We Arrived!!!

We are Here!!

We arrived in Hilo around seven, we were up at six and we went for breakfast and saw the sun rise. It was pink and colorful. Humpbacked whales came out to greet us.

 We had breakfast with an interesting couple. He is or was a professor at Penn State and he is from India. Her name was Carolyn and she was a red head. They were fascination breakfast companions with lots of stories.

We hurried back to our rooms and picked up our back packs and headed for the Princess Theatre. That is where we were to meet out tour. There were literally hundreds of us there. But it went smoothly and we were on the last bus. That meant it was not full, which was a plus.

Our first stop was the nut factory, interesting but not exciting. Next we went to the Volcanoes National Park. It was fantastic. While there I realized that I no longer have my National Parks Passport. It was stolen when the truck was broken into. It had many many stamps, including ones from Alaska. Dam Thieves!!! I purchased a new book and got the first stamp for it.

We went to visit the Kilauea Caldera and the Jaggar Museum. While we were at the Caldera it actually blew off steam twice. Truly amazing. Apparently it is something that seldom happens and our guide said that only 2% of the visitors to the park ever see it blow and we saw it twice!! I have some amazing photos and if and when I can get this netbook to download them I will send you some.

We walked through a lava tube, definitely a new experience.

All in all we had a wonderful tour, our guide was great and the weather co-operated and it was so very interesting.

When we got back to the dock we roamed through the booth of crafts by the locals. I bought an artificial Lei and matching hair clip, ken got a new cap and last but not least I bought a cabin flower arrangement. It is made with ginger blossoms and anthodium. It is mainly red and purple. I just love it. I have a picture of it as well.

We came on board and got a bit of rest. I tried without success to get pictures downloaded. Then we dressed for dinner and went topside to see the sail away. Again the humpbacked whales were there to say good bye.

We went down to dinner and after dinner we went to the evening show. It starred a ventriloquist named Joel Leder. He was good and we had a few laughs.

We came back to our cabin and Ken called Joan to tell her we will call when we get back to the ship tomorrow evening. Our tour starts at 8:30 and it goes until 5:30, so it will be a long day. Early to bed tonight.