We woke up this morning to big waves and surfers off our balcony. The waves looked awesome.
We had a great breakfast, and left the B&B to go to Rainbow Falls where Erin promptly entered the "Do Not Enter" section to check out the wading pools above the falls. We thought we were sneaky, but it turns out there was an observation deck nearby we didn't see, so we left quickly and went to explore more of Hawaii. We got to check out old lava tubes (Kaumana Caves), Mauna Loa Macadamia nut farm (where we promptly bought some chocalte covered Macadamias), Hilo Rainforest zoo which had tons of birds and other animals, we snorkled in some great Tide Pools (Waiopea), tried to visit Ahalanue Warm Pools which were actually cold and we tried to visit the famous Kaimu black sand beach only to find out it wasn't there anymore. Lava had come and covered the beach and the old beach was actually 20 ft. below us, we learned from a friendly sign. We did get to see black sand, but the rock cliff ocean entrance wasn't what we were hoping for. Finally we ended up at the top of the Volcano where we could at least see the red glow of the lava lake at it's peak. Tonight we staying in another really cool B&B called The Chalet Kilauea Collection.
