Thursday: Day 2

Last night we fell asleep to a thunder and lightening storm (very unusual for this dry side of the island). Since we woke up to rain, we decided to head over to the other side of the island which is always wet anyways! We stopped by Waipi'o Valley and took some pictures. It was my first look (but not my last) at a black sand beach. It was beautiful, but since we weren't taking 4WD down to the bottom of the valley, we continued on our way to Hilo.

I told Noall that all I wanted to do in Hawaii was see lots and lots of GREEN and get away from crowds. The drive to Hilo met both of those requirements! Green, green, everywhere! We stopped by a few different waterfalls - we hiked down to Akaka Falls, and then stopped by Rainbow Falls and Pe'e Pe'e Falls. We followed some scenic drives, got a yummy smoothie (chocolate, bananas, macadamia nuts...) at a small local farm, and then headed back to the hotel.