Hawaii
August 10-21, 2002

Aug 10

We drove to the airport in the wee hours of Saturday, and parked at the Anza parking lot. They took us on a shuttle to the airport. Despite the fact that our e-ticket confirmations said we were leaving from the international terminal, our flights left from the regular terminal, causing some confusion and a long walk. It was only about 6:30am when we found the right place, but already the line was very long, filling the area in front of the counter, then snaking around the corner into a hallway, back again, and then across the counter and down the main hallway. Every once and a while, they'd pull people out of line and move them to the "crisis line". After waiting in the regular line for more than an hour, they moved us into that line, and we got checked in. Our first flight took us to Oahu. There, we had to book another flight to Maui.

First of all, the flight coupons we’d been told to get (for the cheapest flights) were sold at ATMs *inside* the terminal past the ticket counters, so the only way we could have bought them was if we hadn’t gone to pick up our luggage at the baggage claim area (outside the terminal) and instead headed straight to the inter-island terminal, bought coupons at the ATM and then returned to get our bags. Designed to work against green tourists? Secondly, we hadn't made reservations, because we'd heard it was pretty much a free-for-all with plenty of availability. Of course, this turned out not to be the case, and the only way we could actually get to Maui was to buy first class seats. Fortunately, Aloha has AAA discounts, so the price was not that much higher than a regular ticket. The Hawaiian airports are kind of neat - much of the airport is open air walkways between the gate areas. The trip to Maui was short, and the first class wasn't much like first class. It was fun to look out at the other islands as they went by and figure out which was which. Most of them looked pretty barren.

Once there, we rented a car from Alamo, a red Chevy Cavalier. Then we took off for La Perouse Bay. I was excited and determined to get in the ocean before we ran out of light. We drove south to La Perouse Bay, and immediately got confused in Kahului. After a bit, we found the correct highway. The last couple miles was kinda rough - single lane, not so well maintained pavement. We spotted the sign given in the directions (the guide book mentioned a sign, but not what sign, or what was on it, which would have been useful information) and parked and began a short hike. The dirt soon gave way to sand and trees, and that eventually gave way to bare lava (the a'a kind). Apparently, the lava had flowed over part of the beach, and formed a new shoreline, obliterating some really nice beachfront property at the time. The trail over the lava was much less distinct, and I'm still not sure we ended up in the "good" bays. The sea was kinda high, and it was late afternoon and windy - not the recommended time to be there for clear water and lots of fish. We did get to try out our new snorkel gear, which worked well, although Danny sometimes experienced a small leakage problem around the nose. We saw some fish, mostly small ones, and some coral. It was somewhat of a disappointment after the hype in the book, but it was still fun to get in the water and play around. We saw a couple of other groups on the way out, but had the place to ourselves where we swam, and we didn't even go out to the furthest and most remote coves.

After we got tired, we left and drove to our room, at a Bed & no breakfast called Uluwai Farms. The couple who ran it were very nice, and helpful with all our questions. They had a cool parrot (probably a macaw) that talked, but didn't say much to us. We checked out the price of a place for sale down the road - it was something like $675K. On the way back, we stopped and got some pastries at a coffee shop for breakfast and a snack. Before we went to bed, we went out and looked at the very starry sky while we ate our pastries.

Today was the trip to Hana. All the books describe this as a torturous winding road, with 500 turns on the way. Shirts saw "I survived the Road to Hana." Phooey! It's no worse than many California mountain roads. It's two lanes in most places except for bridges and some short sections on steep cliffs. The road to Big Basin Park is much worse.
Pictures: Rain along the road to Hana, Road to Hana, Waterfall, Another waterfall

Our first stop was a small town called Keanae (Ke-a-na-e). There was a small stand there which sold good banana bread and fresh pieces of coconut. A bit further down the road was a lava beach. All sorts of spires and valleys formed a great marine habitat. Lots of isolated pools housed all sorts of small life. We saw crabs that blended in with the lava so well you couldn't seem them until they moved.
Pictures: Danny on the lava beach

The next stop was the Wai'anapanapa park, which had a black sand beach and some freshwater filled caves. It was raining when we got there, so we just changed into our swimsuits, and then the rain was no bother. We decided to explore the caves first. It turned out to be a series of caves in the side of a cliff. The first one had a wide mouth, but didn't appear to go anywhere. Additionally, one side was cloudy with dirt and debris from the rain, so we didn't enter that pool. The next one was very small. The third one was pretty nice though. There was an upper passage that went back and connected to the pool below. We went up there and jumped in. We'd had the good sense to bring a waterproof flashlight, so we were able to explore the dark back areas of the cave. On the left side, we found a tunnel that went back, and then above water through a small hole into another room. We followed it, and after a turn, the room ended. However, looking underwater, we could see the tunnel continued into a small air pocket, and then beyond, where we could see light coming in. We ventured as far as the first air pocket. From there it looked like not too bad of a swim to get to the light source, but the water was so clear it was difficult to estimate distances. We went back out the way we came in, and eventually determined by the sticks lying at the bottom of the underwater swim, that it probably connected with the first cave. We explored some more, and Danny found another cave higher in the cliff which connected back to the third cave, and we jumped down into the water.

