Hilo

     ...Continued from yesterday:
     The following day, Saturday, Tom and I left Hawaii and returned to the mainland.
     But as our flight out of Hilo didn't leave until 9:30 pm we had another day to visit The Big Island.
     Our plan was to spend our last day in Hilo, the main city on the wet, volcano side of the island  known as The Hilo Side,

 ...as opposed to the other dry, sunny, beachy side of the island, known as The Kona Side.  So after we took a last once-around-the Kilauea Military Camp,

...and one last stop at the PX for travel snacks,

...we checked out at the Welcome Center,

...then we headed to Hilo.
      Historic downtown Hilo, built on a beautiful bay, with a lovely view from the highway that runs along the edge of the town,

...is, as we learned, a touristy place,

...crowded, on the Saturday afternoon we were there, with cars,

...people,

​...street artisans,

...souvenir shops, boutiques,

...high-end trinket stores,

...and packed, mostly expensive restaurants.

      The presence of a number of old-fashioned wooden buildings give parts of  downtown Hilo the look of the 19th century sugar plantation town it once was.

       We did a once-around-the town,

...and discovered some historic buildings, including the Federal Building.

   And, this being Merrie Monarch Festival week, we saw a couple of street parades,

...and some folks dressed in colorful traditional costumes.

     We strolled around the Hilo Farmers' Market,

...and we found a cute little hole-in-the-wall not-crowded place on Haili Street called The Surf Break Cafe,

..were one places one's order at the counter,

...then one is given a colored stone to place on one's table which identifies one's order.

               Our table,

...where I enjoyed my oh-so-yummy caesar wrap,

...​   and Tom his turkey and cranberry wrap.

     After lunch I popped into the Salvation Army store, curiously located amidst all the pricey tourist shops.

​   There was all kinds of Hawaiian stuff for cheap.  Alas, our suitcases were already full enough.

     Then we visited the very interesting Pacific Tsunami Museum,

......where we learned that Hilo is precariously situated in a tsunami zone and the waterfront area has been wiped out several times over the years by monster tsunamis.

     After our tour of the tsunami museum we walked around town a bit more and came across a doughnut shop called Holy Donuts,

...where the doughnuts looked too yummy to resist,

...and yummy they were,

...though when we got the bill for $9.50 for our two donuts we mused that we'd have been just as happy with  a less holy McDonald's one-dollar Haupia Pie.
     In fact, we'd passed a McDonald's along the way, with a facade resembling  the town's other 19th Century  wooden structures,

....and so just for the heck of it we decided to stop in to see if this McDonald's sold Haupia Pies.

        Turned out they did.  So of course we were not  throwing  away our shot at one last delicious   Haupia Pie.
​         After we'd savored every last crumb of our Haupia Pies we sat back and realized that, even though it was only 4:00 and we had at least another two-and-a-half hours to kill before we needed to think about heading back to the airport,  we were kind of tired.
     So we left Hilo and headed out to the airport anyway.

     The Hilo Airport is a pretty place that opens to outdoor courtyards.

     The ticket counters were all decked out with flowers, perhaps as an "Aloha" to all the visitors who'd come to the island for the Merrie Monarch Festival.

     But it's also a very small airport.  Smaller than we'd realized upon our arrival.
     We were four-and-a-half hours early for our flight and, as we were flying United and that ticket counter didn't open for another hour-and-a-half, we were a little at loose ends as to what to do with ourselves.
     There was only one cafeteria-style restaurant in the airport,

...and though we weren't yet hungry,  we went in and sat down anyway.

     But the lady running the place was friendly and chatty, which gave the place, though it was empty except for us, a kind of  welcoming, homey  feel.

     And, to our delight, the Merrie Monarch hula competitions were on the TV,

...so we were good.
​     After a while we decided to get some dinner.
    I asked the friendly lady in charge what was good on the menu board and she gave me a couple of suggestions, including the chicken over rice, which Tom and I both opted for.  It was amazingly delicious, doubly amazing that such good food  was being served up in a lonely cafeteria in a tiny airport.

    When I returned to the lady at the counter to offer my compliments to whoever made that chicken, the lady called back to the kitchen for the cook to come out.  The cook was an elderly Hawaiian lady who told me that this was Singapore-style chicken that she'd learned to make when she worked in that country as a cook for ten years.  It really was the best chicken.
​         Then we checked in and discovered that Hilo, along with having the best airport food, has also got the coolest gate waiting area,

​...with comfiest chairs.

       Then we were flying back across the Pacific Ocean to Los Angeles where, happily, we had a few days  of vacation left to spend before  heading home.
     To be continued...