We woke up, gathered our dirty clothes, and headed to the laundymat. The woman running the place tried to run us out because the annual Wiamea Paniolo (Hawaiian for cowboy) parade was scheduled to start 10:00 AM. Being that it was 8:30 AM, we figured we had plenty of time to wash & dry our clothes before the parade started. Some of the locals told us not to mind her as she was thought to be a little off. So we washed our clothes, then headed back across to the west end of town for breakfast at a delicious restaurant called Hawaiian Style Cafe.
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| Breakfast at Hawaiian Style Cafe |
By the time we finished breakfast, it was 10:15 AM and the Paniolo parade was due to come through soon so we headed down to watch. The parade started with some Hawaiians dressed in traditional clothing, the royal court. There were floats and schools and kids groups marching. The coolest thing was each island's festival princesses, each one with an attending court wearing the brilliant colors of their island. The courts were decked out in gorgeous flower arrangements and the horses had amazing leys around their necks. One horse decided his ley smelled pretty tasty and was trying to eat it off his own neck! It was fun to watch the parade.
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| Beautiful flower arrangements on the horse and princess |
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| Beautiful arrangements |
They had closed the main highway for the parade so traffic was terrible after the parade finished. Instead of jumping in the car to be stuck in traffic, we decided to head into the fair where there was food booths, a crafts pavilion, and live music. Mat perused the food carts while I took a look in the crafts pavilion. I found some hand-crafted jewelry I loved. Mat bought me a beautiful shell necklace from one vendor, then we proceeded to purchase two pairs of beautiful shell earrings from another vendor - one for me and one for my mom for watching the dogs for two weeks.
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| Gorgeous flower arrangements |
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| Beautiful flower arrangements |
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| So many plants! |
By the time we checked out the fair and made our purchases, traffic was much better so we headed out of town. Our first stop was Mau'umae beach where we did some more snorkeling. The temperature change was startling. It was definitely much hotter at the lower elevations! The life guard told us the north end had the best snorkeling so that's where we headed. The snorkeling wasn't all that great at this beach but we did see an octopus! It was crazy watching it move, changing texture & color to blend in so amazingly well! Very cool! After a couple hours, we headed to Spencer Beach Park to set up camp. This is a very large beach park with camping available at either end. The south end looked very crowded so we headed to the north end and found a little spot next to the ocean. There's really no designated spots so people end up camping on top of one another and there's no privacy. We set up near a walkway that led into the Puukohola Heiau national historic monument.
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| Mau'umae Beach |
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| Camp at Spencer Beach campground |
After setting up camp, we hit up Seafood Bar & Grill in Kawaihae just a few miles north of the park. It's a restaurant upstairs with a nice little deck for outdoor eating. A factory sat between the restaurant and the ocean so the view wasn't amazing but it was a very nice place to watch the colors of the ocean and sun play off each other. The food was amazing and the drinks were good too. We had the special: swordfish. Mine was baked with white rice and delicious aioli and Mat's was blackened with cumin, cilanto, & guacamole on a bed of garlic mashed potatoes. OMG was it delicious!!!
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| Amazing dinner at Seafood Bar & Grill |
After dinner we headed back to camp for a quick sunset. The air was really still and hot making sleep impossible! So we walked down to the beach after dark were Mat proceeded to swim as I stood in the shore surf. I saw a light under water where a night snorkeler was hunting. When he came in I asked if he got anything. He told me no success hunting but he did see a number of sharks! At that point, I whistled at Mat swimming out in the dark ocean. I informed Mat of what the night snorkeling hunter mentioned. Mat said he felt something move across his leg while out swimming. We decided we were done swimming for the night! Instead we found the outdoor rinse-off showers, allowing us to cool off enough to fall asleep.
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| Last sunset on the big island |
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