I'm going to be on the BI in two weeks and was actually preparing to ask some questions of my own. But one of them is being discussed here, so I'll use this thread for it:

Is the visitor's center on Mauna Kea worth the trip? The posts in this thread have confirmed for me that I don't want to do the summit tour, but it looks like the visitor's center is at lower elevation, and more accessible, particularly from the Hilo side. Worth making the drive during the day?