When we went to the Big Island with our family and the grandparents last August, I needed an excuse to drive an hour or so to Hilo to get this mochi I read about and couldn’t leave Hawaii without trying:
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It is from a place called The Two Ladies Kitchen and they are famous for these strawberry mochis that are pretty much a strawberry dipped in Anko (bean paste) and wrapped in soft mochi. But that would not be enough reason to get us all in the van and drive for hours-I would probably be the only one with a smile on my face.
So then I found Pana’ewa Zoo. Also in Hilo, it is not a huge zoo, but it is the only tropical rainforest zoo in the United States. It definitely felt tropical, hot and lush-there were so many beautiful plants to see too. While there were a lot more cage-like enclosures than we are used to seeing in Seattle, there were many neat animals to see. We were very intrigued by the parrots and had a lot of fun with monkeys. One monkey was throwing a ball and making such a ruckus, but it seemed to be having so much fun. We did not get enough pictures to do this place justice. It was definitely worth the drive and we couldn’t believe that it was free.
This post is my entry for photo Friday on the Delicious Baby site.
Looks like you had a fun day! That’s wonderful that the zoo was free, since Hawaii can be expensive.
Totally! I didn’t believe it, until we got there and saw the sign. They accept donations too, so it’s nice that the zoo is accessible for whatever someone wants to pay to visit.
Holy smokes! This zoo has white tigers. We are so there. We will be staying a week on kona side and a week on hilo side to avoid loads of driving. Our little guy loves animals and my hubby loves tigers. This is win, win for everyone. Oh and I love free!