3/6 and 3/7 On the Way Home

We checked out of our hotel and got on the road. We had all day to wander along the scenic route, as our flight isn’t until 11:45 at night! We stopped at a wonderful 442-foot waterfall – lovely sight (see photo). On the way out of the falls, we stopped in a small western-style town to poke around in the antique shop. The people there were very nice and recommended a scenic point for us not to miss and a 50’s style diner for lunch. They were correct on both counts. We had lunch in a funky diner – 50’s music playing, lots of jukeboxes, and record albums on the wall. The restroom was dedicated to Betty Boop! The scenic point was lovely. We watched as whales spouted off shore and the waves crashed onto the rocks in shore (see photo). We eventually reached the Kona coast, which is so different from the Hilo side of the island. This side does not get as much rain and looks more like Arizona – quite dry. We stopped at a national historic site and took a walk down to the beach. We spotted a Pacific sea turtle sunning himself in a tide pool (see photo). That was really cool. We continued driving the coast and stopped at a beach park where families were swimming and camping on the beach. We were tempted to go for a swim, but then the thought of having salty bodies on the plane put us off that idea. We found a nice place to have dinner where we could eat outside. We soaked up the last rays of sunshine and reminded ourselves that it would be quite a while before we could eat outside at home without wearing a parka! We had had a lovely last day and decided to get to the airport early. Unfortunately, we outfoxed ourselves. We had to wait to go through the agriculture checkpoint, as our gate was not open yet. So we waited until it was close to the time for the gates to open and I went to stand in line with our carry-ons while Dave waited to check our big bags through the agricultural checkpoint. It all worked out fine. Dave got through and joined me just as we were called to the counter. We got rid of our big bags and then passed through security. We then had to go through another agriculture checkpoint for our small bags. We finally got to our “gate” – outside seating on park benches with a roof over our heads. We waited some more and then finally got to board – a short walk across the tarmac and up the stairs to the plane. We managed to doze a bit for most of the flight and landed early in Phoenix. We have a wait for our next flight to Philadelphia, but that is okay. We stopped for breakfast and are now just sitting in our waiting room watching CNN. This is basically the first TV we have watched in a month. We realize that we didn’t miss much. We usually are mostly focused on the weather at home anyway. We will be home late tonight and we are ready to be home – we miss our family and friends and will be anxious to catch up with everyone. So goodbye Hawaii and hello Connecticut. It was a lovely trip, but it is always nice to come home.

3/5 Rain, Rain, Rain

We had a nice time last night. We went to a wood turner’s opening night reception and saw some remarkable work done by people all over the big island (see photo). There were lots of bowls, but also other pieces that were works of art. There were also miniatures done on a very small lathe. They had a silent auction and we saw two pieces that we liked so we bid on both – hoping that we would get one. Well, we ended up with both! They are beautiful so we are not upset at all. We went for a late dinner near to the hotel and then to bed and our books.

Our intention was to go to the beach this morning and take a swim at the place we saw yesterday that didn’t look as rocky. Unfortunately, Mother Nature did not want to cooperate. The skies were dark and it looked like it would rain any minute. We scrapped that plan and went into town to visit a museum called the Discovery Center and run by NOAA. Mystic Seaport had loaned them a harpoon last year and Dave had helped to pack it up so we wanted to see it on display. They had a nice exhibit on shipwrecks and the harpoon had a place of honor in a lovely wood and glass case over the whole thing. We chatted with a couple of people and then headed over to the Craft/Farmer’s market. By this time it was pouring! We walked around a bit looking at different handcrafts (mostly jewelry) and then stopped in the food market for cinnamon buns for tomorrow’s breakfast. We then drove over to the wood worker’s exhibition as they were having lathe demonstrations today. We ate our lunch in the car (finished up the end of the cheese and crackers) and then went to see what was being made. The first demo was a woman who was making tiny bowls (smaller than the end of your thumb) on a very small lathe. The next fellow was demonstrating how to make honey dippers out of branches (see photo). It was quite interesting and makes us want to give our lathe a try when we get home. We then drove back to Hilo Hattie’s to take a picture (see above) of the 200XL Hawaiian shirt. It was not pouring now, but was still sprinkling and a not very nice day so we went over to see what movie was playing. We found one called “I am Number Four” and decided to read in the car until show time. What we didn’t know was that this was a combination sci-fi/teenage angst movie – neither one is my favorite so not such a great choice. We went to dinner at a local drive in joint and then back to the hotel. We repacked our bags this morning so we are pretty ready to take off tomorrow. We are flying out of Kona, which is on the other side of the island so we will take the upper scenic route around the top of the island and explore new territory on our way to the airport. There is no rush to get there, as our flight is not until 11:45 in the evening. Apparently all of the flights back to the mainland are red-eyes.

