vietnam War memorial, in honor of the island’s fallen heroes.  Afterwards, we stopped at the beautiful gold statue of King Kamehameha, who unified the Hawaiian Islands in 1840.  Our guide, Dennis, told us that there are actually three statues of the king, one located in Washington, DC.   He also told us that a little known fact is that the king had about 1000 canoes (with warriors) that assisted him with the unification.  Our last stop was at the Big Island Candies factory, where we were given free samples and an opportunity to purchase tasty treats.

            After returning to the ship, we swam for a half hour.  On our way to lunch, we met Maurice and Liz from the cabin next door to ours.  They are from the LA area, just south of the Los Angeles Airport.  They boarded in LA (as we did) but are on the world cruise.  Afterwards, Sally napped for 2.5 hours while Jesse worked on his expenses spreadsheet.  (He tracks every penny that we spend, despite Sally’s complaints about his use of time for this!)  After dinner, we danced for 30 minutes.  Since a “British Invasion” dance party had been advertised, we went to the Horizons at 10:00 PM, hoping to dance more; however, there was only recorded music (no band); we returned to our cabin.  Sally stayed up until 1:30 AM working on genealogy, while Jesse watched movies on TV.  With the unlimited internet access (and not having to cook meals), Sally has been making great headway on her “Henry Family” genealogy book.