Blake and Marla go to Hilo, Hawaii 2012 Day 5

Trip Report – Hilo and the Big Island

February 21 2012

I was up doing my exercises when I noticed Kevin Hughes was just a few machines away from me. It is good to see that he practices what he preaches. So I was inspired to work just a little bit harder. On my way back to have breakfast I could see the mountains of the Big Island coming into view. It is still like coming home. So I fought off the urge to stay in the gym and exercise some more. So I went outside and leaned on the rail for a while to watch the land come into view. Some folks said they were hoping to see whales but I kind of thought, in my own smart-ass way, that the whales usually hung out near Kona and between Maui and the Big Island. Wrong. Soon there were pods of whales up and about. Nothing big and fancy but they don't have to be. They are just beautiful critters swimming about.

I rushed down to our room and got Marla up to look at the whales, they were all on our side of the ship. This is the time when it is really, really nice to have a balcony. We had breakfast out there on the balcony and watched as the ship moved towards the island. Soon we were entering Hilo Harbor. No big plans today except that I do need to pick up some vitamins and little stuff. So we decided to catch the shuttle up to Hilo Hatties and then go over to Wal-Mart. So we waited until about 10am thinking most of the people would be gone. Wrong. Long ugly line ups of people waiting to go shopping. We saw that the Wal-Mart line was the shortest so we jumped into it. Then the Hilo Hattie line started to move and we didn't. So we hopped over to the Hilo Hattie line from the Wal-Mart line. Finally we got onto the shuttle and made the 10 minute ride up the hill to Hilo Hattie.

I love the orange-pineapple juice at Hilo Hatties. Okay so it tastes a little like hummingbird food it is still very good and refreshing. We looked at the clothes and checked out some souvenirs. Nice stuff. Marla saw a really nice shawl, scarf, wrap thing. It was about $50 but I thought it was very pretty. She didn't want to indulge herself. So we took off for Wal-Mart. It is just a short block away so it wasn't too big of a deal. It was really busy but we shopped a bit and found what we needed: mostly some vitamins for me and magnesium for Marla. Also we picked up a couple of cokes for Marla and a cup for transporting coffee. I should have brought a travel mug from home because we already have a bunch of them - memo to me.

After walking back to Hilo Hatties we stepped right onto the bus back to the ship. Much better than waiting. The bus driver was very interesting talking story about life on the island. Marla forgot her driver's license so I vouched for her and they let us onto the boat without too much trouble. It was a good thing because she was very worried about it. Then we couldn't find her license and we figured she must have left it in the room. But that was okay because she really wasn't driving anywhere and had her passport for ID.

We got back on board in time for something to eat. There is always time to eat something on the ship. This time we had some ice cream as an appetizer before lunch. Because we were having hamburger and hot dogs I bought Marla a chocolate shake. I can't eat much ice cream but I had a taste and it was nice. Then Marla had a hamburger and I had about ¾ of a hot dog without the bun. I am trying very hard to stay away from carbs. It is nearly impossible but they are not always so appealing to me.

So we took off to the gym and did a little workout. I like that we are exercising more. Then back to the room. But before we left the gym I stopped to weigh myself. You cannot weigh yourself when you are at sea. The motion of the ocean causes the scale to go everywhere. But now we were stopped and I clocked in at 251.4 pounds. That is down 48 pounds since my surgery and just after eating too. So I was a happy camper.

We had supper again as usual at 8pm. For once I actually thought I would like to see one of the production shows but we screwed up the timing and the show was essentially sold out, so instead we went to the piano bar and had a drink. That was rather nice. Supper was okay but not great. What was great was the conversation we had.

To view pictures of our day in Hilo Hawaii go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/56705607@N00/sets/72157629185044432/