3/4 A Really Quiet Day

We went for a walk in the Japanese Garden next to our hotel this morning. It was a “wet” garden with small ponds and bridges along side the ocean – very nice (see photo). We then went for a drive nearby to check out some of the local beaches. There was a fourth grade class having a field trip at the first beach we stopped at. The kids were having a wonderful time collecting specimens with their nets and then putting them in large buckets so everyone could see. They had collected lots of urchins, some hermit crabs, cone shells, a baby scorpion fish and some sea cucumbers. Dave was in his element! (see photo) A large leatherback turtle came into the bay where the kids were working – they all seemed to be afraid of it – I supposed it was bigger than they are. We saw a whale spouting off in the distance. We left that beach and stopped at another – this is where we ate our lunch. There was a nice looking beach a little further down, but no parking. We should have brought our water shoes as most of the beaches are surrounded by lava rocks (see photo) – not sand and you would be foolish to walk on that with bare feet. We went back to the hotel and checked out the pool, but the water was freezing! Much colder than the ocean. We sat on the lanai for a while and read and are now back in our room. We will be going out in a bit. We saw a sign downtown that there is a wood turner’s exhibit, which starts tonight so we are going to check it out.

3/3 Take It Easy Day

We woke up to beautiful sunshine. We were really tired yesterday so decided to take it easy today. We stopped downtown to check out the Discovery Center Museum – it was closed again, but we did see a sign that said it would re-open on Saturday so we will try again. We stopped at the Post Office to mail off the last of our postcards and then walked up to the library to see the huge stone on display. The legend goes that this stone (see photo) was brought over to Hawaii by canoe and only those men with Royal blood could lift it – now, it is a lava rock, which would make it lighter than granite, but we’re guessing it weighs at least 500-600 pounds! From there we went to the campus of the University of Hawaii to visit the astronomical/culture center. Unfortunately, the displays were not the best and the planetarium was under renovation. They did have a portable, blow-up planetarium, but you had to sit on the floor during the presentation and that nearly killed us – we are getting old! We drove out of town and down State Road 130 to see where the lava is spilling into the sea. For safety reasons and because they have to man the site from loony people, the viewing times posted on the gate were from 2 PM – 10 PM. Since it was noon, we pulled off to the side of the road and ate our cheese and crackers. We then spotted on the map a nearby scenic route along the shore. It was amazing to see where old lava fields had passed over the road (causing new sections of the road to be carved through or made to go over the lava). The road was interesting as it went from two lanes to one lane with pullouts without any warning several times. We finally looped back to the gated dead end around 2:00. We walked about a half-mile up the road only to discover that you couldn’t see the lava flowing into the ocean. It had moved on down the coast where there are no access roads. Apparently, at night you can see the glows on the hillside, but we had already seen the spectacular glow from the crater in the national park. We did however see the lava that flowed across this road only 6 weeks before (see photo). It was still quite hot – Dave held his hand out from about 10 feet away and thought it was perhaps 500 degrees. You could certainly feel the heat and see the heat waves emanating from it. Unbelievably, people have started building on top of the 1990 lava flow (see photo of house)! The views of the ocean are sweet, the land is cheap and you don’t have to mow the grass! On our way back to town, we stopped at a macadamia nut factory. The orchard was huge – 250,000 trees on 2500 acres! We were given samples of the onion/garlic nuts and chocolate covered nuts – they were both good. Of course, we had to buy some to bring home. We got back into town and decided to have an early dinner and take in a movie. We got to the theatre, which is in a shopping mall area a bit early so walked around and window shopped. We did go into Hilo Hattie’s shop, which sells Hawaiian shirts and dresses. The shirt in the entry area was huge – 200XL! You could use it as a tent! I didn’t have my camera with me, but I will try to stop back today to snap a photo. We saw “Unknown” – it was a tense, car-chase type of movie with lots of twists – very good. I don’t know what we will do tomorrow. We are starting to be ready to come home – we are missing family and friends, but not the weather.

