Hawaii...Days 4 and 5

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

*****Before you begin or open the Smile Box, turn off the other music because it will interfere! Then, after you watch Smile Box, you can turn on the music again!*****

A new adventure begins on day four. Dean has made arrangements for us to travel down to the southern end of the island and stay in a wonderful cottage at a Bed and Breakfast overnight. It is a long drive to get to the Volcanoes National Park on the southern tip of the island, but we found a stop along the way that was really exciting!



Life is good when you can find a Black Sand Beach to walk on barefooted! Panalu'u Black Sand Beach was such a wonderful treat. At first we just oooo'd and ah'd over the amazing black sand, and then, we spotted a little family of huge turtles coming on shore to greet us. It was a wonderful phenomenon! There was a "mommy" and her two little babies.

We had a wonderful break in the monotony of driving and all had a great time. We met a young man while we were there, who just happened to be a traveling musician -- and you can imagine that it caught Billy's attention. He played the cello! We talked for a while and bought a couple of his CD's and then listened to them while we continued our drive south. He is very good and plays good, Christian music.

Once we got to the Volcano area, we stopped at a little cafe in Volcano Village and had a really good sandwich! Or, maybe we were just very hungry! After lunch, we found our B&B and checked in and got a little comfy before heading out again to visit the National Park. The only bad thing about the day was that it was raining! They say it always is raining on this side of the island! I guess that explains all of the rain forests and green!

We braved the storm and went to the Park anyway. We walked through a very long, very dark lava tube while we were there. Lava tubes are interesting phenomena. At one time, very hot lava was traveling through this tube to whatever destination it had. It became a tube, because the upper and outer crust hardened around the hot lava, forming a tube. It was a scary thought for me to realize that I was walking where hot lava once traveled.

After we left the park, we drove (in the driving rain) to Hilo, on the east coast of the island. I had wanted to visit some of the fun shops there, but the rain was unforgiving and blinding. Our goal was to get up to the top of Mauna Kea before sunset to watch the beautiful sunsets there. And so, we by-passed Hilo and drove on to the mountain. We only got lost once!

Once we broke the top of the clouds, heading up the slope of the volcano, the sun was very bright. However, at the top (we were only able to go up to the 10,000 ft. height to the Visitor's Center) it was very cold! The road continues up to the top of Mauna Kea (some 14,000++ feet), but only 4-wheel drive vehicles are allowed up there. There are some of the world's biggest telescopes up on top, but people are not allowed to go into them. They study the stars and planets and send information all over the world. It was phenomenal to see all of this.

Back at the Visitor's Center, we drank hot chocolate, walked around and viewed a couple of videos about the volcanoes in Hawaii. Then, as the sun was getting ready to set, we hiked up a trail where we could have a wonderful view of a magnificent sunset. It was breathtaking!

Coming back to the Visitor's Center, they had set up telescopes so we could view some of the planets that were visible in this clear sky, above all the clouds. I saw Jupiter and 4 of it's moons through one of the telescopes! And the one focused on the moon was amazing. Billy and Dean were able to take pictures through the telescope of the planets. What an amazing universe we have!

After some more hot chocolate and seeing all of the planets and constellations that we could see, we headed back down the mountain, and yes, back into the rain. We got to our little cottage at about 11 p.m. This was not good, because we had to be up at 2 a.m. to drive to meet the tour guide that was going to guide us to the boat ramp for our boat tour of the lava flows at sunrise!

It was amazing that we were all able to get up at that hour and get ready to drive -- again in the rain -- to meet our tour guide. There were 3 or 4 other cars with our group, and when we were all there, we followed our guide down some very interesting roads through the rain forests toward the ocean. We rolled the windows down, despite the rain, to hear some amazing sounds. It sounded like birds in the trees, but we think it was the sound of some very prolific frogs that have taken over the islands! Billy tried recording the sounds on his camera! He is always trying to get new and different sounds for his music adventures!

Once we were at the boat ramp area, we all met together and went through a briefing as to what to expect, etc. And, we boarded the boat before it was driven down to the water to launch. It was most interesting to head out over waves into the open sea in the dark. We all had a bumby ride and an interesting trip. It took us about 45 minutes to get to where we could see the lava flows.

Oh, what a glorious experience this was to watch such amazing power flow from land into the sea. This phenomenon is how these islands were formed. Since the volcano, Kilauea has been flowing for these many years, several hundreds of acres have been added to the island. It was a little difficult to get really good pictures, but some of them were pretty fair. The boat just would not hold still!

I couldn't believe how close we got sometimes to the flow! I could actually see the folding motion as the lava entered the water and created an enormous amount of steam in the process. This day was amazing!
We watched the sunrise in the east, took some more pictures, and then headed back to our little "port" to pull the boat out of the water. The ride back seemed to be more bumpy than the ride there. We went a little slower, too, as the guide pointed out several interesting sights along the way that we had missed in the dark going in the other direction. We saw porpoises, flying fish and some swimming turtles. It was a fun trip.

Once back on Terra Firma, we got back in our car and managed to find our way back to the B&B (only took one wrong turn!). We were just in time for breakfast! And, oh what a lovely breakfast it was! Our wonderful hostess fixed us French toast with Hawaiian bread, complete with scrambled eggs, bacon, another wonderful sweet bread and lots of fruit, including a delicious mango! It was delicious!

After breakfast, it was time to pack up, clean up and head back up the western coast going north to Kailua/Kona. We stopped for a while to see some more of the Volcanoes National Park. We drove up to the Kiluea crater where there is another Visitor's Center and took some more pictures; we walked along an area where there were colorful sulfur outcroppings and lots of steam; and we walked on another rain forest trail to view another little crater. All I can say is, Amazing!

Our only stop on our way home was at a little bakery that made delicious doughnuts and sandwiches for lunch. Dean bought some poi doughnuts, and they were really quite good! It was a restful little stop.

Once back to our condo, it was time for rest and showers! This was a very long day and I don't think we could fit one more thing into it! We just ate left-overs and went to bed! Oh, we did catch another beautiful sunset, though. Imagine that -- we viewed a beautiful sunrise on the east coast of the island, and another beautiful sunset on the west coast! These were 2 very good days!