After playing in the caves for several hours, we went to look at the black sand beach. This was supposedly a "real" black sand beach, formed when the lava hits the ocean, and not by erosion. The upper part of the beach was composed of large (1-3" diameter) smooth black lava pebbles. The lower part was black sand. Off to the right was a lava tube you could enter. The entrance is only 3' high, but inside, the tube is more than 10' high. It went all the way to the water's edge. As the waves rushed in and then receded, there was a unique clacking noise as the big pebbles moved around. In between waves, we were able to scoot around the corner to a large parallel crack that was almost as long as the cave. Climbing up on some rocks, we could see a large lava arch on the edge of the bay. The water was too rough to snorkel, or even swim around much in, so we didn't. On the way there, we'd seen a string of warning signs: "Danger - strong undertow", "Warning - rip current", "Warning - stinging jellyfish", "Warning - Man-o-War", "Danger - strong surges", etc.

Our next stop on the Road to Hana was the Blue Pool. This involved a long drive down a rocky dirt road. Despite the fact that this was pretty far out of the way, there were several groups of people there when we arrived, so many that the small pool seemed crowded and less attractive. We stayed a few moments to watch some people jump from a high ledge into the pool, and some others decide it wasn't such a good idea.
Pictures: Blue Pool, Jumpers at the Blue Pool, Falls at the Blue Pool

We got back on the road, and drove the rest of the way to Hana, which is just a small fishing community. The best place to eat in town was supposedly a dive of a burger shack on the waterfront, so we got some very slow, but decent burgers there. Now we proceeded to Hana's biggest attraction, the "Seven Sacred Pools". There aren't really seven, and they were never sacred though. However, they are set in a very pretty gorge that comes down from Haleakala. We hiked along a the Pipiwai Trail that goes up the rim of the gorge to a very pretty waterfall. There's a pool at the top of the waterfall that's neat to swim in, but the water seemed a bit high for our tastes. On the way down, we met a boy who had just hiked all the way to the end of the trail, where there's a much, much bigger waterfall. Sadly, it was getting late in the day, so we decided to go down and see the pools rather than hike the to the end of the trail. It turns out that the boy didn't really know the length of the hike, and we'd both misremembered it. When we got back and consulted the book, we found out that it was much shorter than we thought, and we'd been almost 1/3 of the way there already. On the way down to the pools, we stopped at the bridge off of which some fools jump into a pool far, far below. By the time we walked down to the lower pools though, the flow of the river had started to increase due to the rains upriver, and the park rangers were evacuating everyone. We stayed and watched the river start to swell, and the antics of the people crossing it when it was much deeper than before. We beat the departing crowd back to the car, and left before things got messy. A couple hours later we returned to town, and stopped for a tasty dinner at Jacques.

We got up early this morning, as we needed to get to the top of Haleakala for our horse ride. On the way, we stopped at a bakery called Komodo's, as we'd heard it made the very best cream puffs. The cream puffs were good, although the filling was more like pudding than cream, but the stick donuts (a string of small donut hole like things on a kabob stick) were the best. Slightly crispy and very sweet - yum! We also picked up an azuki bean (sweet japanese red bean) pie for later.

We arrived at the top of Haleakala after a long winding drive, passing many groups of bicyclists dressed in rain slickers heading down. One of the common activities is to ride down the road from the summit, with sunrise being the most popular ride. I'm not sure how much fun this would be, since the road is curvy and steep, so you'd end up riding your brakes the whole time. The horses were already there, and since we were on the second ride, we had a bit of time to kill. We scouted out the summit, planning that tomorrow morning we'd come for the supposedly spectacular sunrise. We also saw our first silverswords, a plant unique to this volcano (transplants elsewhere have not been successful, so we were told, although Danny saw silverswords on the Big Island as well, though they were slightly different looking). We were lucky in getting this spot on the horse ride - I was told when we booked it that there had been a cancellation, but what I didn't realize was that the trip was normally filled months in advance. There's only one company that does it, and they do two trips a day, with only a handful of people on each trip.
Pictures: Haleakala Crater, Clouds, Danny on Haleakala, Ryan on Haleakala, Smog from the town, Blooming silversword (they die after they bloom), Scientific outpost, Danny and Ryan, Cinder cones