3/2 A Day of Hiking Among the Volcanoes

As you can see from yesterday's and today's blogs, I am having trouble with Navigator again and am using Safari. For some reason, the print is HUGE! You may want to read them from across the room. We got to the park early this morning and did the Kilauea Iki trail first. The trail started at the crater’s rim (almost 4000 feet) and dropped 400 feet (the height of a 40 story building) before ending on the bed of a fairly dormant lava lake. I say fairly dormant as the eruption here was in 1959, but there are still active steam vents on the surface. We had a wonderful hike (4.8 miles round trip). Part of it was along the rim in the rain forest where we were serenaded by small red Hawaiian honey sucker birds. We then descended to the floor of the “lake” bed and walked across the hardened crust (see pic of lake bed with old volcano on one side and new volcano erupting in the distance). We found some golden strands of what looked like hair, but is actually spun lava – it was very cool. We went over and stood next to a steam vent (see photo) – but not too close – and the air was definitely hot. I imagine you could burn yourself if you got too close. When we got back to the car, we had an early lunch of crackers and cheese and then drove partway down the Crater Rim road to the Mauna Ulu eruption site. This eruption took place in 1969 and did not stop erupting until 1974! We took some pictures of lava covered tree trunks (see above) and climbed up to the top of a volcano cone (only 210 feet – no biggie after this morning) to see a great view of Mauna Ulu. We were amazed at the tenacity of life: many small trees and ferns were growing in the cracks of the lava (see photo). It was really quite remarkable. Our “dogs” were tired by the time we came back to the car as this was a 3.5 mile hike, but no respite from the rain forest. We were walking on black lava surface with lots of sunshine – very hot and tiring. We headed back to Hilo, but stopped for a short visit to an orchid farm. I didn’t know orchids came in so many shapes, sizes and colors! They were beautiful. We are doing laundry now and will go out in a bit for dinner. Hopefully it will be to a restaurant that is far enough away to drive to – I think we are both too tired to walk!

3/1 Volcano National Park

What a full day. We woke to blue skies so quickly had breakfast so we could get to the park as early as possible. The park is 28 miles away from Hilo – we were going away from the city so we had no traffic at all – everyone was coming in to Hilo. When we got to the park, the ranger suggested we go to Thurston Lava Tube first as it tends to get crowded later in the day. She was right – there was only one other couple there. Later in the day, we came by again and the parking lot was full of cars and tour buses! The lava tube was cool to walk through (see photo). It is made by lava flowing and then cooling from the outside/in forming a crust. The lava inside keeps flowing until the tube is empty. We were able to walk through for about 1000 feet – it was pretty cool. We then went to the Visitor Center and picked up some hike maps. From there we went up to the museum to see the active crater spewing sulphuric gases. On the way out we stopped to take some photos of the many steam vents that are along the road. We then went as far as we could on the Crater Rim road. In 1995 lava spilled over the roadway and the road dead-ends now (see photos). We decided to go for dinner so went to nearby Volcano, which is a tourist town, but their only restaurant didn’t open until 5:30, so we decided to go down the road away from Hilo (28 miles away and raining) toward the south. We stopped several places, but couldn’t find a restaurant until we were 24 miles away! We could have driven back to Hilo! It was one of the best hamburgers we have ever had though – homemade bun and all. We drove back to the park and up to the museum to see the volcano at night – as you can see from the picture, it was worth it. At both times that we were at the museum, they experienced a small earthquake – we didn’t feel either one. The 11:30 AM one caused more dark smoke to rise with the gases and we could hear the rumbling as rocks fell in – it was a 2.6 earthquake. At 7:05 PM there was a 1.3 which we couldn’t hear, but the glow did get brighter and the gases rose higher. We got back to Hilo tired, but feeling that we had a full day. Tomorrow we will go hiking in the park.