Jan 19, Hilo Hawaii:  Nice to see land after more than 4 days of ocean.  We try the breakfast buffet today instead of breakfast in our room.  I request hot sauce for my omelette - something more interesting than Tobasco, so the Indonesian waiter brings me some unpronounceable dish of an Indonesian red chili sauce, which is delicious. 

After breakfast we stroll the top deck as the ship sails into harbor.  Much to our surprise we see the snow-capped Mauna Kea towering over Hilo.  This is a bit of a mind bender since it's close to 80 degrees at sea level.  We photograph it through the haze. 

We visit the local astronomy center for a planetarium show and garden tour.  Chosen for the ideal conditions atop the 14,000 foot Mauna Kea, this island houses an observatory with some of the world's most advanced telescopes.  During the garden tour we learn that first settlers in Hawaii were very clever in their use of plants.  And that before becoming a sport, the surf board was used by these early voyagers to navigate past reefs that sat too high in the water for their canoes.  In the planetarium we learn that the universe is very big.

We depart Hilo at 4:30 after less than 8 hours here. As we pull away from the harbor we stand on our balcony and watch whales breaching close to the ship.  The captain announces that the lava is flowing actively down the slopes of Kilauea and in fact burned a house in its path yesterday.  I recall a realtor once mentioning to me the importance of location.  I wonder why someone would choose to build their home downslope from one of the world's most active volcanoes.  During dinner we will sail by the point where it flows into the ocean.  We were hoping for a brilliant spectacle of a glowing red river spilling into the sea.  But we are three miles from shore and there is some haze in the air.  The lava flow is indistinguishable from a backyard barbeque.

We wander about, check out a few dvd's from the library, chat with a few people, then it's off to sleep.
Tomorrow in Honolulu for a two days.