The View from the lanai

!We have arrived on the Kona coast. As you can see, our condo is right on the ocean. Adelaide is down making coral messages. We have been here a couple of hours and I have been glued to the lanai.

Akaka Falls

Hilo

We found some sun in Hilo to our surprise!  All the guide books tell about rain in Hilo. We walked around the park by the waterfront as well as Coconut Island which has a varied history from a quarantine area to a military training area with recreational use in between and definitely now. Behind the kids you can see the locals jumping off the platform. We visited the Pacific Tsunami Museum which was educational and sobering.  Hilo is so low lying that you can imagine the devastation a tsunami could cause.

The Glow from Halema'uma'u Crater

We headed back to the park tonight for the crater show. We could see the glow as soon as we approached the parking lot at the Jaggar Museum. The glow from the lava reflects up in the steam. We were happy we could see it despite the drizzle.

A ranger was still there so we were able to get some of our questions answered about sights we saw along the Chain of Craters Rd. The blue cast to the lava we saw at the end is from titanium. The asphalt on the roads is made from lava which is why Hawaii bears the dubious distinction of the state where car tires wear out the fastest. The flows we saw coming down the hillside were from the 1969 - 1974 eruption of the Mauna Ulu lava shield. There are no plans to rebuild the Chain of Craters Rd until Pu'u O'o crater is no longer active (which it has been since the early 80's). Okay--so now you are all ready for any Hawaiian volcano trivia thrown your way!

We are still on the hunt for the nene which is the Hawaiian goose and state bird. Despite the many nene crossing signs, we have yet to see any.

Tomorrow we leave Volcano and will end up in Kailua Kona on the west coast--where we hope to find sunshine!

Holei Sea Arch and pahoepoe

It's the end of the road as we know it

...and we feel fine!  Maybe because we caught some sun at the end of Chain of Craters Road! The kids were pretty impressed with the lava flow over the road. We walked over the lava and saw markers where the road used to be. The kids got pretty adept at finding Pele's hair.  On the way down to the end we saw deep pit craters and so many different lava fields and flows.  Isaac described some of it that we saw aptly as looking like crushed oreo.

Halema'uma'u Crater

This is one of the active areas within Kilauea. During the day we can see the steam from the lava lake deep within. We are hoping see a glow tonight--weather permitting. Have we mentioned that it's raining?? There are some lava flows in a remote area in the East Rift Zone from Pu'u O'o but even a big hike won't get us close. John learned about Pele's hair today which is spun glass fibers from the volcano.  He found some very easily. They often gather in the crevices. Off to adventure along Chain of Craters Road.