Wednesday in Hilo

Yesterday we spent the whole day in Hilo, which is a 2 1/2 hour drive to the other side of the Island. Also known for getting 130 inches of rain each year...and not to disappoint, it rained pretty much the whole day! (Vancouver averages 43-45 inches per year) Hey - I thought this was Hawaii! Guess that's why it's so lush and things grow like crazy here.

The weather made for some big waves and surf - first time we've spotted surfers out on the water.

We checked out the Hilo Farmer's Market, a neat Japanese inspired park that was been re-built several times because of tsunamis, and we went to the Pana'ewa Rainforest Zoo. Definitely a rainforest as it poured on us on and off. We were greeted at the gate by Max the parrot that actually said "hello" to us and "bye-bye" when we left. This is Namaste, a white Bengal Tiger.

There was a very cute Macaw and Cockatoo that were just craving attention when we went to their cages. Here is our visit with Einstein the Cockatoo.

We also visited the Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut Factory. This was very cool to see the 12,000 acres of trees growing and to watch the machines sort and package the nuts. Apparently they process and ship 53 million individual nuts per year. We took good advantage of the free samples in the gift shop!! Lisa, you were right about the honey roasted nuts ;)

We drove up Mauna Kea volcano on our way home, in hopes of taking in the evening stargazing program. Unfortunately the cloud cover didn't break as we ascended to over 9,600 ft elevation. We'll keep an eye on the weather forecast to see if we can find another day to go back.

Today we're relaxing and snorkeling at the beach next to us. Resting up for our trip to the active volcano tomorrow. Oh! I'll post some pictures from our Ukulele lessons this afternoon. Hahaha!