The ride was fun, but a little boring at times. It was neat to watch the crater unfold before us, but we weren't really travelling at much more than walking speed most of the time - galloping was more fun. It was nice to be riding horses again, but as Danny pointed out, not as much fun as the time we rode them bareback in the snow at a sheep farm in Vermont. We rode down into the crater, passing silverswords and silversword-hybrids along the way, some flowering. There were more shades of reddish brown than I've ever seen before. In some places we could see lava flows. Most of the time we were walking on ground made of packed cinders. At the bottom we had a good lunch (sandwiches, juice, chips and fruit, followed by cookies!) while the horses rested, and then began the journey up. My horse wasn't really in the mood to follow anyone and kept trying to pass the other horses. But when he got in front he would slow down, I guess knowing that if he's in front he can set the pace. After a few rest stops, which the horses knew well, we returned to the crater rim, and drove back to town.
Pictures: Danny on his horse, Enterering the crater, On the trail, Our guide, Cinder cone from my horse, On the trail again

It was later than I expected, so we headed directly to Warren and Annabelle's show in Lahaina, which we had tickets for. The first part was pretty cheesy, with a piano-playing ghost which played whatever the audience called out, while over-enthusiastic hostesses sang and tried to liven the audience up. It probably would have been funnier with more drinks in us, but they were expensive of course, and we'd missed dinner so we already had to shell out too much for some snacks. As compared to the audience that left before us, we must have been in the "adult" show, as there were no families, and we were among the youngest there. Many people were on their honeymoons. The magic show was great though. It has some good magic and the magician was a great entertainer. Better brush up on your Andy Griffith trivia if you go, and don’t get out your gum in the middle of the show.
Pictures: Alana Place

After the show, we checked out Banyan Tree Square, home of the largest Banyan tree in the US. I can believe it - it took up the whole park, a city block. A small trunk compared with other banyans we saw, but it spread out more and formed more auxiliary trunks. Banyan trees form new roots in the branches which drop back down to the ground, supporting the branches and providing another nutrient source. Finally we returned to the B&noB, were we got a few hours sleep before our super-early rising.

This was to be our last day on Maui. We'd heard that the key to a good sunrise at Haleakala was cloud cover, and today was the best forecast for that, (other than the day we went to Hana, when it poured.), so we decided to try for the sunrise. It was a long drive back up to the summit, where we'd been the day before. Of course it was dark. Several other cars and bike trailers joined us on the way up, but we arrived with plenty of room still in the upper parking lot. Sunrise was still some time away, and it was really cold outside, so we took a short nap with the heater on. The sky started turning from black to a grayish-purple, so we ate some azuki bean pie and then walked up to the summit. There were a fair number of people inside the hut, sheltered from the wind, and we waited there a while for things to get more interesting, and then headed outside and stood on the wall. It had looked disappointingly clear on the way up, but had somehow clouded up in time so that we were presented with a solid floor of clouds off to one side, with a few wisps entering the crater in front of us. The clouds grew brighter and went through many beautiful colors. Just as the sun was about to peak over the crowds, a collegiate singing group burst into song and serenaded the sun as it arrived. It was a really beautiful sunrise, and actually worth getting up early for. On the way back down, we stopped at Komodo's again to get some more stick donuts. Then we returned to the B&noB for a short nap and packed up.
Pictures: Sunrise begins, More sunrise, Here comes the sun, Scientific outpost at sunrise, Island at sunrise

We'd been planning to go to Black Rock Cove and the Olivine Pools before having to leave, but we realized that we didn't have enough time for those, so we decided to just hit Po'olenalena beach which was supposed to be very nice and mostly deserted. Fortunately it was a weekday so we were able to find a space in the 5-car public lot for the beach. The beach was, in fact, mostly deserted, with less than 30 people over a half mile of beach. Access to the beach is blocked by a set of condos, so you wouldn't even be aware it existed unless a book told you or you lived in the condos. The snorkeling was quite good, much better than at the place we went to on the first day (although sparse compared with what was to come). There was a very pretty bluish-purple fish about 14 inches long that we kept chasing and trying to get a picture of. We also saw some sea urchins that were a very strange purple, just like looking at a blacklight. There was another bright orange urchin which had a small number of thick dull spines. The sea floor was interesting, with channels in the lava going to the sandy floor, providing many different levels to swim on. You had to be careful of the tidal surges though if you were near the shore, as they could push you into the sharp lava and coral. Here, you could actually here a continuous popping noise in the water, kind of like soft rice krispies. I read that it was the coral making this noise. After a few hours there we cleaned up and headed to the airport.

We'd made reservations ahead of time, so there was no problem, but we wanted to get to the airport early so they wouldn't give the reservations away, as we hadn't submitted our flight vouchers yet. In fact we'd only bought them at a travel agent earlier in the day. It turns out that you can buy them at various ATMs, but not with an ATM card, only with your credit card, and only if you know the PIN number (which I didn't). The flight was short, and by the time we landed on the Big Island (Hawai'i) in Hilo, it was dark and raining. We drove to "My Island B&B" in Volcano just in time for checkin, and immediately headed out for dinner, as we were warned that they would close soon.

