Hawaii Day 9: Travel to Hilo, Botanical Gardens, Akaka Falls, Tree House

We traveled non-rev on Hawaiian Airlines and woke up at 4:45am to make it to a 7am flight. It was my first time traveling zed, so we weren't 100% sure how it would work. We had to check-in at a gate which was a slow process, but other than that it was easy. We even got 5 seats across together. We were excited to save about $400 getting over to Hilo. Plus, we got to Hilo so early we were able to see sites.

We got our Jeep and then went straight to get pancakes! They had amazing coconut syrup and we were all totally stuffed. We then worked off our pancakes hiking at the Botanical Gardens. It was about a 1.5 mile loop with beautiful plants and flowers and ocean view in the middle of the walk. I loved it.

Then, on to Akaka Falls. It was misty, another nice loop hike and the falls were beautiful. Akaka Falls are 400 ft. tall and even taller than Niagra Falls. Grant was on a hunt for fresh fruit and there were some fruit trees in the parking lot of Akaka Falls. The kids and I laughed like crazy as Grant climbed up on the roof of the jeep and got us fruit! After the second hike, we were hungry again so we ate at Hilo Bay Cafe with a great view over the bay.

We did a brief stop for a Wal-Mart food run and JR also got his hair cut at Supercuts. It was getting shaggy and we decided it didn't make sense to wait until we got back to Dallas. After the errands, we went to the treehouse and it was getting to be dusk.  Kids were so impressed when we drove up to the Treehouse. Skye Peterson was nice and stayed and chatted for a bit. The kids loved it and ran all over before we settled in to watch Peter Pan. The treehouse had a DVD player and a handful of DVDs. We only made it through about 1/2 the movie before we all turned in for the night.

Another full and fun day!