I had always wanted to go to Hilo. Somehow when you look at a map of Hawaii, the city of Hilo is always on the map, isolated from the rest of the islands.
Hilo is the 2nd largest city in Hawaii. It’s airport? The smallest airport I’ve been to while here. I can only guess that if I do go to Kauai, that its airport will be smaller still. Hilo International Airport is open air. Meaning you can feel the breeze while sitting at your terminal waiting for your flight. I found it unusual because Hilo is supposed to be a very rainy city.
What I have come to realize that the airports all remind me of Walt Disney World’s Tiki Room with their dark wood and Hawaiian motifs.
I got a 6AM flight to Hilo and was in my rental car at around 7:30 AM. The post office by the airport wasn’t open so I decided to head toward the nearest McDonald’s, which just so happened to be in a Walmart. The lady at the rental car place had asked me if I had eaten breakfast. “No,” I told her. “Well, there’s only one place that is open and that’s this pancake buffet.” I kinda gave her a funny look expecting more things to be open. She strugged and said “Welcome to Hilo.” What she meant to say was that the pancake buffet was the only “good” restaurant open.
I had always heard that Hawaiians were found of Spam, but I had no concrete evidence. Yet on the menu board at the McDonald’s – Spam and Eggs. I would have taken a picture of it if I had my camera.
On to Ka Lae, the southern most point of the United States. Here is the map of my route in case you’re keeping track.
Ka Lae is at the end of a one lane country road, much like my maternal grandparent’s farm near Sparta. At one point I wasn’t even sure I should be on the road as there were signs posted about it being government property yadda yadda yadda. But I forged ahead. I expected to see a marker, like the one in Key West, but there was no such one. “Is this the southernmost point?” I asked a fellow tourist couple. “We think so.” It was a bunch of rocky cliffs that looked like any other rocky cliffs on the island.
Onward to a black sand beach. Just like regular sand, only with black sand. A sea turtle was there too. Signs posted along the way said “Do not take sand.”
I’ll post more later on…