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.

The Big Island - Chain of Craters Road

On our way to Volcanoes National Park, we ordered breakfast sandwiches and sandwiches for lunch to go at Cafe Ohia. It's a good idea to bring lunch if you're planning on spending the day in the park because there aren't many food options.

Our destination today was driving down the Chain of Craters Road.

For the first half of the 18 mile road, the black earth fell away into quarry-esque craters on both sides of the car.

My favorite was aptly named Devil's Throat. Black, sharp rocks all the way down.

At one of the pull-offs, the landscape looked like another planet. The earth was neither brown nor black. Strange, stumpy formations jutted out from nowhere. The one on the left was shaped like an ice cream cone.

The lava looked like giant skulls lined up next to each other.

Up close they looked like melted wax.

Pieces of rock have an oily rainbow reflection.

The only signs of life were Nene, the native geese of Hawaii.

They gravitated towards the only greenery making their low, guttural noises.

We ate lunch looking out over the ocean, but we stayed in the car because it was incredibly windy and spitting rain. Those are the things I've learned about the Big Island, It's very windy most of the time and likes rain just hard enough to be inconvenient, but not enough to ruin the day.

We hiked the Pu'u Loa petroglyph trail and it was so cool.

Carvings in the lava where it had poured down the side of the hill.

It was interesting to wonder why, of all the places on the island, this was the spot chosen for these carvings.

Maybe because of the beauty of the surrounding hills.

Or the ocean.

Appropriately, the Chain of Craters Road ends where the volcano says it ends, which is where lava flow overran and covered it up. At this point, there's a gorgeous seawall. There's an arch that will one day fall away. Video here.

Hawaii gives you a unique perspective, everything that once was will no longer be. At the same time, the island continues to expand with every second that passes. The volcanoes create a constant state of simultaneous destruction and construction. It's an interesting paradox to stand on.

We listened to the waves crash into the cliffs. The immense impact sounded like thunder. Video here.

On the way back down the road, we saw a number of rainbows. One was the thickest I've ever seen.

Didn't take photos but had a great dinner from the Tuk Tuk Thai Truck. Everything was delicious, and we would've eaten there again if their operating hours would've worked out for us. We drank tea and chilled your fireplace in our beautiful cottage for the evening.

The Big Island - Road Trip to the East Side

Bye Kona!

We grabbed muffins from Island Lava Java and coffee from Kona Haven Coffee and hit the road for our day-long road trip along the northern part of the island over to the east side.

Our first stop was Kua Bay (Manini'owali Beach) where we ate said muffins and coffee.

The beach was gorgeous. Sandy with jagged rocks, small, and lots of waves.

We also saw more goats on the side of the road.

We hit two lookouts that felt like we were in another world. The first was Hawi/Pololu Valley.

A lush, green valley ending with huge cliffs and a black sand beach.

Ate lunch at Gramma's Kitchen, a cute little diner with Portuguese home cooking, in Honokaa. We shared a lunch plate with 2 hamburgers, 2 eggs, and gravy served over rice.

A ton of food < $15.

The other lookout was Waipio Valley, which had a cinematic waterfall.

And other beautiful vistas along the way.

It was incredibly windy and spitting rain, but still glorious.

We continued south to Hilo and went to Rainbow Falls.

A bunch of kids were on a field trip.

The Hawaii version of Europe's lovers' locks is carving your name on a giant leaf. It's more romantic, longer lasting...greener?

Arrived at Volcano Mountain Haven, our home for the next few nights. The cottage is amazing. I want to live here.

Elevated, surrounded by tropical vegetation.

Open floor plan.

Tons of windows and natural light.

Ate curry for dinner at Thai Thai. Good enough. There aren't a lot of food options in volcano after 7pm.

After sunset, we went to Volcanoes National Park to the Kilauea for the first time. The park was packed. The lava was at its highest level since the '70s, so locals were coming to see the sights, as well. We were forced to park in an overflow parking lot, it was so crowded.

Normally, the lava level is much lower and only an orange glow can be seen at night from the viewpoint a mile away. The lava had risen so drastically, that the entire surface could be seen. It was a clear night. The stars were bright and plentiful.

The lava could easily be seen shooting up from the lava lake. With the binoculars, the spurts of orange looked like visions from hell. Pretty amazing.

There is a video of the volcano from that night here.