12.6.09

We ported in Hilo this morning on the Big Island. We had our 100^th voyage picture off the aft of the ship on Decks 7, 6, and 5. We were able to disembark right after we were done with the picture. Katie, Jennifer and I decided to explore Hilo a little bit. We soon found out that there is nothing in Hilo. We walked about 30 minutes and came upon a civic center of some sort. They were having a Christmas crafts fair, but everything was kind of pricey. It was neat to see some Hawaiian crafts, though. We left and walked probably another 45 minutes until we were in “downtown” Hilo. Downtown Hilo consists of about 5 blocks of the most random and sketchy assortment of stores ever. To make everything worse, everything was closed because it was Sunday. Great. We did find a small sports bar and walked in just in time to see the Titans lose. Great.

We managed to entertain ourselves for a little while and then decided to grab lunch at a local Mexican restaurant. It wasn’t very good Mexican, but when we haven’t had it in 4 months just about anything will work. Afterward, we called a cab and went to Wal-Mart. Yeah, I know – Wal-Mart in Hawaii, but there was nothing else to do. I bought an external hard drive. Wal-Mart was in a little shopping center with Ross Dress for Less, TJMaxx and a Borders! I was so excited for a Borders. I was in dire need of a good bookstore. Katie and Jennifer wanted to go to the beach, but it looked like it was about to rain. I stayed at Boarders and they went ahead. It was absolutely fabulous to be able to sit and read. There are so many books out that I have never even heard of. It is crazy to think about the things we missed. Who knew that Britney Spears got married? I haven’t even heard of half the movies in the theaters.

After about and hour or so they came back and picked me up and headed back to the ship for the day. We really didn’t get that much accomplished, but there was NOTHING to do. I feel like this port is a complete waste. Can’t we leave early and just head to San Diego already? That would be ok with me. The rest of the night consisted of food, cards and the movie Matilda.