This is a photo of the Golden Princess, a grand-class cruise ship owned by Princess Cruises. This ship was actually in Hilo the day of the March 2011 earthquake in Japan and the tsunami that followed. I wondered if it might have been diverted off course because of that day’s disasters, but I looked up the ship’s itinerary, and it turns out that it is normally in Hawaii.

I had not seen any Princess Cruises ship that I can recall before that day, and the Golden Princess is an impressive one indeed. It is more than 950 feet long, and holds up to 2,600 passengers and 1,100 crew members. It entered service in 2001, and was christened by well-known actress Jane Seymour.

A cruise ship contains more people than many small cities, and the logistics of this have always fascinated me. With all of the food, fuel and staff members to pay, and cruises being so affordable, how do they make any money?

On clear nights in Hilo, the moon looks enormous as it casts reflections on the water of Hilo Bay. Unfortunately, I have been unable so far to get a truly great picture of the moon, but this one isn’t so bad. I don’t remember the exact time that this was taken, but given how light the sky still is, it must have been at dusk. The sky in Hilo tends to be cloudy or hazy on most days — especially when the vog blows this way — and that can sometimes prevent good pictures of the sun and moon from being taken.

If you have watched television or read the newspaper over the past few days, you have probably heard about the horrible earthquake in Japan. According to the news, the earthquake was powerful enough to move the main island of Japan almost eight feet — that’s some power. The earthquake sent a tsunami racing toward all of the Hawaiian islands at 500 miles per hour. At one point, it was predicted that the tsunami waves might exceed 30 feet, which might have wiped out large portions of towns like Hilo.

In the end, though, we experienced waves of seven feet which, while very large, did not cause a great deal of damage to life or property that I am aware of. However, I did notice that the waves caused a new Hawaiian island to form. My private island is slowly floating from Hilo Bay out to sea. If you happen across it, stay away — it’s mine!

I was snapping randomly with my camera one day while driving, and came up with this picture, which has a little bit of an artsy vibe to it.

Reynolds Recycling is one of the places around town where people can go to redeem cans and bottles for deposits. They also recycle scrap metal, which has risen in value in recent years and is now worthwhile for some to collect. Reynolds Recycling has around 30 locations around the state. I am not sure whether that is a sign that people here are serious about recycling, conserving resources and caring for the environment, or simply a sign of the times and poor economy. I tend to suspect that it is the latter; people and businesses here seem to get away with far too many violations against the environment, to the point where I have begun to see business owners “in the know” refuse to eat local seafood. How sad.

In March 2011, Japan was hit by an earthquake with a magnitude of 8.9 — one of the most powerful earthquakes in recorded history. The earthquake sent a tsunami toward all of the islands of Hawaii. Hilo is particularly vulnerable to tsunamis, so the threat of damage and power outages caused a run on gas, water and other basic supplies. Although many people were out stocking up on the essentials, I have to say that the people in Hilo were orderly, calm and pleasant to one another in spite of their tsunami fears. I was quite impressed.

In the end, the tsunami waves peaked at about seven feet, which did not cause widespread damage. To date, all that I have heard is that one unfortunate person on the western side of the Big Island lost their home, but I do not know the details.

In this picture, a United States Coast Guard ship is in Hilo Bay, apparently supervising the return of all of the private boats that were scuttled out to sea to avoid damage. For a little while this morning, the bay had at least a couple dozen small boats floating around, but they were done by mid-afternoon.

Hilo is the home port of the Kiska, which is named for an Alaskan island. The Kiska is a small ship — slightly over 100 feet long — and my guess is that it is primarily used for search and rescue operations. The Kiska was involved in an incident in 2002, when it was used to catch a fishing boat from Taiwan called the “Full Means II.” A mutinous cook had stolen the boat, killing the captain and first mate in the process.

Recently, residents of Hilo were treated to perhaps the most dramatic sunset that I have ever seen. In this close-up photo, the sky above Mauna Kea is painted a deep shade of red, while the mountain itself and the telescopes on top are purple. While my limited photography skill has always prevented me from doing the best job of capturing sunset photos, I am particularly happy with how this one turned out. With my time on the Big Island drawing to a close, I feel that this sunset is a fitting end to my time in Hawaii.

Generally, the sunsets in Hilo, Hawaii are not especially colorful. Mauna Kea blocks the view of the western horizon, giving Kona the best sunset views. However, Hilo recently enjoyed an exception to this rule, treating residents to perhaps the most beautiful sunset that I have ever seen. I took several great photos of the sunset. This one uses my camera’s panoramic mode, showing Mauna Kea and the telescopes on the left and the road extending up the Hamakua Coast on the right. The sky was filled with amazing shades of purple, red and pink that night, and I’m looking forward to posting more of the photos that I took. It seems a fitting end to my time on the Big Island.

Hilo sees cruise ships coming in and out on a nearly daily basis, it seems. However, the cruise ships that I see are almost always from the Norwegian Cruise Line. Recently, I saw a new ship — the Queen Victoria of the Cunard Line. The Queen Victoria is a beautiful ship that first launched in 2007. It cost about 270 million pounds (434 million dollars) to build, and holds over 2,000 passengers. It includes such amenities as a spa, a theater and several high-end restaurants. In the foreground, another boat appears to be giving the Queen Victoria a bath.

This aircraft is a Lockheed HC-130 Hercules, owned by the United States Coast Guard and most likely stationed in Barbers Point, Hawaii. The Coast Guard has a total of 27 of these aircraft, with 22 in active service. The plane is similar to the Navy C-130 Hercules, which I have seen flying often over Hilo Bay. However, this is the first time that I have ever seen this plane. The HC-130 Hercules is a long-range surveillance and transport plane that can travel over 5,000 miles at a time. It is used for recon, supply drops, transport, and other types of missions.

It’s very impressive to me that one can clearly make out the telescopes on the Mauna Kea summit from Hilo on a clear day. It has been said that Mauna Kea is one of the best sites in the world for astronomy, and several extremely powerful telescopes have been built to take advantage of this. In order to give the astronomers the best possible view of the night sky, there are laws on the Big Island regarding the maximum brightness and color of the lights on streets and in parking lots.