Today was a day of many sites, largely involving volcanoes, but others as well on the Big Island of Hawai'i. We left Honolulu mid-morning for Hilo and upon landing noticed a military detail waiting on the tarmac. Pretty soon we saw the casket they were waiting for as a soldier was returning home. This was emotional and a sober start to the day, but I was honored to be on a plane that was transporting this brave soldier, whoever it was. We were then picked up by our tour guide, James, who spent the day taking us on a tour of different sites and sharing a vast encyclopedia of knowledge he apparently keeps in his head. Really good guide and full of very cool information.
Our first stop was to a black sand beach, as apparently many of the beaches on the island are. That was a unique thing to see in person. The view was also amazing, as you can see here with Mauna Loa, a rather large volcano, off in the distance. The peak of that one (there are five on the island, four of which are active) has snow on it right now. Pretty incredible view.
We then worked our way to Rainbow Falls, which is in Hilo and on a river. Pretty unique site in that you can walk a trail that takes you above the falls, and then people just walk right out into the river there as there are many large rocky areas.
No railings or anything. They just do it. Didn't look terribly safe to me but we were content with the pics we got. After that we headed to lunch at a buffet, where one of the office staff saw my Huskers shirt and told me Nebraska is his favorite college team. Why? Because, and I think I have this right, his former roommate's sister used to be engaged to Eric Crouch (apparently that's not who Eric married) and during that time he became a big Huskers fan and still is. That was unexpected. :)
We left the buffet and headed to the Mauna Loa Macadamia nut factory. So to recap, this week we have visited the Dole Plantation and this place. Good stuff. Had a few samples, had an ice cream bar coated in macadamia nuts, grabbed some pics, walked around the grounds a bit and then headed off to the Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park.
Interestingly, the park became a U.S. National Parks Service park in 1916, 43 years before Hawai'i even became a state. This is because it became a territory in the late 1890s and they were already working toward becoming a state. Our tour guide drove us on the Chain of Craters Drive all the way down to the ocean, which was 8 or 9 miles. Take a look at this pic below. What I thought was all sky turned out to be the outline of Mauna Loa. Wow.
We stopped at several spots along the way to see the lava and what it creates. It was especially interesting and beautiful walking along the lava close to the ocean and the scenery there was just breathtaking. This first pic is us against a protective wall (to protect the people) so you could look upon the ocean. There is a sheer cliff below this about 50 feet high, I guess. It is also VERY windy, as I think you can see from Katy's hair and my shorts. Katy also had me take a pic of our feet on the lava so you can see just how dark it is. Seeing things like this on TV is interesting, but it doesn't match being there. This stuff is really fascinating to see and experience, and I'd highly recommend it for anyone who can make the trip out here. Also, they regularly have to re-do the roads or even re-route them when lava flows take them out. I have a pic of that here covering an area down at the coast. Fascinating to see, really. The light grey? That's the original road we would have driven on before the lava flowed over it.
After the lava flow to the ocean we stopped at a few other spots along the way back up to see some unique things, like formations the lava created, which you see here to the left with Katy and Zac in an open cave, and a lava tube, off to the right. The lava apparently flows over a span of 26 miles, enabling it to help create more land, as it turns out. We eventually worked our way back up to where we could see the steam vents from Kilauea and even feel how warm the ground was in spots. Our driver told us it was a good possibility that eventually the area we were standing on would become a crater just like the area to our south (I think south) in another 20 years or so. Just part of the intrigue of living around volcanoes, from what we heard.
After the steam vents we went to the viewing area for Kilauea to see the active lava flow in the crater. I know the pic isn't the greatest, but it was hard to get in good spots to take a pic as so many seemed intent on camping out in front with their cameras and not moving. They do offer viewing telescopes of sorts, though, and they gave you a great view of the lava moving and "dancing", so to speak. Very powerful to see.
Our night ended with a flight back to Honolulu, which was delayed for almost an hour by mechanical issues with the plane that was supposed to be headed our way. This has made for a very long, very late day, and as I am very tired, this is the end of this post for Wednesday. Thursday promises to be very relaxing for me, not so sure about everyone else, but an update will be provided. Take care everyone! :)
Today we purposely made no plans. After all the activity yesterday and more to come this week, I think everyone was grateful for the chance to just be a little bit lazy. Perhaps this is what caused me to post on Facebook earlier today that I felt I had lost all sense of time. That phrase explains just how relaxed I am, and it's wonderful. I don't live a stressful life, but being here is just amazing. So what did we do today, if we had no plans? Well, after a breakfast at Burger King (not planned even a little bit), we stopped at this Christmas store to buy an ornament to have personalized with our Hawaiian names, and then Zac and I headed down the beach a bit to where they've placed a seawall to swim. The seawall creates a nice swimming bay and does a great job of keeping most of the rocks and shells from coming in. It was a great area. I only had my, now cloudy, camera on my phone to use, but I grabbed a pic of Zac anyway. We had a lot of fun just enjoying the waves coming in and relaxing in the salt water. Katy didn't come along as she wanted to do the historical tour of the hotel that was happening at 11, but we learned later a lot of the details from her. This place is pretty fascinating and has quite the history, including an apparent ghost, which many current employees admit they indeed have either felt or even seen. Well now, THAT is something we are interested in! We'd hoped to head back to the area this evening but with the three of us feeling perhaps a little overwhelmed with the food we've eaten these past few days (just too much; just too good), we decided to stay in tonight. For lunch we walked over to a 50s style diner and had a pretty good meal and very good shakes. Zac and Katy shared a Coke shake and I had a chocolate malt. After this we dropped back by the Christmas store and picked up our ornament, which you see here to the right and above a bit. This afternoon we had plans to have our pictures taken at the hotel. There were opportunities for so many good shots, but due to timing and location often the sun glare off white tiles or white buildings was so strong we couldn't see. And outdoor shots in the sun mean my glasses are going to turn dark, so for quite a few I took them off. Well that just made my eyes water more in the sun. :) We got enough good ones to pick a few for keeps as well as one they chose for us that was a freebie. The photographer was very nice and I think had timing been earlier in the day, the pics overall would have turned out better and made our decision for what to keep much tougher. I'll share the pics here before going on.
