We spent our first full day on the Big Island exploring our new favorite city. Carol had a few meetings at work that day, so she gave us some tips and sent us loose.
Breakfast was at the Hilo Farmer's Market, which was, amazingly, an actual farmer's market. Most farmer's markets that we've been to really should just be called hipster's markets. The closest thing to fresh produce that you usually find at these things is pickled kale chips being sold by a bearded 20-something. But this one was different. On the Big Island, you can sneeze out an apple seed and come back to a mature tree the next day. Produce grows here without even trying.
That makes the Hilo farmer's market a true collection of actual farmers selling their actual produce. It was amazing.
By the way, those bananas were $2 a bushel. $2!!! You can't buy a pint of beer here for anything less than a car payment, but since most people seem to have an actual banana tree in their backyard, produce at the market was surprisingly cheap.
After breakfast, we headed up along the coastline to the Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden. We can never go to another botanical garden again. Seriously.
I've never been one to gush about a botanical garden, but here I am. Gushing.
See what I mean? In the 1970s, the garden site was literally a trash dump until a retired botanist stumbled upon the land when looking for somewhere cheap to build a house. He planted a couple of items, cleared out the rusting car parts, and let nature do the rest. Now it is universally considered to be one of the best botanical gardens in the world, and its still run by a private foundation led by the late botanist's wife. Not only is it a can't-miss destination if you go to the Big Island, it's reason enough to go to the Big Island.
Our next stop was the Waipao overlook. It's a beautiful spot overlooking another beautiful spot. This island isn't even trying anymore.
And because every road trip should include a brewery, we made a stop at the Big Island Brewhaus. It's a brewery on the Big Island. There is nothing else that needs to be said about that.
Our next stop was for some dessert. The Big Island had a lot of Portuguese immigration a century ago, and the second most famous import is the malasada (ukuleles hold the top spot). A malasada is essentially a Portuguese donut, which was enough to get our attention. Tex's is the most famous bakery on the island, and for good reason. Delicious.
It's going to be hard to leave this island.
