Hawaiian Volcano National Park

We made it to the National Park and saw several steam vents, which freaked me out when I got close. I wasn’t expecting the heat, truly!

 Susan looks like an apparition!

Up at the Jagger Museum to see the plum smoke from the crater of lava, we were told to come back after dark so we could see the glow of the lava against the back wall of the crater. The lava had been rising just prior to our visit and we were hoping we would actually get to SEE the lava lake but by the time we got to the park, the level had dropped quite a bit.

 Before getting back to the park, you could see the steam glowing orange from the road. On the approach, the site was pretty amazing! Steam pouring out and the entire place was orange. Our pictures look like we see the lava fire but we didn’t. We had to go inside to see a real time webcam picture of the lava lake, which was large enough to fit a football stadium and its bleachers inside. See my Uncle Dean’s blog post for an excellent view of the crater (http://theketelesens.blogspot.com)

 During daylight hours, we walked through a lava tube you could fit a train through.

Prior to Volcano Park: the turtles!

This is what my aunt Melinda texted before we left for the park: It’s 2.6 hours to the park so if Johnny travels at 47 miles an hour and stops 7 times, how long will it take to get there? And that about summed it up too. We kept stopping in all the cool places.

On our way to Volcano National Park, we stopped at this beach to see the black sand.

 And the best part is that there were three sea turtles resting on the beach. Now my day was made!

Took this picture before reading the sign that said stay 15 feet away from turtles. Oops. My bad. But I just couldn't HELP it.

 Turtle kisses! (actually that one was trying to push out the other one)

Susan next to the turtle.

 It was an exquisite beach!

Prior to leaving for our trip, my aunt Melinda reminded me if any black sand was lurking around, now was the time to take it back. My aunt Vicki had actually had a canister of black sand and Melinda took that bad boy back and dumped it right on the beach! So she is the Poster Child for not removing black sand from Hawaii. The goddess Pele approves, I'm sure!

King Kamehameha & the rainforest valley

Dean and Melinda came to get us Sunday afternoon to visit the town of Hiwa and the statute of King Kamehameha. Kamehameha, known as "the stone crab", is reponsible for conquering Hawaii and establishing it as a kingdom. Along with his statues - this one overlooking Hilo Bay - he graces the state quarter of Hawaii. Behind him on the right is the state flag of Hawaii.

Kamehameha's full Hawaiian name is Kalani Paiʻea Wohi o Kaleikini Kealiʻikui Kamehameha o ʻIolani i Kaiwikapu kaui Ka Liholiho Kūnuiākea. Put THAT in your pipe and smoke it!

We headed to the westernmost end of the Big Island to Pololu Valley, site of a rainforest. Wow. That's the only word necessary.

 My aunt Melinda!

 Moonrise at the valley:

A few days later, our group was on the other end of the Pololu Valley at Waipi'o Lookout.

 That would be guava, I'm pretty sure. There was guava everywhere.

 Here is our group, from left: my aunt Susan (who lives in Dallas), my grandmother, your's truly, aunt Melinda and uncle Dean (who live in Tucson):

One of the highlights of my trip to Hawaii was meeting this weaver, Malei Watson, at Waipi'o Valley. She uses coconut leaves to weave baskets and I got a couple of her fish and birds for the kids.

 She had me do the Hawaiian "shaka" sign for "hang loose for our picture:

Sunday in Hawaii

After a late night waiting for the tsunami that never appeared, we had an easy morning at the resort. We decided to explore what is seriously a compound with three different hotels and an indoor boat that takes you from place to place. Yes, a boat.

We started at the easternmost part of the resort that was closest to us, navigating rocks and coral so we could, as one local told us,“trip over turtles” on that part of the island. No turtles, but we came across a tide pool and that created the most fun up to that point. We saw lots of fish, including pipe fish, and several sea anemones and sea urchins. I navigated the rocks barefoot to pick up a sea urchin shell and ended up stepping on something that MOVED, which sent me into a screech.
The beaches aren't sandy at all but covered with lava rocks and white coral. Makes for impromptu sculpture:

 

The "x" is actually two pipefish:

We walked back across the resort and stopped for awhile at the dolphin lagoon to watch the feeding. I decided that’s where I would later Skype the kids from so they could see the dolphins.

