Random Thoughts …

Sunday, July 25: 10:00 a.m. Mass at Ascencion Mission in Puako. We had those Peruvian tamales for breakfast.

Hung out at the beach access point across from the church and saw turtles in the Puako Bay, this might be a good place to snorkel if you can get past the rocks. I saw a couple of people doing just that.

Practiced our golf swings and had Ahi for dinner BBQ.

Saturday, July 24: Spent the night at the Hilo Seaside Hotel after taking in the sites at Kalapana. For breakfast, we went to the Coconut Grill, right next door to the motel. Food was OK, Sandy had the Hawaiian Sweetbread French Toast and I had the FlapJack, a mix of 3 pancakes, 1 egg and 1 slice of ham. After breakfast, we strolled the local Border’s that is closing, the Walmart and then the Farmer’s Market we saw by the Cafe Pesto downtown last night.

Beautiful jewelry from a local lady that uses lapidary gemstones and makes her own necklaces. Flowers for sale and we ate wonderful tamales from Peru! We even bought 5 more for breakfast!

On the way home, we went up to the Mauna Kea Visitor’s Center to check it out. It has beautiful views from the center but the Subaru struggled just a bit for the last mile or so. It is 6 miles from the Highway 200 turnoff to the center and the first 5 miles or so aren’t too bad. At the 9,300′ elevation, the little Subaru was in first gear, but … we did make it. I’m not sure if we could with 3 other people in the back. It is a dependable car.

Dinner was steak salad.

Friday, July 23: Off to the Volcano side to watch the lava flowing about noon. We picked up a room at the Hio Seaside Motel for the night because I really didn’t want to drive back over Saddle Road at night.

We went up Saddle Road and it is in pretty good shape, better than last year. There is the one portion from mile 11 to 19 (coming from Hilo) that is hardpacked because of the road realignment activity. The only bad parts left are the climb from the 190-200 junction (on our side) up to the new paved section before the PTA military camp. A pleasant drive.

Arrived in Hilo and checked in about 3:00 p.m.. The Seaside motel has seen better days, but they are clean and give local rates. Lots of Hawaiian staying there. We looked for dinner places.  We chose Cafe Pesto, the same place as in Kawaiae and it was quite good. We had a 9″ build your own pizza, it was light and fluffy. Next time, we should try (based on reviews) the Hilo Bay Cafe in the Walmart shopping center.

We then headed to the lava field in Kalapana, it is about 23 miles from Hilo via highways 11 and 130 to roads end. This year, the lava flow stopped into the ocean, but it is stariting to back up into the Kalapana subdivision. I went imagining getting really close, but the Civil Defense folks kept us back a way. The view after sunset was pretty cool but I wish that I was closer. It was interesting that the viewing area from last year, supposedly, was covered over by the fresh lava. I found, after the fact this guy’s website with some good information. I bookmarked it for next year.

I think some better opportunities could have been had on highway 137, coming in the back way. Next time, study the maps and read the blogs!