Before dinner, we stopped for gas. It was only $2.61 per gallon in Hilo. On the other side of the island it was about fifty cents more a gallon.

After we filled up, we found a parking spot not far from Moon and Turtle and walked over to the restaurant. That's when I noticed my calves were sunburned. I applied sunblock on the front of my legs, but forgot to do the back. Silly me!

When we got to the restaurant, they were setting up for dinner. When I opened the door, a gentleman came over and told me they weren't admitting customers. They didn't open until 5:30. I checked the time - it was 5:28.

Seriously...what's going to happen in the next two minutes? That's when we decided to go elsewhere. Moon and Turtle was to upscale/uptight for me. You'd think an "upscale" restaurant would have a website in lieu of using a Facebook page. That seems just a little tacky. 

Fortunately, Matt already had a backup plan. It was right around the corner facing Hilo Bay - Cronies. I ordered a Thai chili chicken pizza and Matt ordered a cheeseburger and fries. It didn't take very long to get our food and it was very delicious. Matt's French fries were the best I ever had.

The only thing I didn't like about Cronies was the women's bathroom. It was like being in trapped in a cell with no windows! It was around 6:30 when we left Cronies with full tummies. Time to head back to the condo, but which way should we go?

We could take 19 or we could use Rt 200 (Saddle Road) to cut across the middle of the island. When we booked our helicopter tour, the representative from Paniolo Greens told us that Saddle road was dangerous at night because it's curvy and often foggy. She did not recommend that we use it to get back and forth across to Hilo. Of course, I saw this a challenge to my driving skills.

Plus, Waze said it was 40 minutes faster! Challenge accepted!

We didn't get far from the restaurant when I started having tummy trouble. I ate entirely too much and my stomach wasn't very happy. I looked for a place to stop and use the bathroom. We passed a sign for Kaumana Caves and it looked like they had a public restroom. I turned the car around and went back.

What a great discovery! Matt checked out the caves while I did my business. It was getting dark so we decided that we'd come back the next day and bring Price. Thank you rumbly tummy for helping us discover this amazing place!

Saddle road was not curvy and it didn't seem dangerous to us. In fact, it had fences to prevent animals from running across the road. We wondered if Paniolo Greens intentionally routes people through areas that have more businesses. 

When we got back to the condo, we talked about the schedule for the rest of the trip. My dad was interested in going fishing and so was Price. We decided to book a trip with Bite Me for the two of them. 

Dad said he had talked to the Paniolo Greens rep about the $100 that he was supposed to receive for attending the time share meeting. She was going to do some research to see if he had gotten a credit against one of the activities that we had paid for. If not, she'd give him a credit toward another purchase OR she'd give him $100 American Express card.

Tomorrow, we'd be heading back to the caves and to the Volcano National Park. Let's hope the weather cooperates!