Volcano is a very small town, and one of the big/only restaurants serves Thai. The soup was so-so, but the curry was excellent. However, the service is poor and slow. As we were looking over the desert menu, a man came in and asked if he could get some takeout. They informed him that the kitchen was closed and nothing was available. This was clearly not true because they were still waiting for our dessert order, and we weren't the last people to be served either. The man pleaded for just some dry rice that he could take back and cook for his family. The waiter got the manager who basically told him to go away. The man got angry and left, and the manager looked like she could care less. In all the restaurants I've been to, I've never seen staff who was so unhelpful and unsympathetic. If we were mystery shopping, they'd be in trouble J . After dinner we went back to the B&B, planned a little bit, and went to bed.

Other things skipped on Maui were Kahekili Beach Park, Big Beach, hanggliding off of Halelakala (which they don't do from the top anymore), and a tourist BBQ-and-snorkeling trip to Molokini.

This actually was a B&B, so we got breakfast, and an awesome breakfast it was. There was papaya (an acquired taste which we were trying to acquire). When we sat down, another guest was about to eat his papaya wrong, and the old man who was one of the owners of the B&B stopped him brusquely. "No! What you do is take the papaya," he instructed the man," and fill it with pineapple. Mmm, sweet pineapple. Fill it up! Then dust the whole thing with macadamia nuts. Always the macadamia nuts." It was extremely delicious, and converted us instantly to papaya connoisseurs. The Belgian waffles were much the same. The old man presented us with a variety of syrups: Was one of them Ohelo berry? Certainly one was bumbleberry. Bumbleberry syrup was Danny’s favorite, and the old man’s, too. Traditional maple syrup was available as well. After the syrup, it was time for the macadamia nuts again. This time instead of dusting them over the top, you were told to cover the whole thing with macadamia nuts, until you can't see the waffle anymore. We also had bacon and juices, and more waffles (with pineapple on them, too!) Yum-yummy! The people who owned the place were wonderful, and the guy was quite a character, breaking into random song (much like Danny sometimes) or telling stories about his many adventures. One such adventure was when he helped blaze the road with a friend, via a series of driving contests, to the summit of Mauna Kea, the highest point on the island. *See supplemental stories at the end.

Our first stop was the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. First, we drove part of the driving loop to look at the sulfur and steam vents and some viewpoints. One of the steam vents was so hot that a slight gust of wind would blow hot steam at you and cause you to jerk back. The bottom of the vent had several hats and a sandal. A brochure suggested bringing hot dogs to cook, but we didn't. (Yuk! -Danny)
Pictures: Danny at the sulfer vents,

We wanted to hike around and through the caldera of Kilauea Iki, a small, recent crater located next to Kilauea's main one. The rim of the crater is jungle-like, and filled with beautiful flowers and lush, unusual (to us) vegetation. The path then descends to the crater floor of mostly pahoehoe lava, formed as the lava lake cooled. Tens of feet under the floor, there is still a lava lake, warming the floor slightly. Plants are starting to grow in the crater, but not many. It looks very much like a large parking lot after a massive earthquake, with slabs of smooth asphalt jutting every which way. In some places steam rises up through cracks as collected rainwater boils away. We only saw three other groups on this hike, probably because it was still morning - the park fills up later in the day.
Pictures: Pretty flower, Kilauea Iki crater, Ryan on the crater floor, Danny on the crater floor, A baby in the volcano?, Danny on the trail out of the crater, Crater overlook

On the way back, we ran across a lava tube cave. Part of it was lighted on the inside, and plants were growing around the lights. The other half of the cave was left dark. We had brought flashlights, so were able to explore a bit.
Pictures: Cave mouth, A different crater

We had lunch at the cafe in Volcano (the park restaurant had bad reviews and didn't smell that good when we walked through it). We picked up some sandwiches for dinner, as we expected that we would be out at night.

Now we wanted to try to find a cave that we'd read about - a hidden lava tube, hidden just off the road and in pristine condition. After a bit of bushwhacking through wild ginger we found the entrance which was really just where part of the ceiling had collapsed. It was wet and muddy and slick, so getting in was somewhat difficult. Inside, the cave was indeed pristine - lots of the little lava stalactites which get knocked off in public caves. The cave was wet and drippy inside. In about half the places the floor was a normal smooth lava tube floor, and in others it was covered with huge chunks of breakdown from the ceiling. Unfortunately, after a short bit the tube split into a top and bottom half, and it became necessary to crawl to continue. Given our experience earlier in the year at Lava Beds, I wasn't about to crawl on lava with no kneepads. So we turned back and climbed out.
Pictures: Split tube, exit

We wanted to be sure to see the flowing lava while it was still light, so we could see to walk around, and then stay 'til after dark, so we could see it better. The only problem was half the island also had this very same plan (proving it was a good one, eh?) We had to park literally a mile away from the ranger’s station, where all the cars (of half the island) had to turn around before parking. It was a long drive down, and with the traffic problem at the end (two lane road with lava on either side, two lanes of moving cars, one lane of parked cars) we arrived just as it was starting to get dark.

