Rain, long johns, and four papayas for $1 ... Galfromdownunder in Hawaii
Galfromdownunder in Hawaii 2006 PHOTO GALLERY AND MOVIE CLIPS The Gal's Hilo Photo Gallery First week in Hilo (5 Mb Quicktime movie) Biking Hilo's Old Scenic Highway (8 Mb Quicktime movie) Sorry to rain on your mental image of Hawaii ... Gray skies. Rain every ten minutes. I'm wearing a pair of long johns. A-ROH-HA! (as my Shanghainese father would say). I hallucinate that I never got on a plane at all, that I'm still in 34 degree Eugene, Oregon, about to put on five layers of hi-tech thermals to go check the mail. No wait ... the windows here are wide open. All eight of them. I'm mincing around in a floaty islandy dress I splurged on just yesterday (30% off – how could I refuse).There's a cacophonous bleating of small, rubbery critters - coqui frogs, I'm told - coming from the bowels of the jungle outside my window. I'm scratching a moonscape raised welts on my arms and legs despite the fly screens and my chemical warfare repellent. I am on Hilo, on t...