I know, it’s been two months since the trip and I’m finally getting around to putting up the final installment of the Hawaii pictures. But, in my defense, I am slow. Just a few days ago I finally emptied my suitcase of stuff from the trip. Yes, just my stuff since Vin unpacked his suitcase almost immediately while I stalled and stalled. That’s me. Procrastinator all the way. 🙂
So to remind you, in Day 9, remember we met with some interesting cats wishing us goodnight at the Volcano Inn?
[[image:hi153.jpg:Scary Guard kitties?:center:0]]
They apparently patrol the inn and keep out the riff raff :). In case you’re lazy to click on the link to the previous day’s blog entry, here’s a reminder of what they look like:
[[image:hi144.jpg:Kitties!!:center:0]]
Here’s what the outside of our room looked like in the light of day:
[[image:hi151.jpg:The door to our room and the stained glass window:center:0]]
[[image:hi150.jpg:Big Paku Gajah right outside our door:center:0]]
This sign is posted clearly by the door so we can’t ignore it:
[[image:hi152.jpg:Keep the cats outside:center:0]]
Our continental breakfast was available upstairs. So when we go up the stairs here’s what we see:
[[image:hi147.jpg:Breakfast Room:center:0]]
[[image:hi148.jpg:Volcano Inn Lanai:center:0]]
[[image:hi149.jpg:View from the lanai:center:0]]
It was one of the best continental breakfasts we’d had! There were interesting local breads (poi bread, pepper bread) and locally made fruit preserves. Great Coffee. So after a big breakfast, we packed our stuff and went for a final Hawaiian adventure. We decided to drive up Mauna Loa as far as the car can go where we can hopefully see a wonderful panorama from up there. Then we would have to speed on back to the Hilo Airport to catch our plane home.
The road was small and bumpy, and covered with cool foliage:
[[image:hi158.jpg:Road up Mauna Loa:center:0]]
[[image:hi154.jpg:Tree Tunnel!:center:0]]
We drove up for almost an hour! When we got to the parking lot, we read some signs and learned that from this parking lot (elevation 8000 feet or so) it is a 3-day hike up to the summit. Yikes! And what a disappointment. After the long (hurried) drive, it was misty and our visibility was severely limited. From the “lookout point” this is what we saw:
[[image:hi156.jpg:Misty vista:center:0]]
You can’t even see anything past 20 feet away! How very disappointing! We’re 8000 feet high here. We’d have been able to see some really cool things from up here, I bet. Anyway, this is what we saw:
[[image:hi155.jpg:Informative Signboards:center:0]]
[[image:hi157.jpg:Funky Chicken:center:0]]
So after a disappointing drive up a cool mountain, we drove down and sped to Hilo. First we flew from Hilo to Honolulu and hung out at the airport there waiting for our flight home to Ohio. The Honolulu Airport has a cool courtyard:
[[image:hi159.jpg:Courtyard at Honolulu Airport:center:0]]
[[image:hi160.jpg:More courtyard:center:0]]
[[image:hi161.jpg:Koi pond in the courtyard:center:0]]
Then we got on our plane and took our very long flight home. It was a redeye flight, so it was the next morning when we arrived. This is our welcoming committee:
[[image:lily01.jpg:Sleepy Lily:center:0]]
[[image:lily02.jpg:Recycling or Coca Cola advertisement?:center:0]]
[[image:lily03.jpg:Kitkat on a blue chair:center:0]]
[[image:lily04.jpg:Kitkat posing:center:0]]
[[image:lily05.jpg:Wait! What’s out there?:center:0]]
Anyway, Lily gave us a huge welcome and for the next few days refused to let Vin out of her sight. She faithfully followed him everywhere, and was extra manja with the both of us. It was a nice welcome home. Tamatlah our adventures in Hawaii.
