Days 1-2 part 2: Kilauea Lodge and Waterfall

On our first night in Volcano Village we ate dinner at a place called Kilauea Lodge, I think. There are only 4 places to eat in Volcano Village. It was the most expensive place. When we came in they asked us if we had a reservation. I almost laughed because Volcano Village must have a population of around 200 and there were plenty of empty tables in the restaurant.



I highly recommend Kilauea Lodge. The service is impeccable and they have a cat on the front steps that lets you pet him, and the food is amazing, though a bit gamey for someone like me. I ordered the steak. But you could also get ostrich, antelope, duck l'orange, and other weird stuff. I think the server told us that the chef is German. Anyway, I ordered the steak and a brie appetizer that was the most delicious thing, I ate it for dessert and then ordered 2 pieces of cake to go. Mike had the duck. And the whole bill came to under $100. It was so yummy I still remember that cheese thing. I just looked at their website and they say they have 12 rooms for rent as well. They look lovely...but we learned that it's so hard to tell what rooms are like...more about that later...



On Day 2, I made it sound like we spent the entire day sunrise to sunset on the volcano. But we didn't. That's not actually necessary. Our guidebook, Hawaii for Dummies, told us to plan for 2-3 days on the volcano, but we learned that really is overkill. We went around the crater in the morning and then drove to Hilo to check out the waterfalls over there.



It was pouring rain in Hilo. We stopped for lunch at Ken's 24 hour pancake house. I guess Ken's also serves as the town hall because I heard on the radio that you could buy circus tickets at the box office or Ken's house of pancakes. It was pretty good. Then we went on to see Akaka Falls. I do love waterfalls, in case you couldn't tell by the title of this blog. (Ok, there's a bit more to the title of this blog than that, but no one's ever asked me about it.) There are actually 2 big falls on that trail. Here is a photo.

It was after we visited the falls that we drove back to the volcano for our looong walk in the dark to see the lava.