The lava was flowing relatively close to the road, so we were lucky. We parked, walked about a mile to the turnaround, and then maybe a third of a mile beyond that to the end of the road, where Chain of Craters road has been wiped out by lava. Then we followed a trail of road reflectors on the lava to a viewpoint. The wind was blowing from the lava areas, so it was slightly warm and smelled a bit of sulfur. Warning signs were posted all around, telling us that what we were doing was "extremely dangerous", but not so foolhardy as to be forbidden. From the viewpoint, we could see lava dripping into the ocean. Getting close to that flow was forbidden, as the newly formed lava shelves have a tendency to drop off into the ocean, in pieces hundreds of feet square. Numerous people have been killed that way, and the warning posters in the ranger’s station were happy to inform us of them all.
Pictures: Warning sign, Lava on the hillside, End of the road, Lava dripping into the ocean

We took some pictures and continued further on the trail. Somewhere, we each found a stick. This was fun, because I'd seen lots of pictures of people poking the flowing lava with a stick, which seems incredibly foolish. Of course, that made me want to see what it felt like. On the way there, it got noticeably warmer. I felt the ground, and it was warm, far warmer than just sun warming. You could distinguish between the different types of flows. Recent flows were black and glossy - a thin (very sharp) coating of this would often break away, and you had to be careful not to rest your hands on it, or brush off your pants after sitting, otherwise you would get tiny shards in your hands. About a mile or so past the end of the road, we came to the end of the trail, beyond which the park service would rather you didn't go. It terminated at a small lava flow, where lava oozed out of various cracks. The rock here was quite warm, and in some places still glowing red underneath. Believe it or not, some people wore flipflops. It was pretty hot, but we were prepared with lots of water, and our supper in the form of sandwiches and energy bars. We found an older flow to sit on (so it was cool) and ate.
Pictures: Danny getting warm, Ryan with his stick, Ryan and Danny, Closeup of recent lava, Danny with his stick, Lava field

The way the winds were blowing, we couldn't walk up to the rivers of lava we could see on the hill, as we would be approaching from downwind. So we had to content ourselves with the closer, less dramatic (although still fascinating) flows. We'd watch as a glob of lava - a gallon or two - would slowly ooze its way out of a crack. The small flows didn't go very far before hardening, and then the lava would come out somewhere else. But there were often larger flows which would move faster and travel farther. These would draw crowds of maybe 30 people.
Pictures: Crowd of people around lava, Medium-sized lava flow, Another lava flow, A big dual flow, Ryan near lava flow, Danny near lava flow

We did try poking one of the smaller flows with our sticks. It was quite hot to get that close. Surprisingly, even though the rock was orange hot, it was solid to the touch, even with a fair amount of force. The end of the stick would burst info flame after about 2 seconds. Eventually, we were able to get close to one of the slightly larger flows, and it was softer, although, still firmer than I expected. It had about the viscosity of cold tar, but of course it was hotter, so I couldn't play with it for very long. After a few hours we took the long walk back to the car and headed back to the B&B. At the B&B the next morning, the owner pointed out the sole of a boot, and said that someone had been wearing that on the lava, and the heat has just melted the whole sole right off.
Pictures: Danny poking lava with a stick, Ryan poking lava with a stick, Lava and the moon

I took a lot of pictures of the lava, with a lot of different methods: flash, no flash, covered flash. It turned out that taking it with the flash, but almost completely covering the flash provided the best results. With no flash, the lava overexposed, and looked incandescent purple. With flash, the foreground was overemphasized, and sometimes the lava would barely show. With covered flash, it looks close to reality, just a tiny bit dimmer.
Pictures: Lava with no flash, Lava with partial flash (a tiny bit too much flash)

We started the day out with another good breakfast. Today we had french toast, eaten much the same way as the waffles. It was our last morning at this place, and we were sad to leave, because the hosts were fun and the food was so good.

Today, we were to travel to the other (western) side of the island, via the northern route. We started off by going to a warm swimming pond, Ahalanui Pond. It's a freshwater pond right on the ocean (so somewhat salty) that is heated as a result of an eruption - it used to be really cold. It turns out that swimming in a warm pond isn't so fun when it's warm outside, so we didn't stay long.

