Exploring the island

Thursday, Dec 29
This morning we checked out of the hotel in Kona and headed out on the north route to Hilo. Before leaving, I went into a coffee shop for their free wifi and tried another cup of Kona coffee. Nope, still not a fan. We stopped at the Waipio Valley lookout. Only 4WD vehicles can drive into the valley. From the lookout, you can see a gorgeous black sand beach at the bottom. The valley alone would probably be worth getting a jeep. The rest of the valley is all private property, so nothing else to see.
The town at the top of the valley is a cute little "small town America" type of place, with a nostalgic, yet busy, main street. We stopped at a place called Blane's Drive-In. It was a let down. Rob was feeling queasy since breakfast, so all he wanted was a milk shake. And he had his heart set on something tropical like pineapple or banana, but all they had was chocolate, strawberry and vanilla. I got a pork sandwich, and it was fatty pork, with loads of mayonaise and wilted lettuce on a flavourless white bun. Bleh. We then went into a local fudge and ice cream shop, but they didn't do milkshakes, so we just got a couple of pieces of macadamia caramels and peanut butter-chocolate fudge. Mmm.
The next stop was at Akaka Falls. But we were running out of time and they wanted $5 to park, or $2 each to walk in, so we got a quick photo from the parking lot and kept going. Near the entrance to the falls was a place called "Mr Ed's bakery and jams". We got some ginger cookies and coconut macaroons. We also got a cinnamon bun, but not the giant ones they had available, just a "small" one. We ate the cinnamon bun later and wished we'd gotten the one that was about 10" across instead of just the 5" one. Damn, it was good.
In Hilo, we checked into our hotel. There are a lot of shady looking places here. It was obviously a popular tourist destination in the 70s, but the years have not been good. I read before booking that the deal here is that the state owns the land and leases it to the resorts for a short period of time. The time is so short that the hotels don't want to invest in renovations, and couldn't get a loan to do it anyway. Local authorities have realized the problem and have started negotiating longer lease terms conditional on the hotel coming into the 21 century. The first hotel that has been done is the one I booked, the Naniloa Resort. Our room and the hallway have been redone, but that's about it. The exterior and main floor still need to be done. Oh well, it was cheap and we're only here one night.
We stayed long enough to drop off our luggage and headed up to Volcano National Park. We should have researched the park a little better. It's at an elevation of 4000 and when we got there shortly after 4pm, it was about 15C and very windy. By sunset, it dropped to 12C. My raincoat was in the car, and was wearing denim capris and my hiking shoes with socks, so I was okay. Poor Rob was wearing shorts and a t-shirt and barefoot with sandals. We managed to get through the Thurston lava tube, a few minutes at the steam vents and sunset at the Jaggar museum which overlooks a smoldering crater. We sat in the car until it got dark enough to see the glow from the crater. We then took a couple of photos and jumped back in the car.
For dinner, we drove back to Hilo and looked for a place we'd seen in Kona called "L&L Hawaiian BBQ". We found one in Hilo and went in to check out the menu. Based on the pictures and lack of customers, we figured it was frozen food heated up in the microwave, so we left. We had seen a place called "Ken's House of Pancakes" near the hotel, so we went there to check it out. When we arrived, there was a line up out the door, and no parking. That looked promising. I went in while Rob parked, and while they were busy, they were able to get us a table right away. It's a 24h places with at least 100 items on the menu. I had calamari and a "Hawaiian" turkey sandwich. Rob had a cajun chicken sandwich. The sandwiches were good. But the calamari was the best $6 calamari I have ever had. Not as good as the place in Kalk Bay, but decent and an awesome price. We're going back tomorrow for coconut banana pancakes.