{"id":2618,"date":"2014-02-12T18:46:45","date_gmt":"2014-02-13T02:46:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.andrewlorenzlong.com\/?p=2618"},"modified":"2014-03-03T22:58:39","modified_gmt":"2014-03-04T06:58:39","slug":"hilo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.andrewlorenzlong.com\/?p=2618","title":{"rendered":"Hilo"},"content":{"rendered":"

(more and higher resolution photos here<\/a>)<\/p>\n

For those who don’t live in Los Angeles, you should know that despite the smog we often do have breathtaking sunsets. \u00a0Often these occur on the way home from work (if you get to leave while the sun is still out) and there’s nothing to be done about it. \u00a0On the week before we left for our vacation I saw one of these forming and I rushed up the stairs to try to catch it properly, but these are all I managed:<\/p>\n

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Days later we went to Hawaii, expecting similar or better sunsets.<\/p>\n

In order to get cheap flights to Hawaii (otherwise we wouldn’t have gone) we had to fly out on a Monday afternoon. \u00a0As it turns out the flights are also cheap because A) the planes seem 40 years old and B) there is nothing provided without an extra charge, even water. \u00a0 Still, it wasn’t that bad as we had movies to watch on my tablet (the only time I ever use that thing is when I’m travelling). \u00a0The ride is roughly the same amount of time as flying to Ohio or New York, so watch two movies, relax a bit and you’re there.<\/p>\n

When we arrived in Hilo we went straight to Enterprise, but they were about to close and were out of economy cars. \u00a0Not to worry, though, we were offered a free upgrade to a red convertible Camaro. \u00a0After picking up some food we went straight to Uncle Billy\u2019s and checked out our room.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The room was \u201clow rent\u201d but for the price that was expected. \u00a0What wasn\u2019t expected was the \u201crainforest\u201d immediately outside our room that had all kinds of chirping and yelping animals (mostly frogs and birds) chattering all night long. \u00a0If you could get past the audio stimulation you still couldn\u2019t sleep due to the visual stimulation. \u00a0For some reason the hotel decided to string along bright orange lights along the top of our floor. \u00a0It probably looked nice to the folks in the lobby or to the twin building across the fake rain forest, but to us it looked like this:<\/p>\n