We Take Ourselves With Us

After the beach, we set off for our last destination before the airport: Volcano National Park (or for all our fellow Bjork fans--Volchano National Park). Of course, as we started heading up in elevation, the temperature dropped, the rain fell and the winds got even windier. (So, Ned took the photos with his waterproof camera, and I'll add them later.) Undeterred, we plotted three stops: the steam vents, the Jaggar Museum & Volcano overlook, and the lava tube. We blew through the steam vents--got it: volcano steam! We were saving our own steam for the overlook, where we stood right next to a real life volcano that helped create the Big Island itself. Remarkable! Our last stop was a 27 foot long underground tube cut through the rock hundreds of years ago by molten lava on its way to form the shore. Early Hawaiians used the tubes (which are all over the islands) for everything from water filtration to strategic battle tactics to burial tombs. We used it to walk throug

On our last day, we headed south to Punaluu Beach (the black sand beach). It was picture postcard perfect: a truly black sand (pulverized lava) beach surrounded by swooping palm trees, blue waters & giant sea turtles sleeping on the sand and in the surf. The wind whipped across the beach, creating white capped waves that sprayed against the black lava reef. This created a series of small tide pools with warmer water, perfect for warming our toes and following teeny tide pool fish as the darted about. As we looked around, it really was like bring in a tropical movie from the golden age of cinema--all technicolor perfection!

While I was wandering around the hotel pretending my toe wasn't broken and playing Sugar Crush in the lovely Hawaiian evening, Ned and the kids braved a very, very wavy sea to night snorkel in search of Manta Rays. For more than an hour, they alternately hung from the ship's snorkeling rig bobbing in the chilly ocean looking out for the elusive Rays and quickly rushed into the cabin to warm up with hot cocoa. In the end, their dedication paid off: a single, huge Ray swam around and around them, eerily lit from above. It bumped right into them in its water ballet. All my Jacques Cousteaus came back cold but elated! (I'll try to post Ned's video later--it's amazing!) In lieu of Manta Ray pics and photos, I'll post some random photos of our lovely hotel.

Hey, did I mention I broke my toe on the snorkeling trip? I stubbed it on the boat on a slope in the deck I hadn't seen, and it hurt like mad. But, I figured, "Don't be such a weenie. You're snorkeling in Hawaii, for God's sake! It's a stubbed toe. Suck it up.". Well, when I took off my flippers, it was clear it wasn't a stubbed toe. It was already swelling and turning an odd shade of purple. Now, at this point, I should interject that my father believed all illnesses were in the mind, so my sister and I were raised as classic "walk it off" children. Which is just what I did--I walked it off ... over to the ship's stairs and back in for more snorkeling, across lava rocks, over black sand beaches, up to sleeping sea turtles, into lava tunnels, up to a volcano look out, and through four airports. (BTW, I also walked off sea sickness on the bumpy way to the bay--it's nature's cure-all!) It's still really ugly--a weird p

We booked a half day snorkeling excursion for this morning--and then Ned & the kids decided to pair it with a night snorkel with the manta rays. While the success of the latter remains to be seen, the success of the first (on Fair Winds) is without question! While we ate a full breakfast buffet, the catamaran sailed about 6 miles down the shoreline through choppy, deep blue waters to Kealakekua Bay: a protected (both legally and naturally) inlet filled with coral reefs and crystal clear, smooth, turquoise waters. I'd never snorkeled before, but the boat had prescription masks on board and a crazily helpful crew ... I took to snorkeling like a 50 year old fish to water :) It was simply beautiful, like swimming peacefully through the world's largest aquarium while fish nibbled and played on coral reefs just inches from me. It was already pretty near perfect, then the dolphins re-appeared. They had circled the boat earlier, twirling out of the water, 10-15 fins surfac

We set off for Akaka Falls in the growing grey of the day, but with ponchos in hand, we decided to experience the rainforest in the rain. Well worth it! The walk through Akaka Falls state park is like a strenuous stroll through Jurassic Botanical Park: massive plants, unusual flowers, towering trees of every sort--all dangling vines or covering the ground with menacing looking root shoots. And, around every turn, water--roaring, cascading rapids that only hint at their source: two high falls--Akaka at over 400 feet and Kahuna Falls at less that hall that height. The falling rain (more of a heavy drizzle) really added to the experience, giving us a sense of being back in time as the forest grew. From there, we headed to Rainbow Falls and the Boiling Pots (the swirling waters over the falls). The rain increased as we drove sling the Eastern coast to Hilo. But, the rain also created a more powerful, rumbling waterfall and really boiling pots. Sadly, we were once again snow

Despite threats of flash flooding and torrential rains, we set off yesterday for the Eastern side of Hawaii. (Um, we lived in Florida for several decades & now live in upstate New York--give us vinyl ponchos a hoodies, a bottle of water and some Macadamia Crunch popcorn and we're ready for anything Mother Nature's got!). We made the right call. We drove back through the rolling, tufted terrain of Hawaii's ranches. The vast openness let us see both the bright blue peaking through the sky and the dense, angry clouds building around Mauna Kea. And the whipping wind seemed a permanent fixture: all the trees were bent away from it with little foliage on the side pummeled by the winds that must flow down from the mountains daily. Oddly, alongside these scrubby trees we also saw cactus! Then, after Waimea, everything changed. The vegetation became lush, overwhelming, sometimes rising 30 feet on either side of the road. We were nearing the Waipio Valley--a beautiful gre

Today we set off North for the beaches of the Kohala coast. The drive up is through hardened lava fields that are sometimes chunky rocks and other times swooping, swirling sculptures that reveal the path of the lava so long ago. Apparently it's a thing to commemorate a lost (or non-lost) loved one by spelling out his or her name in white stones on top of the black lava stone. So, we passed our trip reading these tributes. Our first stop was Hapuna Beach, a long strip of white sand surrounded by crystal clear water in darkening bands of turquoise. On the horizon, we could see whales breeching and raising their tail fins high in the air. The kids rushed the waves for a good two hours, and Penn and I built sand castles. After lunch, we decided to try Spencer Beach, which is surrounded by a low reek near the shore that means few waves and great snorkeling. This is a real family beach, where parents doze in the sun while their kids play in the surf; it's surrounded by big