Hawaii Trip: Part 2

It's so weird to be sitting here blogging about Hawaii when the mountains and rooftops outside my window are all dusted with snow.  If you didn't read my other post about Hawaii, you may want to scroll down to that one first.  Because now I'm going to write about the second part of our trip--the four days we spent on the Big Island.  This post will probably be long, too.  Hope you are in the mood for a virtual trip to Hawaii!

We flew into the Hilo airport because we were staying at Hale Kai bed and breakfast in Hilo.  It was very different from our warm, sunny days on Oahu.  Hilo is considered the rainiest city in the U.S.  

After checking in at the B&B, we headed up to Volcanoes National Park.  Basically, you drive around Kilauea and look down into various craters from past eruptions.  The main road encircles Kilauea, but a large portion was closed because of the vog from the current eruption at the summit of Kilauea.  We also took Chain of Craters Road as far down as we could.  It used to go closer to the ocean, but lava has been flowing down there since April 2010.  There are plenty of "tour guides" who walk people down to the lava, but the park rangers don't recommend it.  You have to hike across a lot of private property, and the "guides" are mostly just unemployed locals.  There are also boat rides to see the lava hit the ocean, but these are just locals who happen to own boats.  I suppose there might be reputable companies who do tours to the lava, but as far as the park rangers are concerned, this area is closed.

Here's what we saw:

This is the Kilauea Iki Crater.

The Thurston Lava Tube.  It's barely underground, and you walk through it.

This arch is at the end of Chain of Craters Road.

This is as close as we could get to the lava hitting the ocean. The lava is flowing at the point you see in the distance, where the land meets the ocean.

This is just one of the lava fields.  A huge portion of the Big Island looks more or less like this.

Pu'u Loa Petroglyphs

Halema`uma` Crater was my favorite part.  This crater formed in 2008.

Same crater, from a different trail.

It's worth staying up there after dark to see the lava glow red.

We saw that all on Saturday.  Sunday was a lot more low key.  We went to church in the morning.  We had a picnic on our lanai.  

There wasn't a beach, more like a small cliff, but there was nothing between us and the ocean.

This gecko wanted to join us for our picnic.

 We also drove to Akaka Falls and to one of the black sand beaches.

This is the same steam from the lava meeting the ocean that we saw from the other side.  This black sand beach is near where people hike down to see the lava.

On Monday, we went to the Mauna Loa Macadamia Factory tour.  There are big glass windows on the side of the factory so people can watch the workers.  There are videos playing nearby to explain all of the processes.  We ate some macadamia nut ice cream.  Also, in the gift shop, there is a sample counter where you can try one of every flavor of macadamia nuts.  Yummy!

The Big Island is big!  We spent most of the afternoon driving from one side of the island around to the other.  We stayed our last night at the Waikoloa Marriott.  It sits right on the beach, with the entire Anaehoomalu Bay pretty much for the exclusive use of its hotel guests.  Technically other people could go there, too, but the only access is from Marriott property.  It's a pretty bay with black and gold sand, coral reefs, and no waves to speak of.  There were also three large hotel pools that were fun after it was too dark to be at the beach.

I took this picture of the Marriott from the beach.

One of the three swimming pools.

We went on the Ocean Sports Glass Bottom Boat.

It was easy to see the fish through the glass, but it was nearly impossible to take a picture.

The bay is full of green sea turtles.

Wayne also went out on a stand up paddle board with a beach boy guide.  They paddled off so far into the ocean that I couldn't see them from the beach.

 And then we had to come home.  Sigh.  We flew out of the Kona Airport on Tuesday night, arrived in Los Angeles around 4:30 in the morning.  Yes, I asked Wayne if we could please stop at Disneyland, but we had to go home.  I couldn't sleep at all on the airplane rides.  We finally got to our house around lunchtime, and my schedule was thoroughly messed up.  We had a great time, and someday we may even go there again!