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Island Incongruities

Before too much more time passes, I want to write my general impressions of visiting the Big Island. It was an interesting experience, because it was Hawaii, but it wasn’t Maui.

The first noticeable difference was that the air smelled different… strange. The plant life was different too, but that may have been because Hilo was on the windward side of the island, and thus got more rain.

The people looked different to me. I’m not sure how I would explain it… But these are islands, so maybe the isolated gene pools have some distinctive characteristics?

There were coqui frogs there. They make a loud noise at night. Their noise is featured in a video I have watched many times because it entertains me greatly:

Hilo looked dark at night. The street lights were dim. Maybe it’s a local ordinance?

Here was an especially interesting difference: covid protocols weren’t the same. On Maui, if you want to eat at a restaurant, you have to show a vaccination card. That was not a requirement on the Big Island. But it did seem to be a requirement to use the provided sanitizer at the door of every store and restaurant. That was an unfortunate fact for me, because I dislike scented sanitizer, and they ALL seemed to be scented. Yuck!

In spite of the sanitizer perfume all over my hands, it was a great visit. I feel like we met our goal of visiting all the volcano stuff. If I went back, maybe I’d go to the Kona side. But I think my next Hawaii adventure will be another island…

And now, here are some random leftover pictures from my trip.

3 Comments

  1. Lauren

    That frog! God has such amazing, creative creatures. I am also in awe that you notice such things.

    It’s good that you thought to write things down right away before the memories fade. I think that’s wise. It seems like Maui is the ‘house in the country’ part of Hawaii, which I have to think is better. šŸ™‚

  2. Elaine Royuk

    Did you see any helicopters flying over the volcano carrying tourists? Iā€™m wondering if they are still doing that.

    • Brad

      Yes, we saw quite a few helicopters. The terminal at the airport we used was also the terminal for helicopter tours, and it was hopping.

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