The Big Island - Mahalo!

Up for sunrise at 4:30 am on our last day. The lava splurt was in the back of the crater today, the best place for viewing.

You could really hear the explosive banging and booming coming from it today. It sounded like a construction site. Video here.

Probably the highest spurting of all the days. I saw one bubble shoot high up and land against the rock wall in back of the pool, splashing it with orange and dimming to black as it cooled. Binoculars are a must for this trip. Thank you, Mom, for gifting them to me!

Turning around at Jaggar, Mauna Loa looked red between the clouds in the distance.

Good-bye Kilauea! It's sad to leave but it's been a spectacular strip. The stars feel aligned even though we couldn't see them on most nights in Volcano. :)

Back to the Haven to pack and clean up.

On our way out of town we stopped in the Park at the Thurston Lava Tube. And we were not alone.

Tour group, tour group, and another tour group descending from giant buses in front of us. It was like a line at an amusement park. We weren't in a hurry, so it didn't bother us. The people behind us were really annoyed, though. Nature wasn't worth waiting for without adequate bitching.

Since we were moving at a slower pace, it forced us to spend more time in the park, on that trail, taking in our final forest of Hawaii and listening to the birds.

The lava tube felt like a cave: cold, damp, and dripping.

We read that it took an entire year to cool off enough for bugs to live in it. Seems like an incredibly long time to take something to become room temperature. It made the impatience of the people behind us even more ridiculous.

Drove to Hilo. Stopped at the KTA superstore to get some chocolate covered macadamia nuts for work souvenirs.

Ate lunch at Paul's Cafe again. Just as good as the first time. I had an ahi sandwich.

Hubs had a smoked salmon BLT.

We had a Belgian Waffle with ice cream for dessert. It wasn't on the menu, but we had seen a couple sharing one when during our first visit. The thin and crisp waffle with a touch of maple syrup and ice cream made the perfect bite.

I love this place. I would come here all the time if it was in LA.

After lunch, we had some time before heading to the airport. We stopped at the Hilo Coffee Mill. Ironically, there was no Hilo-grown coffee for us to try, so I had a dark roast from Maui that was pretty smooth. Hubs had the Mill specialty, pineapple-flavored coffee. He liked it, but it wasn't for me.

Also stopped at Hilo Bay Books, a cool used bookstore worth checking out if you need to kill some time.

At the airport, we learned that stern announcements and threatening news/updates sound much nicer if you add "mahalo" afterwards. "Mahalo" softens everything. "You're fucked. Mahalo." See?

Mahalo Big Island!

The Big Island - Akaka Falls and the Botanical Garden

Another sunrise at the Volcano. I'm sure they all look the same, but each feels so special when you are standing against them.

This morning it was shooting ferociously.

Lots of clouds again which doesn't make for a spectacular sunrise, but it gives light all the same.

The often overlooked landscape next to the volcano. Still stunning.

It wasn't raining today, but much cooler. And significantly fewer people since it's no longer a weekend. Plus, the lava level hasn't fallen yet, and I think people are starting to take it for granted. It could go down at any given moment or it could stay for centuries. Is this the new norm?

We drove to Hilo and took a the small hike to Akaka Falls. A beautiful and peaceful hike through a rain forest to the waterfall. Hardly any people were there. Although thin, Akaka Falls is twice the height of Niagara Falls.

We ate lunch at Cafe Pesto in downtown Hilo since Paul's is closed on Mondays. But it was really good. We've eaten well this trip. I had the pizza special with roasted veg and blackened ono. The crust was great, flavorful and doughy, but not too thick.

Hubs had an open faced ham sandwich with sweet potato salad which was good, too.

Drove to the Botanical Garden, which was amazing.

Countless trees.

Flowers.

Plants.

All the colors of the rainbow. 

Dangerous Fruit.

All under the lush jungle canopy.

My favorites were the cat whiskers.

And these red and yellow flowers that looked like connected flamingoes.

The Gardens were also had a waterfall and were bordered by the ocean. Waves crashed against the rocky coast.

On the drive back to Volcano we pulled over at a cemetery that had an amazing tree.

At the Haven, I finished THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN by Paula Hawkins. I really enjoyed the first half of the book, but the second half was too long and slowly fell apart. Shrug.

Had a fancy dinner at The Rim. It's the fancy restaurant overlooking the volcano at Volcano House in the National Park. You can't see the lava, but the glow is visible from the table. I had macadamia pesto pasta with chicken. Yum.

Hubs had Kona kampachi, which was outstanding.

We also had a glass of pinot noir and kona coffee brownie ice cream for dessert. Good meal, fun environment. Worth the splurge.

After dinner, we drove up to the volcano and saw some stars amidst the clouds for the first time since the night we arrived.

Only one spurt, but there was a lot of action.

Back to the Haven for hot chocolate and bed after a long and exhausting and happy day.

The Big Island - Journey to the South, Punalu'u

We got up a smidgen earlier for sunrise this morning, 4:30 am and it was spitting rain.

