This morning, we explored the area near our hotel, beginning with the King’s Trail (part of the Ala Kahakai National Historic Trail), which led us to the southern part of the Puakō Petroglyph area (the area extends north for a mile or so beyond what we explored). There are ancient (pre-European contact) petroglyphs, some from the 19th Century (with Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic lettering, reflecting the changes in culture), and even a few modern smiley faces (sigh).

The part of the trail we visited adjoins a golf course, and nēnē have set up shop there.

After the trail, we had lunch at Kona Brewing Company; the beers they serve there are all locally-brewed, unlike the ones you can buy on the mainland (brewed by Anheiser-Busch breweries on the mainland). Then we continued south so I could taste and buy Kona coffee (and chocolate-covered macadamia nuts) at Greenwell Farms. We could have taken a tour, but we’d done that last year – and we wanted to have more time to see one of the botanical gardens in the Captain Cook area before going back to the resort.

We chose Paleaku Gardens Peace Sanctuary; it was not your standard botanical garden, though it did have many wonderful flowers and plants to enjoy, along with a view of the Pacific. They also have a variety of shrines devoted to many world religions, a Galaxy Garden (it was too big to take a photo of the whole thing), and they even sell Kona coffee from their neighbor a few hundred yards up the road, Kona Lisa Coffee. We spent nearly two hours there and could have stayed longer if they’d let us…recommended!

I’d originally planned to leave the garden by 3:30 so we could stop at the Donkey Balls Store before they closed for the day, but the garden was much too nice to leave before it closed, so I’d resigned myself to missing out – but when we drove past the store, the door was still open and there was even a parking spot available in front. We now have two bags of Donkey Balls to sustain us until our next trip to Hawaii.

Tonight’s foofy drinks were part of our complete dinner at Roy’s Waikoloa; we got there in time for the Sunset Prix Fixe special (only $58/person for a three-course meal). Everything was good, but the Chocolate Decadence was the star!

We returned to the Hilo side of the island again today to visit Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. Unlike our trip last year, Kilauea hadn’t erupted in a few months, and the weather was perfect (we’d brought ponchos in case it was raining and fleece jackets in case it was cool – all of which stayed in the car).

We started with a quick stop at the Visitor Center to get ideas for the afternoon, and a longer stop at Volcano House to have a snack and admire the view of the Kilauea Caldera from their back porch.

While Kilauea hadn’t erupted since September, it’s still active, and the USGS is keeping a close eye on its condition; there have been more small earthquakes than usual in the last couple of weeks, but they don’t think anything is imminent.

We wanted to hike over to the Kilauea Iki Overlook, but we took a wrong turn as we left Volcano House and found ourselves on the Halema’uma’ui Trail, going down to the 1974 lava flow at the edge of the caldera. The trail guide would have been useful, but I didn’t discover it until I started writing this blog entry!

When we reached the lava flow, I looked closely at the map and decided we’d walk the Byron Ridge Trail along the lava field which would eventually take us to the Kilauea Iki Trail and the Kilauea Iki Overlook. We crossed the lava field easily (thanks to the ahu (stacked rocks) that NPS uses to mark the trail).

What I hadn’t realized was that we had to climb up a few hundred feet to get to the intersection of the Byron Ridge and the Kilauea Iki Trails. It was an easy climb, but we were low on water by the time we got to the top, so we changed plans and went back to Volcano Lodge on the Crater Rim Trail.

Next time we come to the Big Island, we’ll plan to spend a couple of nights on the Hilo side (perhaps at Volcano Lodge) instead of commuting from the Kona side – that would give us four hours a day more to do things instead of driving! I’ll also research the trails much more carefully (or, at the very least, ask the ranger to mark our map!) and bring more water.

We got back to Volcano Lodge at 3pm, just as the kitchen was closing, so we couldn’t have lunch there. I checked Yelp and found a promising new restaurant, Wyatt’s Place about half an hour away. When we got there, it was strangely familiar; – we’d eaten there last year when it was called the Dimple Cheek Cafe. The new owners are in the process of remodeling the place; they have a limited menu, limited seating, but they make a very good french dip sandwich (they recommended we split one, and it was plenty) and I hope they succeed.

We took Hawaii Route 200 (Saddle Road) back to the Marriott.

There wasn’t much traffic in our direction, but I did have to brake for a wild goat crossing the highway!

We plan on staying on this side of the island tomorrow. :-)