hello hilo

after our initial stop for shave ice in kona, we headed across the island to enjoy hilo town for a few days. while there, we checked out richardson beach park, carlsmith beach park, and leleiwi park (which we could walk across the street to from the house we were renting). 

bonus points because we happened to hit hilo during a sunny three day stretch. 

the beaches on this side of the island are for the most part not sandy (richardson beach park does have some black sand). it's just straight up lava rocks and then you hop off into the warm ocean. a pretty cool and unique experience if you ask me, though it did not take the place of a pristine, white sandy beach in the hearts of the children. 

carlsmith beach park and leleiwi park have large lagoons that are shielded from the breaking waves and make for great swimming. richardson beach park is known for its snorkeling, but the kids--not yet known for their snorkeling--preferred carlsmith and leleiwi. below is an assortment of pics from all three locales.

just like we did for shave ice, we tried three different acai bowl places on the big island. two were in hilo (makani's magic pineapple shack and kula shave ice at hilo farmer's market, both pictured below), and one was in kona (basik acai). 

makani's magic pineapple shack was definitely impressive and yummy (just look at that bright, beautiful and incredibly massive eye candy!), but the actual acai from the more modest looking kula shave ice bowl was the absolute best we've ever had. smooth, creamy, dreamy, just tart enough, just sweet enough, perfection. 

there were a handful of waterfalls we wanted to check out while in hilo, but beach time reigned supreme with this crew, so we only ended up making it to rainbow falls. on an overcast afternoon, however, so no rainbow.