Hilo, HI
August 2007

Under Cover Of Darkness

Hosted by Tony

Next: Never Too Late For Literacy

Woohoo! RG has arrived on the island of Hawaii.

Under the cover of darkness, his private jet flew in over the rainforest canopy during the wee hours of Thursday morning. He landed at an undisclosed private airstrip in Hilo, Hawaii.

There was quite a bit of secrecy surrounding the whole arrival since there are a few organizations that may want to liberate him for their own private extremist causes. We have no opinion on such matters and call all gnomes friend.

It was starting to get light out and, since we were in Hilo already, we decided to show RG one of the more beautiful places, Rainbow Falls State Park. It's also the easiest waterfall to access on the island of Hawaii.

This from the Hawaii State Gov website: "The 80-foot Rainbow Falls is renowned for the rainbow formed from its mist many mornings; legends say that the cave beneath the waterfall was the home of Hina, mother of the demigod Maui."

It hasn't been raining alot lately so the falls aren't displaying the true power and awe they can inspire.

It sure wasn't long before the RG was noticed. We talked with Jim about our travels & RG's visit for a few minutes. When his family appeared ole' RG assumed his trademark pose with hands in pocket for a quick photo.

We found out that they are visiting the island from Texas. RG told them he is in Texas quite a bit himself. They both agreed that it can be quite a long drive to get from one end to the other.

We figured out real fast that RG isn't the shy type. These nice folks were having a picnic so we joined them for a few minutes.

Of course RG wanted a picture taken with and they agreed. I'm sure they gave us their names but we didn't write it down. We did get an email so that should be resolved quick.

Rainbow Falls is pretty amazing but we had to show him our favorite place above the falls.

At the top of the steps you can overlook the falls from above, sort of, and observe rather stupid people that climb down and stand on the edge of the falls for a picture. They know who they are.

Anyway, continuing past the overlook are huge banyan trees creating an amazing shady canopy. It is truly a place any gnome would consider taking up permanent residence. There could of course be some there now that didn't show themselves.

Thursday isn't an ideal day to go to the Hilo Farmer's Market so we just made a quick appearance and showed RG the wonderful abundance of fruit available on the island. We love apple bananas and so did he.

Tiki Jr. ate a dozen or so as we walked around. A vendor let us sample some of the wonderful papayas below.

We were all starting to feel a bit tired from all the excitement. Since we have a few weeks to show him around we headed back to the rainforest for the night.

We had just stepped out of the market when we heard someone say, "Oh, the gnomes have arrived." Tony had posted a notice on a local forum of the impending visit.

David and John have just opened their own real estate agency, Aloha Coast Realty, in Downtown Hilo just steps from the market.

After we had chatted for a while, RG did a little networking and showed him the Travelocity website and explained that you indeed need not roam alone.

(Photos: Tony V./ Dialogue: Tony V.)

Thanks Jim & Family! Hope you enjoyed your visit to Hawaii.

David you tripped me out when you said the gnomes have arrived as I was standing out on the sidewalk! Thanks for participating.