After a short wait, we boarded our flight and were soon in the air; the darkness gave way to the pre-dawn gray with an ever-brightening sunrise in the east. Snow was visible on the summits of Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa.  Hualalai was nicely silhouetted against some low clouds as we descended into Hilo. Our bags came out quickly.  Beth, Heath, and I went to pick up the vehicles.  Heath insisted on paying to upgrade from a sedan to a black Lincoln.

We drove past Ken’s Pancake House once and into Hilo.  On the way back we found it and had a great breakfast.  From there we drove over to Uncle Billy’s Hilo Bay hotel on Banyan Drive.  We arrived there about 9:00 so the rooms weren’t ready for us.  They gave us a room to store our gear.  The students got their bathing suits on and went down to the pool by the bay.  Beth, Lindsey and I went out for supplies.  We got some nature books, and topographic maps.  We also got some papayas at the Farmer’s Market and then went to Safeway for food.  Upon our return, we found most people in a very relaxed mode around the pool.  Some had explored the shoreline and found some nice pahoehoe.  I sent a card to Deb Hall that showed a car inundated by lava.

At about 3:30, we piled the vehicles and drove up the slope of Mauna Kea to Akaka Falls State Park.  We took the shot loop trail past Akaka (450’) and Kahuna Falls.  The trail passed through lush jungle vegetation.  Everyone was quite awed by the flora and the falls.  We saw several mongooses as we returned to the hotel.
 
 

A short trail at Akaka Falls State Park leads to two spectacular waterfalls on the northern flank of Mauna Kea. Akaka Falls, above, plunges 450 feet into a deep plinge pool.	As the waterfalls cut back into the volcano, they  begin the destruction of the island. The falls tend  to get higher and higher as they recede into the mountain. Kahuna Falls, shown here, drops more  than 100 meters.

Todd and Jana examine some of the lush vegetation found along the trail in Akaka Falls State Park.

After a shower and a snack of octopus (tako), sashimi, and herring, we went to the hotel restaurant and had an excellent meal.  I had the Mahimahi with macadamia nut sauce.  There was live Hawaiian entertainment.  It included a hula lesson so about half of the students went on stage and danced. It was fun to watch. They were having a blast.

We crashed at about 10:00.  Everyone was pretty beat. I stayed up for a little while before going to bed but sleep rapidly overcame me.