 Hotel scenes:

 

 

Mauna Kea: highest mountain in the world

Our first Big Island adventure involved going to Mauna Kea, the highest mountain in the world at 13,800 feet above sea level, to visit the Keck Observatory.

 

We had to acclimate for an hour at 9,000 feet and I walked among the proliferation of mullein on the volcano. I love mullein and it was used by the Cherokee for smoking, among other things. Also tried some deep yoga breathing because I was already feeling dizzy.

 

The place was eat up with Army soldiers training on the volcano to be deployed to Afghanistan since the region is mountainous there and oxygen low. The poor guys had to run and hike up to the top. One guy said the half mile marker on the volcano is a whole lot different than the half mile mark he’s used to at sea level!

We crammed into our guide’s Explorer for the 8 mile rutted road drive up to the observatory and when we got there, I think all of us kind of went, ”Uh oh” because you felt pretty loopy when you got out there. And it was chilly up there on the top of the world!

I filled out waivers for us and it was a hard to concentrate so when I asked why the astronomers didn’t actually come up to the observatory to do their science, I was told how hard it would be to do “something cerebral” as I had a difficult time just filling out a form with information I knew. So the astronomers stay in their comfy offices wherever and watch everything on the computer.

So we got the grand tour of the telescope and how it works. My uncle Dean, an optical scientist at the University of Arizona and an ace photographer, probably would have kept us there all day but we could only stay for a little while due to oxygen deprivation.

When we got outside to take pictures, it was COLD and we were told that it had been snowing on a few days before, and often chunks of ice weighting about 10 lbs come flying off the telescope. We were happy to be heading down the volcano at that point, I think.

My aunt Melinda's panorama:

To read the ins and outs of the observatory, please visit Dean and Melinda's blog at http://theketelsens.blogspot.com

A tsunami? For real?!

So while we were at dinner, a National Weather Service warning comes across: tsunami is going to hit all of Hawaii because of a significant earthquake in Canada earlier.

 

 Are you joking me? We headed back to the hotel where our room was on the third floor maybe half a block from the ocean on the southern side of the island. I was tired, had a headache and just reasoned that since we were on the other side of the island, I wasn’t too worried about any dadgum tsunami and went to bed.

My aunt Susan stayed up watching the news when hotel security came banging at the door, trying to get us to evacuate to the floor above. We refused.

Susan and I then sat out on the balcony when the tsunami was supposed to hit so we could watch it. Again, security came banging at the door wanting us to evacuate even higher and we said no.

See, our South Carolina back ground was coming out: it’s a 6 foot wave, how high can it reach? We said we really wanted to go stand on the seawall to watch it but figured when the water sucked out to sea that we would about pee in our pants at the realization of just how fast we were going to have to run!

So we watched and watched and watched, and Susan and I made wagers on how close we thought the water would get and … nothing. They called off the warning and we went to bed.

And that was all the next day's paper had about the tsunami - just a headline.

Hitting Hawaii

I knew the flight would be long but no one told me that planes no longer serve food. Anyone who knows me knows that I have to eat like every two hours or I get a little …. crabby (and that’s putting it mildly). When I set foot in Kona, the first thing I said was I needed a large pizza all to myself, well, that was after “Where are the hula girls giving the leis?”

So my Uncle Dean greeted me with a lei!

First leg of the flight I sat next to this woman going to say goodbye to her sister in Portland who is dying from Hepatitus C from a blood transfusion in the 80s. She and I had a great conversation and I’m hoping I made a new friend in Atlanta.

Second leg had me read about half my book, “Unbroken” by Laura Hillenbrand, on the six hour flight, trying to keep my mind off of really wanting to start chewing the headrest in front of me. Then my seatmates kept the window shade down so I didn’t even get to see the island as we flew in.

I got my pizza with an absolute FRESH tomato and basil. Wow. Loved the food already. My uncle Dean and aunt Melinda and I walked to the beach and looked in the tide pools to see a baby barracuda, crabs and other fish. A sign at the beach said green sea turtles come up to the beach to lie in the sun and rest and not to bother them. Um, define “bother”?

So excited to be here with my family!