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!
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!
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