November 28- Hilo

What a wonderful Thanksgiving celebration we had. We gathered in the Atrium at about 5:30 and suddenly the sound of trumpets heralded the Thanksgiving mini-parade. The Atrium was filled with people armed with cameras as the band appeared. Music was a New Orleans style jazz and the marchers walked by in their variety of costumes. Twice around the Atrium on the 5^th  deck. Twice around the Atrium on the 6th level and then the parade went down the hall to the Horizon Lounge for pictures. It was great fun.

Our parade had everything that Macy’s parade had- a band, a baton twirler (Lorraine the Cruise Director), lovely young women with sparkly outfits and balloons, men in crazy wigs and even Batman was there.

Today is Friday, November 28 and we sailed in Hilo, Hawaii in the pouring rain after another rocky night of sailing.

Hilo is the largest in Hawaii County, Hawaii, which encompasses the Island of Hawaiʻi. The population was 40,759 at the 2000 census. The population increased by 6.1% to 43,263 at the 2010 census.

Hilo is the county seat of the County of Hawaiʻi and is located in the District of South Hilo. The town overlooks Hilo Bay, situated upon two shield volcanoes; Mauna Loa, an active volcano, and Mauna Kea, a dormant volcano and the site of some of the world's most important ground-based astronomical observatories. The majority of human settlement in Hilo stretches from Hilo Bay to Waiākea-Uka, on the flanks of Mauna Loa. Kilauea is the youngest and most active Hawaiian shield volcano, located on the southern part of the ‘Big Island.’ At present, Kilauea is still having one of the most long-lived eruptions known on earth, which started in 1983. This is the volcano that has so recently been in the news with lava running down and destroying homes and grounds.

Hilo is home to the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo, ʻImiloa Astronomy Center of Hawaiʻi, as well as the Merrie Monarch Festival, a week-long celebration of ancient and modern hula which takes place annually after Easter. Hilo is also home to the Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut Corporation, one of the world's leading producers of macadamia nuts.

Circa 1100 AD, the first Hilo inhabitants arrived, bringing with them Polynesian knowledge and traditions. Although archaeological evidence is scant, oral history has many references to people living in Hilo, along the Wailuku and Wailoa Rivers during the time of ancient Hawaii.

After Kamehameha gained control of Moku O Keawe (the Hawaiian name for the Island of Hawaiʻi), Kamehameha celebrated the Makahiki in Hilo in 1794. The village and area of Hilo was named by Kamehameha after a special braid that was used to secure his canoe. Hilo in Hawaiian means to twist.

Kamehameha’s son, Liholiho (Kamehameha II) was born in Hilo (1797). Kamehameha’s great war fleet, Peleleu, that was instrumental in Kamehameha’s conquest, was built and based at Hilo (1796–1801). After uniting all of the islands under his rule, Hilo became Kamehameha’s first seat of government. It was in Hilo that Kamehameha established his greatest law, the Kānāwai Māmalahoe (Law of the Splintered Paddle). One of Kamehameha’s most favorite things to eat was the sweet mullet that came from Hilo’s Wailoa fish pond. Kamehameha is also known to have visited and practiced cultural protocols on Moku Ola (literally "healing island") in Hilo Bay.

Originally, the name Hilo applied to a district encompassing much of the east coast of the Island of Hawaiʻi, now divided into the District of South Hilo and the District of North Hilo. When William Ellis visited in 1823, the main settlement in the Hilo district was Waiākea on the south shore of Hilo Bay. Missionaries came to the district in the early-to-middle 19th century, founding Haili Church, in the area of modern Hilo.

Hilo expanded as sugar plantations in the surrounding area created new jobs and drew in many workers from Asia, making the town a trading center.

A breakwater across Hilo Bay was begun in the first decade of the 20th century and completed in 1929.

On April 1, 1946, a 7.8 magnitude earthquake near the Aleutian Islands created a fourteen-meter high tsunami that hit Hilo 4.9 hours later, killing 160 people. In response an early warning system, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, was established in 1949 to track these killer waves and provide warning. This tsunami also caused the end of the Hawaii Consolidated Railway, and instead the Hawaii Belt Road was built north of Hilo using some of the old railbed.

On May 23, 1960, another tsunami, caused by a 9.5 magnitude earthquake off the coast of Chile the previous day, claimed 61 lives allegedly due to people's failure to heed warning sirens. Low-lying bayfront areas of the city on Waiākea peninsula and along Hilo Bay, previously populated, were rededicated as parks and memorials.

Hilo expanded inland beginning in the 1960s. The downtown found a new role in the 1980s as the city's cultural center with several galleries and museums being opened; the Palace Theatre was reopened in 1998 as an arthouse cinema.

Closure of the sugar plantations during the 1990s led to a downturn in the local economy, coinciding with a general statewide slump. Hilo in recent years has seen commercial and population growth as the neighboring District of Puna became the fastest-growing region in the state.

Jim went on tour and the tour today took him to several really interesting spots. First he visited Liliʻuokalani Park and Gardens, a 30-acre park with Japanese gardens, located on Banyan Drive in Hilo on the island of Hawaiʻi.

The park's site was given by Queen Liliʻuokalani, and lies southeast of downtown Hilo, on the Waiakea Peninsula in Hilo Bay. Much of the park now consists of Edo-style Japanese gardens, built in the early 1900s, and said to be the largest such gardens outside Japan. The gardens contain Waihonu Pond as well as bridges, koi ponds, pagodas, statues, torii, and a Japanese teahouse.

Next stop was Rainbow (Waiānuenue) Falls, a waterfall that is 80 feet tall and almost 100 feet in diameter. The falls are part of the Hawai'i State Parks. Quite a sight to see!

He stopped to see another Kamahameha statue which resides on Hawaiʻi Island. It stands near downtown Hilo at the north end of the Wailoa River State Recreation Area, where it enjoys a king's view of Hilo Bay. The 14-foot statue was sculpted by R. Sandrin at the Fracaro Foundry in Vicenza, Italy in 1963 but was not erected on this site and dedicated until June 1997. The statue was originally commissioned for $125,000 by the Princeville Corporation for their resort in Kauai. However, the people of Kauai did not want the statue erected there, as Kauai was never conquered by King Kamehameha I.

Hilo, however, was one of the political centers of King Kamehameha I. So the Princeville Corporation donated the statue to the Big Island of Hawaii via the Kamehameha Schools Alumni Association, East Hawaii Chapter.

Learned today the the statue in Honolulu was originally lost at sea following a shipwreck near the Falkland Islands. The government had insured it for $12,000 so another was begun. The statue was recovered and sold back to the government for $850.