Hawaii Vacation-Sept 16-More Sightseeing Around Hilo

On Wednesday, Sept. 16, we stayed close around Hilo, took in a few sights, enjoyed the beach a little, and got ready to leave for Kona the next morning. We went to a local coffee mill, Hilo Coffee Mill, that morning, and got to see where they roast the coffee beans, tried different coffee samples, and shopped a little in the gift shop. This is where I discovered my favorite coffee ever, which I am still getting to enjoy. It's chocolate macadamia nut flavored coffee, and it is so good! So, if you'd like to try some authentic and very tasty Hawaiian coffee, you can buy it through their website online. Like a lot of places around there, they also had a nice little garden area out in front, with a few chickens roaming around, too. Lane and I have decided that even the people who do nothing to keep up their yards have spectacular yards because even the weeds are amazingly beautiful.

It smelled so good in here.

A banana tree

After lunch, Lane took the kids and I back to the beach park in Hilo that he and the kids had gone to on Saturday. It was so much fun, and we played there for a couple of hours.

Another Guava Nectar picture

Later that afternoon, while Sydni was napping, Billie, Tyler and I went to see Umauma Falls and the World Botanical Gardens. This place is privately owned, so I had to pay, but it was totally worth it. Everywhere you look, there is something beautiful to see. We saw the falls, then walked through a rainforest area, then walked through the botanical garden area. There was a lot to see, but I could tell that they are working to expand it even more. As you can expect, I took literally hundreds of pictures, and tried my best to narrow my selections down to only my favorites. So, beware, this is a very, very long post, with loads of pictures of flowers and plants.

You can see the rain over the ocean in the distance.

The state flower of Hawaii is the hibiscus, and I would give anything to be able to grow one like this here at home. This bush was about 8 feet high and over 10 feet across. Amazing!

These pictures were all taken as we drove down to the rainforest area.

These next pictures are from the rainforest walk.

Before we entered the botanical garden area, I took some time to get to know this nice cat that was sitting in the gift area. It had one blue eye and one green eye. I think that Billie and Tyler were wanting me to hurry and come on and quit playing with the cat!

These last pictures are from the botanical garden area.

I have two of these same shrubs in my backyard, but they are only about a foot tall.

An autograph tree

Another really fun day!