We'd heard of a good ice cream place in Hilo, so we stopped and had two scoops each. (The one-scoop cone really gets two scoops. I had Tahitian vanilla and Kona coffee. The Tahitian vanilla was absolutely scrumptious.) Then we went and looked at a series of waterfalls - Rainbow, Wai-ale, and Pe'epe'e Falls - near town. Danny returned to Pe’epe’e falls just before returning to O’ahu and spent a day swimming under the falls and playing with some locals. *See supplemental stories at the end. I liked Rainbow Falls because it had a huge cave behind it. You couldn't easily get down to the river there though, so we didn't check it out. Danny did find an amazing banyan tree nearby that we played around in for a while.
Pictures: Rainbow Falls, Banyan tree, another of the banyan tree, Ryan in the banyan tree, Danny in the banyan tree

Continuing our drive around north, we came to Akaka Falls. This one is set in a lush tropical park. You have to walk along a trail to get to the falls, rather than being right by the parking lot as at the previous ones. The size of the plants here is amazing.
Pictures: Large bamboo, Akaka Falls, Huge plants

The transition from the wet side of the island to the dry side is quite rapid and dramatic. Everything is big and leafy and green, and then suddenly it's all brown grass and scrub. Coming down the west side, there's an interesting lava field where people have collected white rocks and spelled out messages with them on the dark lava, like graffiti, but nondestructive. I didn't even see one place where people got lazy and used paint instead. Some of the messages or pictures were large, and some were so far away as to be unreadable. There were thousands of these, spread over many miles.

Along this road was a place where we pulled off to hunt down a geocache and go swimming in another cave. It took a long time for the GPS to figure out where we were, despite the fact I'd reset it for Hawaii - I think the default location is Oahu, and we were far from that, so it was looking for the wrong satellites. We would have found the cache right away, as the GPS led us to within touching distance of it, but we overlooked it. After some triangulation, we returned to the original spot and found it. It was somewhat tricky because of thorn trees, stinky rotten fruit, and collapsed lava tubes. Also, it was painted roughly the same color as the surrounding area, so it was camouflaged. I left the travel bug that I'd picked up around here that was trying to get as far from SF as possible, and picked up a new travel bug.

Geocaching had made us really hot, so we went swimming in the lava tube filled with cold water. I'd forgotten the flashlights this time, so we couldn't explore it, and vowed to come back later in the trip. Just a bit further up was a small beach. Walking up to it, I nearly jumped out of my skin with something large moved on the beach a few feet in front of me. It was a sea turtle who had beached himself to get some sun. He was tagged, and seemed fairly used to the presence of people, as he didn't run away when we approached.

It was getting late now, so we headed back to the car and drove on to our B&B for the night, Lucky Farms. It was dark when we arrived, and we checked in, and then headed out to find dinner. We'd read about a good pizza place, and were in the mood for that, so went there. We were still feeling energetic, so we hunted down a movie theater and saw XXX, which was a surprisingly good action movie (I would say "acceptably good" -Danny) (Well, I meant surprising in the sense that it was better than I expected -Ryan). It was kind of a modern take on James Bond.
Pictures: Spider outside our room

We started off the day with another yummy breakfast. This place had an amazing Lilikoi (passionfruit) butter, which was sweet and tart and like very thick syrup. We took some home with us and I'm hoping we can order some more from her when that’s gone. Our first destination of the day was Kahalu'u Beach, which is a large, protected bay that's just filled with fish. Sometimes people feed the fish there, which is generally frowned upon, but the population here has come to depend on it. The beach had a lot of people, but it wasn't really crowded, and there were indeed a lot of fish. We swam with two sea turtles - they just ignored all the people and nibbled at the thick algae on the rocks. We also swam among a large school of fish attracted by someone with a bit of food. We saw several of the blue fish we'd tried so hard to get a picture of at the other place. Some of the fish had amazing colorations. One had a set of colors and stripes that made it look somewhat like the South African flag. Danny later said that this was the fish with the really long name. (It is: humuhumunukunukuapua’a. –Danny) We also saw two different kinds of lamprey eels. One was white with little black spots. Both kept slithering around holey pieces of lava, and were reluctant to be photographed. There were lots of fish everywhere - this was the best place that we snorkeled, in terms of fish. This was the first time I'd worn contacts snorkeling, and it worked out really well.

Now we headed down to Kona for lunch. We stopped at a sushi place we'd heard about, and it was good. The concept of the place was "make-your-own sushi," though really you only ordered the ingredients. But you could write your recipe in their guest book and name it. The book was filled with thousands of sushi recipes and there were no empty place left to write. Next, I finally got to try the shave ice that Danny had been telling me about for years. They're kind of like snow cones, except instead of little ice chunks, the ice is actually shaved, and more like snow. And they're much larger. It is much better, plus they have flavors that you won't find on the mainland like passionfruit, asian sour plum, and many variations on pina coladas. The first one was so good, I had to get another at the competing company (which wasn't quite as good because they don't precool their flavors). (The better shave ice came from Oceanview Inn. The inferior competitor was Scandinavian Shave Ice. The only problem with Oceanview was they weren’t open any of the times Danny or I went back to get more.)

