Saturday, day six- Hellooo, Mama!

After our morning walk and some Novell time for O, we drove around to the Hilo side of the island. That’s right- again! But this time we went south around the bottom of the island to get there. Here is a picture of a turtle that we saw by our condo when we started our walk.

Our first stop was at Kimura’s, and old-fashioned, old-time fabric store in the little town of Kealakekua. It’s a fun shop, crammed with literally thousands of bolts of fabric filling every nook and cranny. The walls are lined with built-in wooden shelves with all sorts of notions and odds-and-ends (ranging from cookware to cosmetics), ancient and modern, familiar and mystifying, that are organized in a way understood only by the proprietors. No electronic or automatic anything (except the register and card-swiper). Everything is measured on a single little table by hand. If you want to see what fabric stores used to be like, before they became design superstores and craft centers, check out the H. Kimura Store- a genuine blast from the past. We got another piece of Hawaiian-print fleece (yes, there really is such a thing) and some tablecloth material. Then we headed on down the road. After another 30 minutes or so, we were back into the long stretches of bleak, barren lava that cover so much of the western and southern part of the island.

Shortly before reaching Naalehu, we could see South Point, southernmost point in the United States, through the vog (volcanic smog), and just faintly make out part of the wind farm there. Then we pulled in to town and stopped at the Naalehu Bakery, southernmost bakery in the United States. We had a little local ice cream and hit the road again, driving past the southernmost Post Office, the southernmost church, the southernmost...well, you get the picture.

We stopped in Volcano National Park for a quick walk through the Thurston (Nahuku) Lava Tube. It’s always a nice little hike because of the rainforest birds that are always singing. Their songs echo and fill the secluded little pocket of trees and ferns (We tried recording their songs with our iPhones. Check back later to see if it worked). It only takes about 15-20 minutes to hike down, through and back up again. It’s hard to believe that the wet little rainforest tucked into the low area of the lava tube is just a few hundred yards from areas that are a lot drier and almost barren. It’s one of my favorite spots on the island.

After leaving the Park, we pretty much cruised right up through Hilo and along the Hamakua coast and over to Waimea again. This time we stopped in Waimea to have dinner at (insert the strains of the Heavenly Choir here....) Fujimamas. That’s right, they’re back! (Yes, this is another food posting. Part of our fun when traveling is eating at favorite restaurants. It’s amazing we don’t have to hire someone to strap us to furniture dollies and roll us around town while we’re here) Anyway, back to Fujimamas. They’re an Asian fusion and sushi restaurant. We were disappointed to see that they were no longer open in Kona last year. Then we heard from our hiking guide that there was a nice restaurant in Waimea called Fujimamas. Our ears perked right up! Apparently the owners were tired of commuting from Waimea to Kona for work every day, so they closed the restaurant in Kona, spent a few months looking for a location closer to home and then reopened in Waimea. They had actually been in Tokyo before Kona and Waimea.

We split some wok-seared asparagus and a shrimp/ avocado roll. Then O had a tasty ahi entrée and I had an amazing seafood chowder- shrimp and scallops in a velvety sweet corn, coconut and lemongrass “bisque.” Absolutely, amazingly onolicious! I actually toyed with idea of getting some as takeout a couple of days later, when we were in town again, but restrained myself.

After dinner, it was another drive through the dark, with more “Wait, Wait...”