Rainbow Falls...

Rainbow Falls has all the qualities of a quintessential waterfall: an 80 foot free fall, pool at the bottom, wide cliff up top, foliage all around the gorge to hide it, and a natural cave behind the falls were a god lives.  Yup, a god!

Legend states that Hina, a Hawaiian goddess associated with the moon, lived in the cave behind Rainbow Falls.  She was young, smart and attractive, and was often sought out by men of many different cultures.  Legend states she became annoyed of the constant crowds of suiters, and she fled to the moon.  ...So I guess she doesn't really live there anymore.

Rainbow Falls looks remote in the pictures, but it's anything but remote in real life.  The town of Hilo, one of the two largest towns on the island of Hawai'i, is literally all around it.  It reminds me  of visiting the Alamo in San Antonio with my sister Katie.  Kate and I were convinced we were lost since there were buildings all around us.  We thought the Alamo would be somewhere in country-Texas.  Suddenly we turned the corner and there it was: smack dab in the middle of the city surrounded by tall buildings.  Rainbow Falls had the same feeling, but it was beautiful none-the-less!

After checking out the waterfall it was time to go visit some actual lava caves.  Unfortunately, I wasn't quite sure where I placed the keys to the rental car.  Then I remembered I had gone back to the car to get a camera filter from my backpack.  Ut-oh...  I found the keys: in the locked car right next to my backpack which can be seen in the picture on the left.  Oops!

We then debated out options of how exactly to resolve the current situation.  The car had one of those keypad entries so I figured I would try it before calling a locksmith.  I doubted it would work on a rental car, and also doubted the rental company took the time to programed it.  Fortunately, for us, the company DID know what the code was and quickly gave it to me over the phone.  While I was elated to be back in the car quickly and cheaply (versus waiting/paying for a locksmith), it left me a little worried that the company just gave me the code to the car over the phone without verifying I was the correct person, but this was not a time to tell them that maybe their security should be a little more stringent.

Testing the numbers...

Thank you door entry key pads!  

So we were back in the car and headed towards the next adventure: Lava caves!

Mahalo for visiting like always.