Hilo, HI
August 2007

Basically Hilo

Hosted by Tony

Next: Su Really Missed Us

The farmer's market is just one of the many things you can do in Downtown Hilo on a Saturday morning.

The Hilo bayfront area offers a variety of gift shops, art galleries and everything in-between.

Our first stop was Basically Books. The painting of the hula dancer was done by Harinani Orme who is both an artist and an author.

They sell books basically but they have lots & lots & lots of cool stuff. Mostly Hawaii products.

RG & I spent several minutes looking for a book for Tony's 2 year old son. We decided he would like Crabby Crab, shown in the photo.

We were soon greeted by the owner of Basically Books, Christine Reed, a fan and friend to the gnomes as well. She offered us the secret hand gesture and gave RG a kiss on the nose.

Debbie, shown on the right, is also a gnome fan. She was unfamiliar with the secret sign so we initiated her at this time.

After saying our farewells to the nice gals above we sauntered down to Sugar Coast Candy. We felt like kids...in a candy store.

Tons & tons of salt water taffy in every flavor we wanted. We kept a close eye on Tiki Jr. after we noticed him peeking over one of the taffy barrels.

We met a nice family from Durango, Colorado. (Front L to R) Adren, Kapili, Meghan & Malia. (Back L to R) Moana, Matthew & Red.

Moana & family are here visiting her sister Kapili & family. Super nice folks!

The staff was very nice here. (L to R) We met Susan, Judy Wisdom & Travis. All candies are sold by weight. Salt water taffy is $11.50 per pound. We loved the cherry flavor!

We made a quick run over to the East Hawaii Cultural Center where there is always an offering of some sort of artistic exhibit.

Paintings, sculptures and other forms of expression were on exhibit. We were informed that it was all submitted by members of EHCC. Cool.

We stopped by Hilo's famous Palace Theater. Most weekends you can come down and check out a play or concert. This weekends performance is Cats! We were told that the actors are all kids from Puna!

Legendary performers like Johnny Winter & Brother Noland have performed here recently.

Hilo ALWAYS has something going on on the weekend! Heck the island always has something going on in one place or another.

Our favorite classic rock station, B97 mentioned a plant sale down at Edith Kanakaole tennis stadium until 2 p.m. so we hustled on over.

This is the stadium that the annual Merrie Monarch Hula Festival takes place in.

We stopped by the Big Island Daylily Co.'s table. They specialize in a variety of hybrid daylilies that simply must be seen to be appreciated.

There were many many many types of exotic plants to browse. RG was very impressed and took note of every bit of information available.

He busted out his well traveled Travelocity credit card and purchased one of each type of plant. He spent easily a few thousand dollars. Won't the folks at Travelocity be surprised when they see the bill and receive the plant shipment?

We met a nice lady named Gail with a simply amazing bromeliad. She said it took four years to grow.

Tony will be meeting her to pick up some of the bromeliad keikis (kids) tomorrow. Awesome!

And so we end this days adventures in beautiful downtown Hilo!

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

Mahalo to all the folks at the Basically Books & Sugar Coast Candy! It was great meeting you all.