In the afternoon we went to Mauna Kea beach. We'd borrowed some wakeboards from the B&B, and tried to use them, but without much luck. I thought that bodysurfing was more fun. We met up with some English boys there, and some Hawaiians and got a volleyball game going, haoles (tourists - more specifically, white people. Most specifically, people without a soul or history. Early white visitors to the islands didn’t recite the ancestral narration like native Hawai’ians and got dubbed "haoles" because it was figured that they lacked roots or something like that. This is what I recall from my meager education of Hawai’i from my Hawai’ian friends. –Danny) vs. locals. The locals beat us quite soundly, but it was a lot of fun. We stayed later than we intended, because we were having such fun. By the time we left, the sun was getting low.

By the time we got back to Kona, it was unfortunately too late for dinner. The noodle restaurant we'd wanted to eat at refused us service (although much more politely than the Thai restaurant). We went into lower Kona and found most of the places closed, except a Greek restaurant. Just as we were getting there, it started to pour rain. The prices at this restaurant were outrageous, easily 3 times what they should be, such as a souvlaki plate that should have been no more than $8 for $25. We left, got soaked on the way back to the car, and went back to the B&B. We ended up eating the remaining pizza from the night before. We were going to engage the neighbors in a game we'd brought, but they'd already gone to bed.

Today was my last full day on the island. Danny was staying a few more days, in hopes of getting to the top of Mauna Kea and then meeting some friends in Oahu. So we had to do all the things we'd left out and still wanted to do. It was to be a long day. We started out by driving up to the north to Mahukona beach, where we'd read there were some ruins in the water left over from a sugar plantation that used to be there. It was a small place, and there were only a few people there. We were the only non-locals. There was a couple of interesting things in the water, such as a huge chain lying on the bottom that just stretched off into the ocean, but not much. After a short while there, we proceeded onto another beach. It was much more crowded than we expected, so we just kept going.

Next stop was a return to the lava tube cave, this time with flashlights. It was earlier in the day, so it was not so hot, and the water in the cave seemed colder. There was also a group of people playing around. So instead of going in right away, we decided to walk down the beach to see a neat cove and some really ritzy houses build on the shore. Along the way, we picked up a couple of coconuts and smashed them open. To our disappointment, the first coconut was moldy inside. Danny found a couple that still made sloshing noises, so we tried those. They were a lot more difficult to open, but when we finally got into them, they were mmm-hmmm tasty. Fresh coconut juice and juicy fresh bits of coconut are really good. And it was fun to just find them and open them.

The "Bali House", which was hand built by menial labor in Indonesia and then shipped to Hawaii, was quite beautiful. The bay was also nice looking, but we didn't swim there. Instead we headed back to the cave. On the way back, we spotted some people kitesurfing. This means that the people were strapped to a board, like a small windsurfing board, and pulled along by a large kite shaped like modern parachutes. They go really fast, and can do big tricks in the air. I'd hoped to take some lessons, but they're really expensive, and we didn't really have the time anyway.

At the cave, the group had left, and a family had arrived. We explored the recesses of the cave with the flashlights. It went back quite a ways in one direction, and went completely underwater in another. It was amazing how clear the water was.

On the way back to Kona, we had to stop at the airport so I could sign the rental car over to Danny. Originally we'd planned not to need it after I left, but I had to fly out of a different airport than expected, so Danny needed it to get back to the other side of the island.

Next, we returned to Kona, and had lunch at the Oodles of Noodles place that we'd tried to go to before. It was fantastic. I had the tuna casserole, and Danny had a curried noodles dish. Very yummy. We went down into the lower part of Kona to get another shave ice (although from the inferior company, as the good one was closed for the day). Danny tried a snowcap this time, where they put sweetened condensed milk on the top. Then I did a little bit of shopping to find a hawaiian shirt that I liked. I ended up getting one at Hilo Hattie's. Danny found a great dancing frog candlestick holder that he purchased with birthday money. I looked for a silver manta ray necklace that I'd seen a guy wearing, but couldn't find one that I liked.

The day was getting on, so we started driving south. We were due to check into Macadamia Meadows near the southern tip of the island. By the time we got there, it was well past dark, but about when we were expected. After checking in, we raced on to the only restaurant before they closed. Unfortunately, their menu was very disappointing in terms of both selection and cost.

Out plan was to go see the lava once more, arriving later than before so that parking would be easier. So we decided to drive on to Volcano, hoping to get to the Thai restaurant and gas station just before they closed. Otherwise we'd have to drive an extra half hour into Hilo, as we wouldn't have enough gas to go down to the lava and back, let alone get anywhere from the park. We made it just in time. Their pad thai was a little disappointing though - the curry the other night was much better, but they were out of cooked rice and we would have had to wait another 30 minutes for them to make some. The pad thai, on the other hand, required no rice and was therefore ready quickly. The gas station was closed, but one pump was left on with a strange form of credit card reader that I haven't seen elsewhere.

