Hilo, Hawaii

This was our first island. We were taking a tour called "A Gourmet Volcano Adventure" and it was an all day trip. A young lady picked us up when we got off the ship and there were 12 of us together for the day in a van. Riding was okay, but getting in and out of that thing was a pain that got worse over the course of the day.

The young lady was a native of the island and a very good guide. She gave us a lot of good information as we drove around on our tour. Our first stop was a coffee plantation where we learned about the process of making coffee, but Marcia found a friendly cat first and got her kitty fix after 10 days away from her babies.

After some sampling and a quick shopping tour through the gift shop (where the guide also picked up our lunch) we headed to the Volcanoes National Park. Big crater with lots of steam would be the best description, no lava. Nice view though.

We drove around to a different area to get another view of it:

Then we drove to a lava tube that was made a long time ago. You have to walk down through the rain forest to get to it and our guide explained the different levels of the rain forest. Looked a lot like "Jurassic Park" to me. Kind of kept expecting a dinosaur to pop out. Marcia kept hearing birds but because of the foliage couldn't see them. The lava tube was .2 miles long and really interesting to walk through. Unfortunately it was hard to take pics of it because it was dark inside.

Then it was time for our picnic lunch---diffent kinds of wraps, potato salad, fresh pineapple and papaya, chips and juice drinks. Found my favorite drink there, a pinapple orange juice drink that I would try to find on other occasions on land. Here is our picnic location, a very nice setting:

Then it was on to a winery. According to Marcia, Hawaiian wines still have a way to go:

Then to the chocolate factory. Imagine: macadamia shortbread cookies, half dipped in caramel, then that same half dipped in chocolate. Now imagine why none of the ones we bought made it home :)

By then we were getting tired and it was about time to head back to the ship. We had been around a good bit of the area just to get to these various places and had learned a lot about the island and the people. We really enjoyed this trip and our guide and had a wonderful day.