We did have a nice dinner at the Beach Bar restaurant the hotel has, and that was very enjoyable. The breeze eventually cooled down a little bit as the sun began to set, and the two-piece band on stage (with an amazing guitar player, I should say) kept us entertained.
They even brought a hula dancer on stage (I heard something about Miss Hawai'i, I think, perhaps in the competition?) and so that added some culture to their primarily Hawaiian songs as well. Here is a short clip I took on Katy's phone, and her settings aren't set up to record in HD, so I apologize for the poor quality: Yes, several Elvis songs about the area were sung and hopefully the video above plays for you. One funny thing during dinner was that these birds, which walk around like we aren't even there, are constantly looking for crumbs off the ground, and at one point I felt one of them peck at my toes. After that I decided to move my feat to the beat of the songs, just in case. :)
Zac's tummy was a bit unsettled (too much in the way of sweets today, perhaps) so he headed up to the room while Katy and I enjoyed the music a bit longer, then I took this pic of her on the beach as the sun was setting. Her phone doesn't grab light as well as mine (of course mine grabs NOTHING right now) so I had to work with it after the fact a bit, but I think this is a pretty good representation. I nabbed another shot or two of the sunset, along with a large sailboat in the distance right in front of it, and we spent a few minutes along the water letting it rush over our toes and enjoying the peacefulness of the evening. Tomorrow we drive around the island stopping at spots along the way to dip our toes in the ocean and get some shaved ice. We're ready! Obligatory Hawai'i sunset shot below, sailboat in the distance. Enjoy! :)
Today was a day of many sites, largely involving volcanoes, but others as well on the Big Island of Hawai'i. We left Honolulu mid-morning for Hilo and upon landing noticed a military detail waiting on the tarmac. Pretty soon we saw the casket they were waiting for as a soldier was returning home. This was emotional and a sober start to the day, but I was honored to be on a plane that was transporting this brave soldier, whoever it was. We were then picked up by our tour guide, James, who spent the day taking us on a tour of different sites and sharing a vast encyclopedia of knowledge he apparently keeps in his head. Really good guide and full of very cool information. 
Our first stop was to a black sand beach, as apparently many of the beaches on the island are. That was a unique thing to see in person. The view was also amazing, as you can see here with Mauna Loa, a rather large volcano, off in the distance. The peak of that one (there are five on the island, four of which are active) has snow on it right now. Pretty incredible view.
We then worked our way to Rainbow Falls, which is in Hilo and on a river. Pretty unique site in that you can walk a trail that takes you above the falls, and then people just walk right out into the river there as there are many large rocky areas.
We left the buffet and headed to the Mauna Loa Macadamia nut factory. So to recap, this week we have visited the Dole Plantation and this place. Good stuff. Had a few samples, had an ice cream bar coated in macadamia nuts, grabbed some pics, walked around the grounds a bit and then headed off to the Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park. 
We stopped at several spots along the way to see the lava and what it creates. It was especially interesting and beautiful walking along the lava close to the ocean and the scenery there was just breathtaking. This first pic is us against a protective wall (to protect the people) so you could look upon the ocean. There is a sheer cliff below this about 50 feet high, I guess. It is also VERY windy, as I think you can see from Katy's hair and my shorts. Katy also had me take a pic of our feet on the lava so you can see just how dark it is. Seeing things like this on TV is interesting, but it doesn't match being there. This stuff is really fascinating to see and experience, and I'd highly recommend it for anyone who can make the trip out here. Also, they regularly have to re-do the roads or even re-route them when lava flows take them out. I have a pic of that here covering an area down at the coast. Fascinating to see, really. The light grey? That's the original road we would have driven on before the lava flowed over it.
After the lava flow to the ocean we stopped at a few other spots along the way back up to see some unique things, like formations the lava created, which you see here to the left with Katy and Zac in an open cave, and a lava tube, off to the right. The lava apparently flows over a span of 26 miles, enabling it to help create more land, as it turns out.
