Leslie Karst

A Day in My Life in Hilo

Tomorrow, April 2, you’ll get to read on the fabulous Dru’s Book Musings about a day in the life of Valerie Corbin, the protagonist of my new Orchid Isle mystery, Molten Death. The day she’ll be describing is one while on vacation on the Big Island of Hawai‘i—a trip that doesn’t end up going exactly as she’d planned.

As many of you know, my wife and I and our Jack Russell mix, Ziggy, live half time in Hilo, on the Big Island, so I thought you might enjoy hearing about one of my average days while in Hawai‘i. There have thankfully never yet been any dead bodies; rather, as you’ll see, it’s a pretty uneventful—but beautiful—life.

6:30 am We’re often awakened by the revving of the next-door-neighbor’s truck as he heads off to go surfing at Honoli‘i Beach. I’ll laze about in bed until Ziggy crawls out from under the covers, stretches, shakes, and then stares me in the eye until I lift her down to the floor. Time for me to get up, too.

Ziggy in bed

7:00 am If it’s not raining, I may head off for a bike ride. I usually go about 20 miles, much of it uphill, as we live on the slope of a volcano.

Boiling Pots, near Hilo

10:00 am After brewing coffee and taking Ziggy for a walk, I like to relax on our lānai, sipping my coffee as I read the newspapers, check my email, and do my Wordle and Connections games.

the lānai is a great place to be during the rain

10:30 am Work time. I’ll retreat to my study and work on whatever happens to be the project du jour: my WIP, writing a blog post for the Chicks or Mystery Lovers’ Kitchen, or maybe drafting my newsletter.

my desk

12:00 am Break time. I’ll make myself a late breakfast—usually yogurt with granola and perhaps some papaya or banana—which I’ll eat as I work on the crossword puzzle.

12:30 am It’s either back to writing, if I’m on a deadline, or if not, I may work in the garden for a few hours. Which means weeding and whacking back the jungle that wants to take over your yard when you live in the tropics.

our garden

2:00 pm Lunch time—often a spinach salad with cottage cheese, and tomatoes. Then either back to the garden, or downtown to the farmers market for some shopping.

the Hilo Farmers Market

3:30 pm Time to think about making dinner. (Okay, I’ve likely been thinking about dinner since early morning—or perhaps even the day before. But time to actually do something about it.) I’ll peruse the fridge and pantry, pull items out, then cut, chop, sauté, braise, or whatever it is that needs doing in advance for the meal.

stir-fries are one of my go-to meals

4:00 pm Ziggy knows when it’s four o’clock, the earliest time we allow her to eat dinner, and she’ll come into the kitchen and give me that Jack Russell stare once again. After she’s eaten, if it’s not raining, we may take another walk. Or I may go back out to the lānai to read a magazine, or do a little more writing.

5:00 pm Cocktail hour! Robin and I take this very seriously. If it’s a nice afternoon and dinner doesn’t require a lot of last-minute work, we like to drive down to Coconut Island with Ziggy where we’ll sit on lawn chairs and raise our plastic cups of bourbon-rocks to the sun as it sets behind lovely Hilo Town and the Mauna Loa and Maunakea volcanoes.

the view from Coconut Island

7:00 pm Dinner with the evening’s show. Recent favorites include The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Welcome to Wrexham, and Upload (and there’s always rewatching Frasier, one of our favs).

8:30 pm Time for me to crawl into bed with a book as I listen to the coquí frogs chirp outside the window and the rain (which often comes around this time of night) pound down upon the metal roof.

Another beautiful day in paradise.

Readers: What’s your favorite part of your regular day?

37 thoughts on “A Day in My Life in Hilo”

  1. Thanks for sharing a day in your life with us.

    My favorite part of the day is waking up and coming home from work/closing laptop to end the work day.

    Liked by 3 people

      1. So weird, Leslie … I thought I wrote this post! Your day and photos are exactly like mine! Kidding. Nobody would ever confuse the Colorado plains with Hilo! I’m very jealous of your farmer’s market. That would be so lovely to have nearby.

        My schedule is fairly similar day-to-day. I am very much a creature of habit!

        Liked by 2 people

  5. I love unstructured time. I get lots of it. Also, crawling into bed at 9 pm with my two pups. Read a bit. Often find the book on the floor the next morning.

    Liked by 2 people

  6. Leslie, what an idyllic life! I’m not jealous of your island paradise at all. (All the brightness–I need eclipse glasses!). Not green over your vibrant life in Santa Cruz, either (can you do a bookmark version of this great post with a day in Santa Cruz?). Here in NH we are facing down an approaching glop storm–the kind that dumps wet snow/ice and then melts by the next day. You’d love it. I’m not sure this is my fave part of the day, but it’s a regular one: At 6:30, I’m parked in front of David Muir with a glass of fizzy Topo Chico. (No quite cocktails on the lanai, ha.) I think it reminds me of watching David Brinkley with my dad after he got home from work and made himself a Scotch on the rocks. The crazy news floats by me, and I zone out during all the scary drug and health commercials. It’s relaxing. Really.

    Liked by 1 person

      1. Another era, right? I don’t remember the news being much better. And the ads were, Iron-poor blood? take Geritol!

        Liked by 1 person

  7. As opposed to Lisa, I AM jealous of your idyllic and beautiful island life!
    my favorite part of the day is really my favorite part of the week. It’s when I clock off on Fridays. Jer once said to me that ever since I’ve been writing mysteries, he sees me more, but he talks to me less because I’m always telling him not to interrupt me . So now I write my manuscripts during the week and leave the weekends for at least a little Pleasure, like going to needlepoint, and writing things like blog posts where it’s OK if Jer talks to me lol.

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  10. Early Morning when it is just me and the Dog the sun is rising and it is pretty peaceful. The birds are chirping and at the bird feeders along with a squirrel that visits.

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  11. What an amazing schedule! So happy that this is what you get to do every day…I could get used to that for sure. (Also: we also love UPLOAD…such a unique and thought-provoking show. Someone told me they saw a self-driving car on their street and all I could say was NO THANK YOU. Because of UPLOAD. Ha.)

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  12. Ahhhhhhhhhh… I love this! Thank you for taking us along with you on your day. ❤

    Big Connections fan myself, but Wordle and I aren’t speaking to each other.

    Happy early book birthday!

    Liked by 1 person

  13. Being stationed in Hawaii for 3+ years (loved ya Schofield Barracks and Wahiawa!) even the rainy days were enjoyable.

    Liked by 1 person

  14. A great day in paradise! I’ll take a plate of that stir fry, too. This is looking especially idyllic to me since they’re forecasting up to a foot of snow for us here tomorrow!

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