An Easy Day

Left on our list of interesting things to do in Hilo were the Tsunami Museum, and the Imiloa Astronomy Museum on the University of Hawaii campus.  The Tsunami Museum had a video about the 1946 tsunami that devastated Hilo, featuring survivor's memories of the event.  The museum had displays covering other more recent tsunamis as well.  It's run by volunteers and is dedicated to tsunami awareness to help avoid loss of life in the future.  Note - the museum and downtown are within the tsunami flood zone as depicted  in the front of the phone book - our house, on 'high ground', wasn't.

The Imiloa Museum, housed in an architecturally unique building on the University of Hawaii campus, offered an array of exhibits covering astronomy and ancient native navigation, including 4 different films in the planetarium.  Being spring break week, we were surprised to find the place packed with kids doing a variety of activities and having a good time.  They must have attended one of the earlier films, and when we came out, they were departing, leaving the museum for a handful of adults to enjoy.  The exhibit that fascinated both of us was a large floating globe that appeared unsupported as it rotated and turned by a touch screen.  It featured a series of different global wide programs, cloud cover, ocean currents, tsunami wave projection, a night scene depicting lights visible from space, and a version of both Mars and the sun including active sun spots.  After we finished playing with it, someone else found another program with google map type photos and a story line.  Fascinating!

Imiloa Museum and gardens at the Univ. of Hawaii

A 10 ft glob suspended in air with computer controlled images projected thereon

Since we were out with the car, we stopped at the nearby big KTA Supermarket which rivaled any big city high end market on the mainland for variety and quality.  We didn't need much since we didn't have a way to keep food cold as we changed locations Thursday.  I did a some price checking and was surprised to find prices comparable to home - both sale and regular prices.  Not sure we'll find anything quite so posh across the way (Hilo is the largest town on the island), but we have been checking on line to see what might be available and found several reasonable markets and farm stands, none within walking distance from our next place.

We have been surprised by the beautiful weather we've had since arriving last week.  We expected rain at least part of most days.  Perhaps our purchase of plastic ponchos did the old umbrella trick - we've had brief showers at night a few times, but the days have been sunny and pleasant thanks to the trade winds.  One local I talked to mentioned the winter had been gray and wet with everyone more than ready for the arrival of spring.  We're hoping the weather holds for the rest of our visit.  So much for lazing away and doing nothing - we've had some long busy days - not that we're complaining!