Kona 2011 - Day 5

This is what my hair looks like after sleeping on it after being in the ocean the night before and not washing it lol!
We got a decently early start to our day thanks to the time difference with Oregon. Spotted this dude on our door on the way out. They grow bugs big around here!


Some of the desolate scenery on the way to Volcanoes NP.
This is the view out toward South Point. They are hard to see in this photo, but the ridge is peppered with windmills.
I had meant to take a picture at every 100 miles we drove but forgot. Coincidentally, I remembered as we were approaching 500, and it turned out to be right at the NP sign!!!
More scenery from the road. At least there is some blue sky! That is actually rather uncommon here because of all the volcanic emissions.
At the visitor center.... Orion found a perch.
And Akasha says, "Take my picture too, take my picture too!"
Loved this painting of Pele!
Orion checking out some local flora.
Ron liked this poem. :)
At the Jagger Museum overlook - some info on Mauna Loa - not sure you can read it though!
Orion checking out the crater.
I took several pics of the crater....
Here is another one lol.
And another one. OK, that's enough.
But wait! Of course there is video lol,


Neat piece of lava in the museum.
Akasha was making carpet angels lol.
So many things lava can do and become!

Orion being an earthquake:


The kids were just ABSOLUTELY fascinated by the idea of this being rain water. We filled up a couple bottles, and Akasha kept asking for rain water for days!
View of the museum where you can see the observation tower - the crater is off to the right a bit.
Oh, so here is the freaky thing. Apparently there was another eruption like 2 weeks before we got there. There used to be a viewing platform you could go out to right near the rim. The explosion actually blew a chunk it off!!!! It happened at like 2 in the morning, or the ranger was saying it is likely hundreds of people would have died! Just goes to show with all we think we know about this stuff, you really never know what is going to happen!

Beginning of the Thurston Lava Tube trail - probably my favorite place on the Big Island. I asked for the camera and Ron looked at me like I was weird, then we got a little more down the trail and was like oh... wow. It is a literal fern forest, with ferns towering way above your head!
Walking on the trail:


I really like ferns, especially these spirals that unfurl. :)
Flowers along the trail
So yeah, here is some perspective - whoa.
Just beautiful. I feel like I should be seeing dinosaurs!
At the entrance to the lava tube.
Some nice family came along and offered to take our picture. Amazing - two family photos in one day lol!
Spooky lighting in the tube.

On the way back on the loop trail the kids decided to go offtrail to check out the forest a bit. I just love this picture of Akasha looking full of wonder. Hmmm wonderful?


Adding one more picture from Ron's phone:



Some tiny flowers with Orion's hand for scale. As Akasha would say (about lots of things these days), "They're so cute and tiny!"
More spiral. :)
Exploring the forest:


I took this one when I was alone to capture the sounds of the forest. Turn up the volume!


We got a great Thai lunch at the town of Volcano (lol) and took it to have a picnic at the nearby winery. I might have done a bit of tasting too. :)

We decided we had time to stop at the black sand beach on the way back, and the kids thought it was pretty great. I had read there are often turtles here, and indeed there were a couple resting on the sand.
Who is looking at who? Wait I think it should be, Who is looking at whom?

It is illegal to touch them because they are endangered and can pick up some type of bacteria from us, and there are signs everywhere plus there was a guy sitting in a chair and watching when we first got there. After he left, people kept walking by, and sure enough, some lady touched one of them. So I yelled from like 40 feet away, "Don't touch the turtles!" LOL how pushy am I? I swear, though, I just don't get some people.

Orion really enjoyed walking around on these lava rocks.

Another all time favorite photo:

That one was so cute I had to crop it in. :)
Orion loved the crabs on the rocks:


And here is Akasha playing with the black sand, then remembering she didn't say hi to the turtles lol.


And that was near the end of the day. Back to Kona we went for dinner.