Hawai`i 2009: Day 5

Today was marked by a busy morning and blissfully lazy afternoon. After fueling myself with 100% Kona Coffee, we drove downtown and made our triumphant return to the Lyman Museum. We first discovered the museum during our October 2007 trip, but only had time for the Mission House tour and the main floor exhibits. The friendly staff encouraged us to come back, and wrote us out a "rain check" as we were leaving that never expired. We hoped to return last June, but we were just too busy with the wedding, and this year we realized we misplaced the rain check.




Once again we were short on time, but we did get to see "Grandfather's House," a re-creation of a rural Korean home during the 1930s as well as a brand new exhibit featuring salvaged photographs capturing life in the Kingdom of Hawai`i from 1883-1905. And, since this time we were also on a timeline, the staff graciously wrote us out another rain check!

From the Lyman Museum, it is just a few blocks to the Palace Theater, where we ventured next for the weekly morning live theater show called "Hawaiiana Live!" Now in its third year, the show is hosted by cultural practitioner and local wahine Leilehua Yuen. It is a delightful 45-minutes of organ playing, history, music, hula, video and aloha. Before introducing Leilehua, the organ player gave us a concise history of the theater. It was built in 1925 and has weathered two tsunamis! We were hoping to experience some more Big Island local culture on this trip, and this was a terrific start.





After a lunch of Mexican food at Reuben's, we walked next door to the Hilo Farmer's Market. The market is one of the most talked about in the world, and at the forefront of the local food movement. It takes place in all its glory every Wednesday and Saturday, while some of the vendors stick around throughout the week. We were struck by how inexpensive the fruit was, but perhaps we are just used to the idea of anything so exotic as an avocado costing us an arm and a leg back in Seattle.



We had one more stop before heading back to the house: Suisan Fish market. It is a Hilo institution, and located near the Hilo Hawaiian Hotel (where many of our guests stayed last year).



With such an industrious morning behind us, we took advantage of our open afternoon by lounging, napping, reading, taking pictures and enjoying the natural beauty around us.

Later, it rained for the first time. From what we hear, Hilo needed it.