No Regrets!

After picking up our sweet rental SUV at Hilo International Airport, we headed into town. Hilo feels a bit more jungly and less developed than the other islands. We stopped at one of the Tripadvisor-rated lunch spots I found, Pineapple’s Island Fresh Cuisine. Nondescript place on the corner of a nondescript intersection, but the food was fresh and fantastic. The poke tower, coconut encrusted ahi tuna, and ginger lemon drop hit the spot perfectly.

To prepare for our Mauna Kea adventure, we stopped at a local supermarket for snacks and then swung by Subway for sandwiches, where the sandwich girl accidentally dumped a full shaker of pepper on Dave’s sandwich not once, but twice.

We then found our hotel, the Grand Naniloa Hotel Hilo, nestled amongst some impressive banyan and sea grape trees. In 1933, celebrities were selected to plant banyan tree saplings in the area. One of them was planted by Babe Ruth, and another by Amelia Earhart. Cool! The hotel also sits on an apparently tsunami-prone Hilo Bay. Any seismic activity on the west coast of North and South America sends tsunamis across the Pacific, and Hilo Bay’s topography concentrates their power to be more destructive. Tsunamis in the last century have repeatedly destroyed this part of Hilo.

A minibus picked us up at the hotel for our Mauna Kea adventure. Our driver, Tay, seemed like a hang-loose, California stoner kind of dude. As we gradually headed up the mountain, Tay dropped some Big Island and volcano facts. Mauna Kea last erupted about 4,500 years ago. Instead of being violently explosive, Mauna Kea has oozed smooth, gently flowing lava that makes gradual slopes and spreads far and wide from the volcanic crater. That’s what has created the Big Island and all the other Hawaiian islands, though the Big Island is the only one that still has active volcanoes.

We hopped out at 6500’ to take a few photos, finding the landscape covered with bubbly, crumbled, charcoal-covered lava. Then a stop at the Mauna Kea visitor center at 9200′. We walked around and explored the gift shop, but the stop is really meant to acclimate and prepare our bodies for the ascent to the summit, a height of 13,800′. Altitude sickness sucks, and having had it in Peru many years back, I knew I didn’t want to get it again. Even walking around the visitor center, the thin air made us all huff and puff a bit.

Aside from the winding road, the landscape is barren and rocky. Parts look like the surface of Mars. The road weaves around dozens of cinder cones that once vented steam and lava out of the volcano. As we continued driving up the mountain, Scott’s excitement grew, but Dave started to freak out a bit. The constantly upward incline of the minibus, the panoramic views out the window, and driving through and above the cloud layer made Dave close his eyes and shake his head and tell me that he wanted to punch me in the face. But he hung in there.

Finally, we were at the top, 13,800′ above sea level. We hopped out of the bus and spread out over a clearing of volcanic rocks and chunks of packed, unmelted snow. The altitude made me extremely dizzy, almost to the point of falling over if I walked too fast. Behind us was a handful of observatories, closed to the public and heavily insulated from the cold. In the distance, we could see the island of Maui.

A small crowd from various tour companies joined us to enjoy the sunset. There was the setting sun, slowly sinking into the blanket of clouds below. It was extremely cold and windy, which made it tough to hold my camera, but this was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, so I powered through it.

After the sun set, we headed down the mountain a bit to find a warmer, calmer spot to set up the telescope for our stargazing experience. Unfortunately, the first quarter moon illuminated in the sky, and cars with bright headlights passed every few minutes, both less than ideal for dark sky stargazing. But we did the best we could. We saw the ISS float across the sky, and through the telescope, Tay showed us the Lagoon Nebula in Sagittarius, the Moon, and the Andromeda galaxy. Tay is indeed an astronomy nerd. Then he and another guide present talked at length about constellations. Tay’s science knowledge belies his accent.

But as a space nerd and photographer, I had a lot of criticisms. What bothered me most was the limited use of what seemed to be a pretty powerful telescope. Why not point it at Venus, Jupiter, or Saturn, all of which Tay had mentioned and pointed to with his green laser? Instead, both guides went on and on about constellations, which I doubt anyone really cared about. When the other guide started taking photos of everyone with the stars behind them, I was curious about his set-up and started asking questions. He got weird and defensive with me, assuring me that “I know what I’m doing” and “this is what works for me” and “I’m the one you want doing this”. Why do photographers always have to get all weird and defensive when you try to talk shop with them? The tour description also said to expect 7-8 hours for the excursion, but we were done in 6 hours.

Back at the hotel, we sat on the patio and ate our stale and questionable Subway sandwiches. After a drink, we called it a night.

This morning, we took a quick stroll around nearby Liliuokalani Gardens. ChatGPT helped me identify some of the flora and fauna, including the nene, Hawaii’s state bird and an endangered species. Scott had questions about the origins of the nene, so I used ChatGPT to give us a full evolutionary history of the bird.

Then back in the car for a drive along the Big Island’s south coast to Volcanoes National Park. Admission was free for Veterans’ Day! We drove along the crater rim of the Kilauea volcano and pulled off several times to panoramic viewpoints.

Our last stop on the Big Island was Punalu’u Beach, a beautiful expanse of black sand and crashing waves. Unfortunately, it was around this time that I started to feel a little under the weather. Maybe it was the altitude, maybe it was exhaustion, maybe it was the music Scott was playing in the car, who knows. But Dave and Scott were champs, looking after me like good friends do.

Then back to the airport for the flight back to Oahu. I set the over/under for airtime at 37:00. Scott took the under and lost. My record in games against Scott is now 4-2.

Back in Honolulu, we picked up another rental SUV and hit the road. There was very little traffic, likely due to Veterans’ Day. We stopped back in Waikiki for some supplies and a quick look at the Duke Paoa Kahanamoku Statue, made to commemorate the father of modern surfing. I had taken a photo of the statue 24 years ago at sunset, and I tried to recreate the photo, and wouldn’t you know it, the sun was setting when I arrived. Serendipitous and cosmic.

Then back into the car for the ride up the middle of Oahu to the North Shore. We found our home for the next six days, Turtle Bay Resort (now The Ritz-Carlton O’ahu, Turtle Bay), in the dark. We enjoyed an incredible late-night dinner at Alaia, one of the resort’s restaurants and then walked around the property. Even in the dark, we could see movement and hear the waves crashing. Dave stared into the blackness in awe, thrilled to be here, his dream of getting to the North Shore finally realized. The resort looks amazing in the dark, can’t wait to explore it more tomorrow.

While the first half of our trip was busy with adventure and activity, now begins the second half, which will be not much more than visiting a few beaches, watching sunsets, sipping some tropical drinks, eating good food, and relaxing.