… but full and rewarding. Hilo, Hawaii, January 21, 2026.
In the interest of brevity so that I can communicate to you an adequate summary of the day and yet get to bed at a respectable hour, this narrative will be “short and sweet”.
Our day kicked off with a visit to the Wednesday Farmers Market in the town of Hilo.
The farmers market
We next proceeded by motorcoach to Akaka Falls. These towering falls are 442 feet above the river that they plunge into. The area around the Falls was lush with vegetation. It was like walking through a house plant menagerie grown large and out of control.

The falls The jungle. 
We briefly stopped along the road above the place of a tragedy that took the lives of over 150 people, including 24 school children and their teachers in 1946.
The tsunami tragedy of 1946. 
Finally, a long overland journey took us to the Pu’ukohola Heiau Historic Site, managed by the US National Park Service.
The historic site where the unification of Hawaii under one king began.
A wonderful dinner with great fellowship shared with our 27 Road Scholar participants capped off a along but wonderful day.
Pictures with captions follow.
Peace Everyone. Pete
The vegetables, fruits, and flowers were an explosion of color..Christine “holding court” at the farmers marketThere was an entire section for crafts.Our group leader, giving us detailed information about the local plants and the geology of the falls. An interpretive sign contrasting this waterfall against other great falls in the world. An interpretive sign detailing two unusual lifeforms found only at this waterfall and nowhere else in the world. One is a small fish that spawns by climbing the cliff to the top of the falls! Another view of the jungle.Very small finger size bananas, growing wild. At the Falls..An hour long special presentation by the Park Ranger. He explaining to us the history of this sacred site. One remarkable piece of information was that these stones, each weighing approximately 30 pounds and held in place without mortar, were transported 20 miles by 10,000 warriors passing them along in “bucket brigade“ fashion.  the transit of each stone had to be continuous, and it could not touch the ground or it would have to be returned down the line to the beach from which it originated. An interpretive sign boardAn explanation of the general layout of the site.The Temple grounds are huge and not open to the general public. They are still used for religious and ceremonial purposes. .
