Good Bye, Gladys!

Today was the memorial for cousin Gladys; she was one of the Hilo cousins. Five of Gladys 10 siblings were able to attend the memorial, 2 have predeceased her. While her immediate family was spreading her ashes on Hilo Bay, we had a chance to talk with cousins we had not seen in a while. I am hoping to see cousin Kellie next week; we had talked earlier in the year when her father was medevaced to Honolulu for a heart condition. She was going to stay with us but things turned around for her dad so she did not have to come to Honolulu.

The memorial was at the Hilo Hawaiian Hotel; the room looks out on to Hilo Bay.

Curtis flew in at 7:30 to attend the memorial; I picked him up at the Hilo Airport. I spent my usual sunrise birding time driving to the airport.

Nineteen minutes before sunrise on Kynnersley Road.

Twenty-three minutes after sunrise on the Kawaihae to Waimea road.

Thirty-nine minutes after sunrise on the road out to the Hamakua Coast.

We went to breakfast at Café 100; Home of the Loco Moco. Curtis had the Chili Moco and I had the Chorizo Moco. While we were waiting for our food I saw 2 species of birds; I still needed to do my birding.

I think every place should let customers know what they are doing to support sustainablity.

Chili Moco. (Photo by Curis)

Chorizo Moco.

While we were eating, I asked Curtis if there was any park with lots of birds nearby where I could bird while we killed time before Gladys' memorial. He suggested the Pana'ewa Zoo; I had told him that I didn't know Hilo had a zoo! He gave me a bad time about all the time we came to the Big Island when we were growing up and I didn't know there was a zoo here. We got there and discovered the zoo was built after I moved to Washington; well that explains why I never knew there was a zoo!

Curtis educates himself at the zoo.

This is what he was reading.

Self-guided tour. It's free on Saturdays.

Yup, looks like a rain forest.

Looking for Penny Ant-e.

The white tiger, lounging off in the distance.

When you get to the viewing area this is how much of the tiger you can see. They know exactly where to stay!

From farther along the path, but the fences are again in the way. He's laughing at us!

Sign seen at the tiger enclosure.

This makes me wonder if someone did something stupid in spite of the first sign.

Curtis didn't know what a binturong was but he had to head back to the car because he was getting too hot.

Here's the real deal; Honolulu Zoo also has them. (Or at least, they had them when I was volunteering there.)

Around the other side I saw the tiger stalking the donkeys.

The donkeys think they're safe because there are 2&1/2 fences between them.

The ibises did not like the chicken stealing food in their enclosure.

After I dropped Curtis off at the airport, I headed back to Kohala. Since I was in that part of Hilo, and the weather was nice, I decided to go back via the Saddle Road. Besides, I like that driving that stretch of road that runs between Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa. And instead of taking the Inouye Highway into Kona then heading north on the Queen Ka'ahumanu Highway, I take the back road to Waiki'i then head to Waimea. On that road to Waiki'i I almost made use of the collision insurance on the rental car! I came around a curve and a Wild Turkey on the side of the road decided to do a 180 and run across the road right in front of me! I just barely missed it. I saw another 10 or 11 of them in small groups further down the road; none of the others were stupid like the first turkey. He was a big guy, he would have made a good-sized dent in the car. I wonder what the rules are here on harvesting roadkills?

Dinner tonight was like last night. But I used a bottle of salad dressing that was bought in 2013; that was the 1st time I had come back for a visit in 20 years! Since there is infrequent use here, everything is labelled with the year it was bought. It was still good!


Just before I went to ed, I went to get a drink of water and saw the moonlight.


Hauʻoli lā Hānau to Carole and Heather!