Hawai’i – Last Day #14

Whaaaaaa!

And so soon it is over.  For our last full day, we are heading over to see if the Hawaiian Green Sea turtles are on the beach.  We were told to look for them at Richardson beach.

Also known as Richardson Ocean Center, Natural seawalls made out of lava create natural pools and coves, which keeps the water calm. The park is named for George Richardson, a former Chief Detective of the county of Hawaii.  He received the land as a gift from the Malo family.  In 1920, the Malo family were stricken with typhoid fever. A daughter who though afflicted, walked to the home of George Richardson to seek help.  Richardson, took the young girl on his boat, and returned to the Malo home, where he gathered up the rest of the family and headed for hospital in Hilo.  Unfortunately, two of the children did not survive, but his efforts saved the rest of the family. The Malo family offered the land to Richardson because of his efforts. The house was built with large doors at the front and back of the house to provide a corridor for the periodic inundations by high surf and tsunami.  This actually saved the house a number of times.  The Richardson Ocean Center is now located in the house.  This beach is the only beach in the Hilo area with black sand and green sand.

Black sand makes my sandal look blue.

Can see a little of the big mountain with snow yet.

Lots of rocks to negotiate. I walked out to the area where the turtles were supposed to be, but none today so far.

Lovely pools

From here we drove to Onekahakaha Beach Park.  This is the beach that Carol used to go to as a child to swim.

Here we saw a Hawaii Amakihi, a little green honey creeper.

From here we drove over to the Mauna Loa Factory to see how those wonderful chocolates were made.

And we walked around their nature walk, but after all the botanical gardens, we had seen most of these plants already.

But for Carol – here is a flower.

We did some shopping and then had some ice cream with macadamia nut. Yum.

Not enough sugar yet – now it is on to Big Island Candies . Oh my.

It was almost Valentines Day after all – with Love in the air.

And Little Kitty standing on shortbread cookies –

And we watched them making some of the wonderful treats.

And if you are like me and never saw a macadamia nut in the tree – 

And after they are ready to drop –

OK my chocolate fix has been satiated for now…. (give me 5 minutes), now unfortunately it is time to go pack and get ready for our flights back to the mainland. WHHAAAAAAAAAAAA!