Kilauea was back to having two splurging points and between the surges there was more popping action going on. I have a video here.

For the first time, we got a parking spot at Jaggar, the official lookout point, it was a miracle. This is what a thinned-out crowd looked like.

Came back to the Haven and ate breakfast and napped.

We found out that everything restaurant-wise is closed on Sunday. It stopped raining, so we decided to drive south and go to a black sand beach, Punalu'u.

The sand was darker than Santorini and it was very pretty.

A lone sea turtle was trying to sleep on the beach.

He kept scooting up when the tide got too close. I have a video of him squirming here.

Near the beach we ate at Punalu'u Bake Shop. Their bread is distributed all over the country and it was good. The food, not so much. But the desserts helped make up for it. Ice cream and a malasalada, a passion fruit glazed doughnut. It was delicious.

We drove back to Volcano and did the mile-long hike in the bird park near the National Park. No one else was on the trail. So quiet and peaceful with singing birds hidden in the vegetation. It drizzled on us, but even that felt soothing.

We saw some birds that weren't afraid of us and resembled fancy farm chickens and roosters.

Drove to the volcano for the sunset and a rainbow splayed across the sky and ended at the crater.

It was quite surreal, especially since it wasn't raining.

Sunset.

Back to the Haven and ate Thai leftovers and journaled with a dvd about Hawaiian Stars and the Observatory at Mauna Kea playing in the background. Now I want to go there, too.

The Big Island - The First Saturday in May in Hilo

We set the alarm for 4:45 am to watch the sunrise at Kilauea.

At times it was quiet enough that I could hear the roar coming from the volcano.

Cloudy skies. Only one area was spurting up this morning, as opposed to the two places that were active the night before last.

It's interesting how the spurting points shift throughout the day and overnight. Video here.

Offerings for Pele in the new morning light.

We drove to Hilo to hit the Farmer's Market. But first, brunch! We ate at Paul's Place, a half-block away from the Farmer's Market and it was my favorite meal of the trip. It is tiny. And by tiny, I mean, there are literally three tables. And those tables seat two. So I highly recommend making a reservation. It is worth it.

Hubs had eggs benedict. The hollandaise had dill, which was a nice twist. The benny was good, but I was too busy with my own food to pay much attention to his.

I had a veggie sandwich and discovered a new key to the universe: green apple. Green apple on the veggie sandwich makes it special. And that's what makes Paul's food standout. He elevates humble-sounding food by adding unique, unexpected ingredients. The side salad was dressed with an anchovy and lemon dressing and topped with blueberries. Anchovies + blueberries = amazing. Never thought that would work, but, oh, it does.

Done with the fabulous meal, technically, I think there are food stalls up everyday, but on Saturdays there are arts and crafts for sale as well. T-shirts, jewelry, soaps, wood carvings, and lots of other goodies.

I figured this was the best place to buy souvenirs from the trip and support some local artisans. I chose a bracelet by Cora Marie Andrews. It was made out of mgambo seeds, black spheres that look and feel like they're wrapped in velvet.

Photo by Velvet Jewelry

I also bought a necklace by Ivy Torrez at Small Scale Magic with a hand-painted lehua blossom, the flower that grows on the ohia tree.

Photo by Small Scale Magic

Since the farmer's market is in the heart of downtown, we browsed through some stores and enjoyed an ice cream cone. Mostly we were killing time because it was the first Saturday in May, so we were biding our time for the Kentucky Derby to begin. We walked to the Hilo Town Tavern, ordered a Hawaiian beer, and the bartender was nice enough to change the channel for us.

We were rooting for Dortmund, who won the Santa Anita Derby. We have quite the jinx going with the Kentucky Derby. In the last decade, if we watched the Santa Anita Derby at the track, the winner doesn't win the Kentucky Derby. If we don't go, the SA winner crosses the finish line first on the first Saturday in May. So, we were, in fact the reason Dortmund lost, not that American Pharoah was so great. Ahem.

We drove back to Volcano and picked up some groceries on the way. We stopped at Cafe Ono for a late lunch, a vegetarian restaurant attached to an arts/crafts gallery. We ate outside where a goat named ernest balled almost non-stop. To be fair, it had started raining.

The food was delicious. I had lasagna that came with soup and a giant salad and the best garlic toast.

Hubs had quiche.

The meal wasn't cheap at $15 each, but the portions were huge and Volcano is expensive in general. What a great eating day!

It kept raining, so we relaxed at the Haven. There is no TV, which is lovely, but it was a big sports day. The Clippers beat the Spurs in an epic game 7. We watched the numbers tick up and down on the ESPN gamecast. Also, the Mayweather-Pacquiao was that night. Hubs read the play-by-play according to Twitter which was probably more entertaining than the actual fight. It certainly was cheaper. Unsurprisingly, Mayweather won, but it was still disappointing.

It's a small world. I saw on Facebook that my college roommate who I hadn't seen since college was in Kona. I messaged her and found out she was coming to Volcano, so we went out to meet her for a drink. It was great to see her and catch up.