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Bonus Day

Happy Birthday to brother Brent and niece Alicia! Woo hoo!

The last day on the Big Island was a bonus day. The volcano stuff was the main objective. We had seen all of the volcano national forest stuff, so we would need something else to do.

In the morning, we got a carryout diner breakfast, then took it to a park to eat in the car. We were right next to our hotel, which was right across from a tiny island, so we went to explore it.

It turns out, the island used to have a private house on it, but a tsunami washed it away. Now it’s a public park. It gave us a great view of our hotel.

Next we went to a botanical garden. It was gorgeous.

The weirdest plant I saw was a cannon ball tree. The flowers grew right out of the trunk, then made fruits that were heavy and round and looked like cannon balls.

There was also a beautiful lily pond:

And expansive views of the ocean:

And peaceful waterfalls:

And then it rained. Ack! We tried standing under the leafiest plants we could find, but we still got pretty wet.

We went back to the hotel to change, then went to what looked like an old, but gentrified part of Hilo. There was a farmer’s market, and Denis got some weird fruits he hadn’t had since he was a kid.

The first was one was tambis. It wasn’t really very sweet, but it was crunchy and fresh. It reminded me of something that would be on a crudité tray.

The second fruit was santol. The one we tasted wasn’t all the way ripe, so instead of being sweet, it was sour. It reminded me of a sour apple flavor. We brought a few home, so maybe they will ripen and become sweet.

We had some lunch, then headed back to the airport, got on our tiny airplane, and flew back to Maui.

1 Comment

  1. Lauren

    Those fruits are like eating a dare. “Here. I bet this weird thing won’t kill you!”

    That looks like a wonderful way to end a little trip – even the rain! Though the last picture looks like the first scene in a science fiction movie. They entered the little plane strangers, but emerged a time-traveling, alien-fighting team that saved humanity…..

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