- Our first port was Hilo, Hawaii! Sorry about the delay in posting, but we were just getting our "sea legs" and getting used to the new routine. Hilo was a very brief stop. The night before we arrived in Hilo we had lectures telling us about the culture,language and educational information about the volcanoes and waterfalls. We learned that we were near a dormant volcano called Mauna Kea; here is some info from Wikipedia:
- We arrived in the early morning and left late at night. We rented a car and, first things first, headed over to a local mall where we could stock up on snacks, sunscreen and various items that we either forgot or thought too heavy to take in our bags on the plane. VERY important mission! Later, we went in search of the volcanoes and steam vents (not hard-there was basically one highway traveling to and around the crater). We headed into town for Mexican food at Lucy's (thanks to Emma who had done her homework online and found it---must admit there was some debate as to whether it is better to simply wander around town and "discover" a place to eat or if we should follow Emma's lead based on trip advisor and chow hound--I guess we will be doing a bit of both on this trip and in many cases will simply be glad to find a clean place with warm food that we can manage to order. But in the end, we were happy with our choice which consisted of salsa, chips, chimichangas, and burritos:) Afterwards, we wandered around town which was small and quite different from towns we had visited in Hawaii previously; Chris said it seems like a place where people go who don't want to be found--for whatever reason.....
- Everyone managed to make it aboard on time--next stop--JAPAN!