Day nine started off rather uneventfully. Checked out of our hotel to catch the noon flight over to Hilo which is on the rainy east side of the Big Island. Beverage service on the flight was cancelled due to rough weather. That should've been a sign. Arrived in Hilo under overcast and rainy skies and it pretty much stayed that way the 2 days we were there. Fortunately (or unfortunately), Erin wasn't feeling very well so after we got to our hotel (Hilo Hawaiian), she rested while I went out to scrounge for lunch. Got directions to the food court of a nearby Walmart strip mall from a friendly counter lady at a convenience store and wound up getting some L&L takeout. Noticed while driving around that the street lights are orange here for some reason. Didn't seem to be as effective as normal white lights. The Hilo Hawaiian is a decent hotel; it had the largest room we stayed in during our trip to Hawaii but the interior seems to be getting rather old. Or maybe it was just the weather casting a grey-ish color over everything.

For dinner I wound up driving back to that strip mall with Erin and we wandered into the Hilo Bay Café which turned out to be rather upscale. Food was pretty good with the Tahitian limeade being rather notable cause it was quite sour and tasted like you were drinking down a key lime pie. Which is just fine by me. =)

Despite her condition, she still insisted that we follow my sightseeing schedule so I headed up to the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. Stopped off at the Mauna Loa Macadamia Nuts Visitors Center along the way and bought some souvenirs.

Weather that day was still pretty bad and it was just horrible up at the volcano park. There's a $10 entrance fee which is good for a week (came in handy later). Copious amounts of fog limited visibility to about 10 feet so we couldn't see a damned thing. Drove down and then back up the Chain of Craters Road which was one hell of a freaky drive at night with fog. Seeing the fields of jagged lava rock from former lava flows through the fog was a bit disconcerting. Almost like being on another planet. Anyway, hurried back to town after that cause Erin was starting to feel really nauseous now and the weather was terrible anyway.

Day 11 was our last day in Hilo and Erin's condition worsened to the point where she was nauseous no matter what was going on. Picked up some Dramamine which seemed to help a little but she was rather miserable, poor thing. I also got a Super Loco for lunch at Cafe 100 which was quite plentiful and good.

Then we started our drive to Kona-Kailua on the sunny west side of the Big Island. The 4-mile scenic route off of Route 19 North was quite pretty with multiple one-lane only bridges. Route 19 itself from Hilo to Waimea had some great turns through 2 valleys/gorges.

The road around the Waimea area had absolutely stunning views of snow-capped Mauna Kea and the telescopes situated on top. The area is already ~2000 feet above sea level so it's pretty amusing to see clouds floating by at almost ground level at the base of Mauna Kea. I'm always amazed at how beautiful the sky is here compared to the mainland. The clouds seem to hover lower in the sky and come in multiple shapes and sizes.

Route 190 from Waimea to Kailua-Kona is a nice drive through some old lava flows and there are some great scenery here as well. The west side of the island seems to be one long slope down to the sea with the only relatively flat land being right by the ocean. Really gorgeous here, need to come back again sometime when Erin is healthy.

Arrived at our hotel (Outrigger Keauhou Beach Resort) which turned out to be quite a nice place. Had dinner at the hotel restaurant downstairs which had a great view of the sunset. Fanciest place we've been to this trip although they only have basic cable and On Demand so I had no Comedy Central for 3 days. ;-p