Hilo, Akaka and the Petroglyphs

Hilo, Akaka and Petroglyphs

The rest of our adventures on the Big Island:

(composed on the flight to San Fran – in a word document)

I had read about Hilo and also heard about it from Barb and Edgar, and knew it was a plalce that we wanted to visit. It is a small town about 30 minutes outside of Volcano Village. I had heard about the Farmer’s Market – a must see, according to Tripadvisor. It was open on Saturdays and Wednesdays from “dawn till it’s gone” So, on Saturday morning, we ate our wonderful breakfast at our lodge and headed into Hilo. We found the market and it was quite the experience, as expected.

We made one stop before getting to the market. We decided to stop at Hilo Hattie’s. It looked like one of those beach shops that you would see at the Outer Banks or something. Lots of souvenirs and “junk.” Well, it was that kind of shop, but much nicer than the ones at the beach.

In one corner, there was a very nice jewelry counter with “pick a pearl” settings. I wandered for about 20 minutes and then came back and with Don’s encouragement, decided to pick out my anniversary present. I picked a pearl and then chose a gold pendant setting for it. Very pretty and a nice piece of jewelry that will bring back memories of our 11th wedding anniversary in Hawaii. I love my husand!!

Then on to the Farmer’s Market. One side was mostly food products and flowers – here are some pics:



The guy chopping coconuts was fun to watch, Quite the show.



Across the street were the souvenir items – it reminded me of the Straw Market in Nassau, Bahamas if you’ve ever been there. Lots of local crafts and artisans peddling their wares.

The girls found quite a few treats, as did Don and I. 3 t-shirts for $20 was one of the deals that we took advantage of.

The Filthy Farmgirl people were really neat to talk to. They make their own soap in a town close to Hilo. We bought some for everyone. Lots of fun!!



We had an early lunch snack before leaving, probably the cheapest food on our trip and also…Katie would tell you, the best. BBQ pork or chicken on a stick - $2 a stick – from this nice man cooking out of his little trailor…..when you’re hungry, you really don’t care. It smelled good, so we tried it and it was REALLY good. A nice snack before we headed to the falls.



After the Farmer’s Market, we drove another 20 minutes to Akaka Falls. A beautiful state park with a towering 400 foot waterfall. It rained the whole time we were there, and not just Fairy Rain either!! We got pretty wet, but still enjoyed our time. As I’ve said before, my pics don’t do this justice.



When we finished the hike at Akaka Falls, we headed home with a side stop at What’s
Shakin’ Smoothies. This is a neat little roadside stand off the beaten path on the way back to Hilo. It was recommended as having great smoothies and good food. Yep…they were right.

We headed back to the Volcano Park and explored some more, then back to the lodge to enjoy a nice, quiet afternoon.

Then to our anniversary dinner. I had called ahead to make reservations at a nice restaurant that our lodge recommended.

It was very nice and the food was great. They had our table waiting for us with balloons – due to our celebrating our anniversary.

One of our last stops at the Volcano Park before heading back to the other side of the island was at the petroglyphs. This adventure was about a 1.5 mile hike round trip to an area of hardened, very old lava that had been found to have over 1,000 ancient petroglyphs carved into it from various native hawaiian cultures from history. It was very neat and the girls found it really interesting. Again, it rained for most of this tiny adventure.

Here are some pics of the petroglyphs:

We even found a hidden mickey – actually Katie found it. Hidden Mickey’s are mickey mouse heads that are disguised among other things. It’s a Disney World thing….and we play it at home all the time, sometimes even creating our own Hidden Mickey’s.


It was very neat to spend almost 3 days on the other side of the island. Most people just make a huge day trip and go to the National Park for a few hours and then head back to their resort. 3 hours each way. I am so glad that we decided to stay over there and have more time to leisurely explore.