Hawaii 2013 - Day 3: Hilo Farmers' Market, Rainbow Falls, Kaleo's Bar & Grill

We had a lazy day in Hilo the next day. The showers overnight made it a little cooler that evening. We decided to take a rainy walk down to see the ocean about half a mile from the house we had rented. It wasn't the most comfortable walk, and the views were beautiful, but the pictures didn't turn out so great from the rain and mugginess. Cashel enjoyed it immensely, though!

On our walk back, we happened across a cute little snail - the first I've ever seen!

After a while, the rain let up, and Mark and I enjoyed a little down time on the porch while Cashel napped. I enjoyed my first cup of 100% Kona coffee and a roll as well :)

Hilo Farmers' Market

When Cashel finally woke up from his nap, we headed back into Hilo to the Farmers' Market and to find some lunch.

One of the vendors highly recommended Thai Smile, you know, "That place down there in the big white van thing". We were glad for the recommendation, and the Pad Thai with chicken was delicious - even Cashel was scarfing it down! I had an Iced Thai Tea with Lime and Mark needed his caffeine fix with a coke :) The tea was delicious (Cashel enjoyed it as well). One serving was just plenty for the 3 of us. I can't imagine having tried to attack this bad boy all by myself!

After lunch, we wandered through the vendor booths a bit, found some cute Hawaiian jewelry and an adorable dress (just in case this baby happens to be a girl - I have no idea), attempted to find some passion fruit (which is apparently out of season now - so bummed!), picked up a couple local delicacies (mac nuts and taro chips) and headed back for the car. All in all we had a great time

Rainbow Falls

The next treat of our day was to experience Rainbow Falls. It was nice to finally have a part of Hawaiian nature that we didn't have to hike and get sweaty in order to see! You could drive right up, walk up a few stairs, and bam!

Cashel was thrilled to watch birdies on the porch with us as well. I'm pretty sure he really enjoyed his stay here, even if it was muggy and rainy a lot.

One of our regrets from our first trip to The Big Island was not making it down to see the lava flow, so we had every intention of hitting the observatory area this time around. We made reservations at Kaleo's Bar & Grill (which was also very impressive considering its outward appearance and location in a small town) for 6pm and planned to head out to see the lava flow close by afterwards.

Kaleo's was highly recommended by the owner of the home we were renting, and boy was he ever right! The place had a wonderfully charming ambiance, some of the best food from our entire trip, and a very nice waitstaff, not to mention the very talented vocalist there that evening.

I just couldn't pass up the coconut shrimp (I hadn't had any yet on vacation and was beginning to have withdrawals), while Mark decided on the prime rib, and if the shrimp weren't so delicious, I would have been jealous. One bite of his was enough to send me over the edge. Yes, it was THAT good.

Cashel enjoyed the place a little bit, but had more fun trying to eat the crayons and throw his food on the floor lol

With very full tummies and a restless toddler on our hands, we made the short trek to attempt to see lava. Unfortunately, when we arrived at the observation road (we had an extra 10 minute hike on our hands ahead), the kind parking lady informed us that it was just simply too rainy to actually see anything that evening, as the lava flow was about 3 1/2 miles from the observation area. We asked a million questions (it seemed), and basically decided it wasn't worth the hassle to try to hike out there. We were bummed, but thought we might try again tomorrow.

So, we headed back and got ourselves in bed a little early.

Hawaii 2013 - Day 2: Akaka Falls, Hilo, Hilo Bay Cafe, Kaleo's

We couldn't believe how quickly our time in Waimea came to an end, but it wasn't long before we found ourselves packed up and on our way to Kamea'a via Akaka Falls and Hilo.

We picked up a few snacks at a farmers' market along the road to Akaka Falls that we hadn't tried before (Taro Chips, Fried Plantain, Rambutan) as well as our standby, apple bananas.

Akaka Falls

It was a sticky hot hike through the viewing area to Akaka Falls (hotter and stickier than I remembered from 3 years ago), but we thoroughly enjoyed the beautiful rainforest views, and the waterfall was beautiful!

Afterwards, while we initially were planning to also take in the World Botanical Gardens, Cashel was getting a little antsy (and a little hungry), so we stopped at a little smoothie place (with very expensive smoothies) and let the kiddo run around a bit.

We thought again about possibly stopping at the Botanical Gardens, but decided it probably wouldn't be the best idea to bring a toddler with grabby hands in a place where they say "do not touch the plants" and headed on to Hilo.

We were planning to have lunch at Hilo Bay Cafe at the recommendation of the owner of the home we were renting, but upon arriving in town, found there to be a 45 minute wait (at 1:30pm, no less - the place was really good!), so we made our way to Walmart across the parking lot and stocked up on a few necessities while we waited. Cashel had fun trying on some hats :)

The wait wasn't too long though, which was good, because we were famished. The food was excellent, and the atmosphere nice. It was a little more upscale than it appeared to be on the outside (i.e. strip mall restaurant with a 3-to-4-star dining experience)

It seemed like a really long drive to get to our next accommodations, but it was an overcast, rainy day, and Cashel was a little fussy as he was past nap time and not really too fond of sleeping in his carseat for this leg of the trip. Once we arrived, though, we were pleasantly surprised. Granted, we were now in the rainforest, so we weren't prepared for how muggy it would be.

We spent a good amount of time out here on the beautiful front porch, and spent much of the rest of the afternoon just resting and trying to not sweat until it started to cool off with an afternoon rain shower.

The rest of the house was nice as well, although muggy, like I said before. None of the places we stayed in Hawaii had air conditioning, but in the evenings, it really cooled off nicely.

Yes, that is the NCAA tournament on the TV. We did have some downtime with a napping toddler while on vacation lol Plus, I think Mark's idea of a vacation sometimes would just be uninterrupted sports-watching :)

We had such a late lunch that we were able to get by on just a granola bar and some fruit for supper that night, and we all called it quits early. Granted, it was difficult to sleep much because the rainforest sounds were SO LOUD! I kid you not that this is an entirely accurate depiction of just exactly how loud they were (if not actually LOUDER and MORE intense). It took a little bit longer to finally settle down, but we still woke up feeling fairly rested.

This ended our second full day in Hawaii!