Day 2 (with pics)

Oh my!  What an incredible world!! What an incredible corner of it!!

Today started with a fabulous breakfast from our host, including lots of fresh fruit (including some delicious crepes), a delicious local sausage, and pecan flavored almond butter croissant french toast. Then it was off to the Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park, and one wonder after another. The park focuses heavily on Kilauea, with the far more massive Mauna Loa as a backdrop to it. As we drove around Crater Rim Drive, after putting together our game plan at the visitor's center, we stopped first at the steam vents viewing area. ₂ fumes. Instead, her health status and energy level served as an effective barometer for keeping the visit from getting too strenuous for her knee.

View of Kilauea caldera from steam vents observation point

This provided our first impressive view of the Kilauea caldera, and had it been the last one we would have been amply impressed.

View of Kilauea crater from Jaggar Museum

The two successive stops were each more impressive than the last, ending with the well positioned Jaggar Museum with its observation deck. Had Teri been in better hiking shape rather than feeling sick, we might have been disappointed that the trails across the caldera are all closed due to SO₂.

Thurston lava tube

After spending a little time at the museum, we next headed down to the Thurston lava tube. This was also incredibly impressive!

Next up was a drive down Chain of Craters road. We didn't make it to the bottom before Teri ran out of gas, but viewed one impressive site after another until she had all she could stand.  On leaving the park we found a little cafe for some lunch - probably our most affordable meal purchase in our two visits to the islands, but appropriately so given its pedestrian quality. We then headed back to our room for a brief nap before trying to find a beach.

Roadside pull-off on the coastal road to Kalapala

Which turned out to be a vain errand, but we still had one neat adventure after another for the remainder of the afternoon and into the evening. We drove along the ocean where I thought our host had indicated we would find a beach, but this was not the case (unless "rocky coast" is a synonym for beach on the leeward side of Hawai'i) until we ended up back at Kalapala and the black sand beach. We ventured down onto the beach this time, and though we didn't swim we did wade in the breaking surf. It was a special time (my only new pic from this visit to the beach is already on FB). We also took a family picture for a young mom and dad who were their with their two pre-school sons.

MacKenzie Park

We were beginning to run out of daylight, but still wanted some real beach time if we could find it. So we headed back toward Pahoa, which I thought would be the quickest route to the only remaining areas on our host's map where we could hope to find a suitable beach. The roads we were driving on during all this time were incredible, including some winding one-laned sections, vegetation surrounding the road on both sides occasionally giving way to a view of the ocean and the rocky coastline. In one section, the lava trees seemed to form walls and a canopy over the road. We went to a couple of parks. First was Isaac Hale Beach Park, but again, we found only rocky areas; perhaps we didn't venture far enough away from the parking area. Next was MacKenzie Park, which turned out to be a good 50 feet above sea level, though the breaking waves splashed up onto the lava shelf at a couple of points.

Now that it was too dark to continue beach hunting, we returned to our room and changed clothes for dinner. And now I can believe that Kaleo's may be the best restaurant on the island. Oh, my, what a meal!! I had an incredible edamame hummus appetizer served with fried pita wedges; Teri's corn chowder was comped when it was served as it was the bottom of the pot and didn't have much substance, though what was there was delicious. My entree' was a fried ahi filet served with rice and a wonderful slaw that I just can't do justice. Teri had a yummy-looking chicken parmesan, and we finished the meal off with a banana lumpia served with ice cream. Oh, and we were sitting right next to a fine guitarist whose repertoire heavily overlapped my own, who it turns out is also praise and worship leader in his church and is going to be praying for me on Sunday during our citywide Pentecost celebration in Dayton.

Teri wasn't feeling up to a return to the observation deck for a night view of the Kilauea caldera, which I think would have been spectacular to see. However, on the drive back to our room, as we were amazed by the vast array of stars visible in the night sky, I noticed the Southern Cross before us. I hadn't seen it on our previous trip or earlier on this one, due to either light pollution on Oahu or cloud cover, but I have always wanted to. It turns out that my window of opportunity was pretty narrow, as I looked out for one more peak at the night sky before retiring for the night, but quite a bit of it is now obscured by clouds.

First day on The Big Island:

It was so hard to say goodbye to our sweet grandchildren this morning; even though we'll be back in two days, we'll also only have two days left with them. I'm thankful that Friday's flight is late, so we'll at least have the whole day with them.

The flight to Hilo was delayed, as were five of the other six flights from Go! airlines on the departure board. The other inter-island carriers seemed to all be running on time, by comparison. There was also an adventure with getting our bag once we landed: they announced the wrong baggage claim on the plane, sending us to the opposite end of the airport. By the time we realized it and got to the correct carousel there were no bags there; they had apparently removed our bag to the ticket counter, only there was no one manning the ticket counter either time I walked past it. But we finally got our bag, and our car, and made our way to our B&B, the Plumeria Hill Bed and Breakfast, near Pahoa in the Puna region.

The view from our room is wonderful!

On the owner's recommendation, we went to the local restaurant he called "the best on the island." It was indeed a very nice meal, but if it really is the best restaurant on the island then there is a dearth of fine eateries here and someone should plan on making a killing with a high-end bistro.

After lunch we returned to the room for a short nap before heading out to try to find the lava viewing area. First we stopped at the town of Kalapana, almost by mistake. We were looking for the lava viewing area, drove into town first, then backtracked to a road that was marked with signs indicating that access was restricted to those authorized to enter. So turning back around, we returned to Kalapana, where we were informed that it was about a fifteen minute walk to the beach, and that we would see the steam plume in the distance where the lava was flowing into the ocean.

Indeed we did, but I could tell we would never be able to see the actual flow into the ocean from here, as it was clearly too far away.

Still, the lava fields are incredibly striking, with the stark contrast of the vegetation growing in the midst of a sea of black rock.

I'd been lamenting how limited our time here on the island is going to be, fearing we weren't going to be able to see the famous unique beaches here. But soon the lava rock under our feet gave way to black sand . . .






. . . and cresting the last short rise in the path we beheld the world famous black sand beach.

We simply enjoyed some time in the presence of the crashing surf and each other's company before walking back in to Kalapana town.

On the way in, one of the tour guides saw me taking a picture of the smoldering lava flow off in the distance, and let us know that if we proceeded beyond the restricted access sign we'd previously encountered we would reach the lava flow viewing area. By the time we got there it was getting dark, and my lack of a camera tripod kept me from getting any decent shots of the glowing lava in the distance. Still, it was a very impressive sight.  We were standing on a two-year old lava flow, surrounded by a 23-year old lava field with vegetation sprouting all over it. The staff member at the viewing area told us that, prior to the 2011 lava flow, the viewing area had been significantly closer to where the lava enters the ocean. We could still only see the steam plume. There are paid excursions that would get us closer, but I doubt that will be on our agenda.

What an incredible day!!