After lunch in Hilo, we visited the Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden. For $15, one can walk through an amazing network of paved trails brimming with a wide variety of tropical flowers and plants. The founders, Dan and Pauline Lutkenhouse, "purchased seventeen acres on the ocean and spent six years hand-clearing the impenetrable tropical jungle to create the winding trails and outstanding beauty you will experience as you walk throught the Garden." An additional twenty acres were purchased and developed later, all of which were eventually donated to the Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden.