Impressionist Hawaii - Day Three

The third day was relaxing. Our original plan was to see some historic sites, however the natural landscape again attracted most of our attention and we ended spending more time sitting by the sea, hardly remembering anything about the history of the Big Island.

We drove north to Puukohola Heiau National Historic Site early in the morning. It was a temple built to the war god when the king planned to unite Hawaii in late 1700s. (He actually conquered other islands four years after the completion of the temple.) The temple was very simple and crude, similar but much smaller and shorter than the Great Wall built in 200BC. Therefore it wasn't impressive at all. But by the temple there was a bay where people used to worship the god of shark. Usually sharks don't appear in shallow bays, but this one is an exception. We were told by the ranger that sometimes they could still see sharks in the bay in early morning. Though unfortunately we didn't see anything similar to a triangle on the water after waiting for quite a while. Another historic site, Lapakahi State Historical Park is only a few miles away. It used to be a fishing village in the 14th century. Now the stone houses are still well preserved. We sat by the sea and saw many fish in flocks by the seashore. It probably was not a bad job to live as a fisherman in Hawaii before.

The highlight of the day was actually our lunch. A travel guide suggested us to eat at either Bamboo which was closed on that day, or Rainbow Cafe which we failed to locate on GPS. (It turned out that Rainbow Cafe was renamed to King's Cafe five years ago. What an old book I was reading!) So Gang checked with Kohala Visitor Center and went to a family restaurant called Minnie's which serves good local food. I ordered Mahi-Mahi, but Gang couldn't decide which dish he would like. Then the owner suggested him to try a combo, by which she meant "I will give you a little bit of everything." Both Gang and I were surprised when the lunch was served: she gave Gang a big piece of fried pork chop, a bowl of roasted beef and three big pieces of Ono. Actually the food was so much that she couldn't even put them in one plate but to offer two extra bowls. I got mine soon: a plate with four big overlaying pieces of Mahi-Mahi, one piece of which was big enough to make a single meal. Anyway, Gang and I laughed at her generous definition of "a little bit" for a long time.

To digest the big lunch, we went to Pololu Valley in the afternoon, where we did the toughest hike of our trip. Well it wasn't really that bad. We hiked to the valley from the cliff, walked through the moist forest and rested by the sea. The sun was shining hard on our way down to the valley, but the rain started when we went back. We ran to the car and tried to wipe the water away. A few minutes later, the rain went away, leaving us in the car, wet like drowned cats. The weather here is so capricious, a cloud can change a sunny day to a stormy one in a few seconds. But in the patter of rains, we finally enjoyed a flavor of coolness on this tropical island. Sweaty and tired, we drove back to the hotel before sunset, and decided to stay in the air-conditioned room for the rest of the day - a very good decision.

The volcanoes park and historic sites were basically what I "saw" in the Big Island. The splendid black lava, roaring sea and rugged rocks are one of the most spectacular views that I've ever seen.

(a little bit of beef)