Hilo Hawaii

What kind of people board a luxury cruise liner, sail 2,300 miles across the Pacific Ocean while being pampered, who arrive at an island paradise called Hawaii, and then immediately stand in a long line to board a crummy bus to go to Walmart?  THE WALKERS, and an entire ship full of Princess passengers -- that's who!  And why would we do such a thing?

We have been to Hilo several times before and have seen the two sights worth seeing:  The botanical gardens and the volcanoe's lava tubes.  So there was no need to go sightseeing.  No matter how carefully you pack, no matter how thorough your list, there is always something that you need or forgot.  It seems as though the ink cartridges for our printer had dried out and there was no way we would be able to complete the trip with the one spare that we brought.  In addition we needed rubber bands; which, by the way, Walmart happened to be out of!  There were a few other miscellaneous supplies that we needed for the bridge room and I also needed to get a new ice bag so I could ice my knee after walking half a mile just to get to the crummy bus. 

After completing our purchases, we headed back on the crummy bus, back to our serene ship.  The weather was absolutely perfect; bright blue skies and air temperature that was absolutely delightful.  This is the first time we have been to Hilo without it raining and cold.  We had lunch on the pool deck and then it was time to do some serious R&R and put up our feet (and me with an ice pack). Michael took his first dip in the pool and I gave a private iPhone lesson to a friend.  I also spent quite a bit of time on the cell phone calling family as Hawaii is our last US stop, and that means it's our last chance to use our cell phones without incurring international charges.

Now the most interesting part of the day was to come. We decided to go to Friday night services and check out the new rabbi's sermon. His delivery was rather intense, fiery, and quite passionate.  He described Judaism as a code of conduct rather than a belief system. But the best part of Friday night services, as always, is the challah bread!  

We had dinner at the grill on the pool deck and got done early so we had time to kill before all the evening activities started.  So what do we do to kill some time?  We don't. We become party poopers and go to bed.  And it's a good thing we didn't wait up for the party on the deck because it just started raining.  Now our streak is perfect -- every time we've been to Hilo, it rains.