Tender Life: Hilo Town

We're back! A few weeks ago we went to Hilo, Hawaii to spend some time with my parents. It was a whirlwind vacation, mostly because it took awhile to recover from the 16 hour travel day in which we got to take rides in 4 different jet plane all in one day. That paired with Porter's new walking skills made for an interesting trip.

Hilo town is on the wet side of the Big Island of Hawaii. It's jungle and farms and not nearly as touristy as the dry side of any of the islands. It was a refreshing new way to see Hawaii. We did and saw so many places, and these pictures are but a fraction of the digital memories that we made, but they give a good idea of the trip.

Watching a movie over the Pacific.

Porter started walking 2 days before our trip. I though he would want to run immediately, but he proved that we are indeed related to monkeys, because all he wanted to do was climb.

Luckily there were many seats, in many airports, for him to hone is new climbing skills.

We could have done a Dr. Seuss book about all the different chairs to climb.

He got his own seat on the first leg of the trip. It was nice.

You can tell this is the beginning of the day.

Watching all the "voom vooms" prepare our plane in San Jose.

Same movie, different time.

Ah, we arrived. This is the view of sunrise from the porch of the cabin.

We stayed on a ranch with sweeping views of the ocean about 7 miles outside of Hilo.

There were goats and sheep.

The long driveway. We stayed in the cabin with a green roof on the left.

Porter made the long walk to the top of the driveway. There were dogs, many dogs.

And horses. Or "neigh" as Porter calls them. These sweet horses were in the parade we went to.

Instilling the love of driving in my child. Shoot.

According to Luke, Porter is channeling his great grandpa Alton in this picture.

Have an egg salad sandwich on the road.

Luke and I got away for the day before we left for home.
This will be happening at the beginning of our next vacation.

Waipio Valley

Hot spring pool tempered by cool ocean water, believe it!

Porter got to see his first parade. It was in celebration of the Merrie Monarch.

The king and queen.

Miss. Hula Hawaii. We watched her dance, she really was the best.

"Neighs!"

Pooper scoopers disguised as a Maui Onion.

It's not a parade without a mini Miss. Hawaii.

Lava Tube!

It was wet and soggy inside the Lava Tube.

This is for my brother. Yes, we went to Ken's House of Pancakes, open 24 Hours.

Every time someone ordere the breakfast with 6 scoops of white rice the waitress rang a gong and everyone shouted "SUMO!". There was more gong then you would have thought.