We finally got to the parking for the lava field around 10 or 10:30. In the darkness, we couldn't find the branch off point to look at the lava flowing into the ocean, or maybe it just wasn't flowing. The field we'd been at the other night was much more active though. There were bigger flows, and more of them. It was a lot later, so the crowd was much smaller. There was one guy that kept putting coins into the lava, and then pulling out a small piece of lava with the coin in it (he brought a crowbar for this). Maybe he was trying to make impressions of the coins in the lava, but I'm not sure. At one point, everyone nearby left, and we had the place to ourselves for a few moments. After a few hours there, we headed back, arriving at the B&B in the early morning.

There was just enough time for me to pack, and then nap for an hour before we had to head to the airport. In order to get a flight, I had to leave from Kona rather than Hilo, as originally planned. My ticket got marked "S" for security check, and I had to get my sandals scanned and my bag searched. The "random" security checks were only being performed on tourists, and all the tourists as far as I could tell, even five year olds. Not a single local was checked. I speculate this was done to get the locals the good seats, as it was open seating. The flight was uneventful, and I was soon in Honolulu.

I had several hours before my flight back to the mainland, so I took the bus (after a half hour wait) to Pearl Harbor. I waited in line, but when I got up to the front, was told I couldn't take my backpack inside because of "security precautions from 9/11". They'd set up a bag check in a trailer in the parking lot. This was irritating because the monument was free, but the bag check was $5. The Pearl Harbor monument is actually two pieces - there's a museum and auditorium on land, and then the big white thing out on the water. You have to take a boat our to see the actual monument, which is perched over the bridge of the sunken USS Arizona. It's very shallow, so you can see it pretty well, and parts of the gun turrets are just above the waterline. Anyway, by the time I returned from the line at the bag check, and entered, the water shuttle ticket I received was too late for me to use. There'd be no way to take it and get back to the airport with enough time to be sure I wouldn't miss my flight. So I ended up just walking around for a bit and then leaving.
Pictures:Pearl Harbor

I returned to the airport and had a bite to eat, and then got on the flight home. No problems there, but another security check. My bag had gone through the agricultural inspection, xray, and hand inspection in Kona and was checked through to SFO. The flight got in a little late, and I picked up the car and drove home.

Some things we hoped to do, but didn't get around to on the big island: Pawai Bay at the Old Kona airport SNUBA (shallow underwater diving with a hose instead of scuba gear); kitesurfing lessons; Pu'u O'o Vent hike Kayaking on Kealakekua Bay to see the Cook monument and snorkeling spot Makole'a beach (a secluded black sand beach); the manta ray dive and snorkel trip.

After taking Ryan to the airport in the wee hours, I drove back to the B&B, stopping for a nap just south of Kona for about an hour. I was trying to make it back for breakfast, and only had about an hour of cushion time, so it was pretty close in the end. I made it, though, and was reqaled with Kona coffee and pancakes. I stayed after breakfast, talking to the owner, Charlene, about the various trees and fruits on the farm. I spent all morning hanging out, then left in the early afternoon. I was pretty tired, so wanted to keep my activities sane (Is that supposed to imply something? ;) -Ryan).

I headed to find the green sand beach near South Point (the southernmost part of the US). I had to park in a kind of sketchy squatter’s parking lot (a bunch of Hawai’ian activists live there) and then walk 2.5 miles to the beach. Somewhere along the way I lost my passionfruit I was saving for lunch. I found the beach and played there for about 20 minutes. There were other people, but they all stayed on the top of the bluff and didn’t come down to the beach. Then I hiked back to the car and left. I went further south a few miles to get some macadamia shortbread (which I ate later the next day, but was quite delicious!) Afterwards I headed back to Kona, but arrived too late to visit the Macadamia Pie factory. I went shopping at K-Mart for water shoes for Ryan, but bought an Aloha shirt instead. I ate at Oodles of Noodles again and had tapioca pudding for dessert. Afterwards I tried to get more shave ice, but both stores were closed (What is with the Hawaiian business schedules? - Ryan).

I had tried to get a room at the hostel in Kona, but they were full. They were willing to give me the floor for an extravagant price, though. Instead, I parked outside the Mac Pie factory and tried sleeping there. There was a lot of through traffic, though, and I got nervous and left. I drove 20 miles north to a scenic overlook and slept in the car there.

When I woke up, I didn’t even look around, just headed back to Kona for coffee and Mac Pie free samples. The factory wasn’t open yet, so I headed into Kona and got come mocha (very expensive!!) with Kona coffee and some high-quality upper-class chocolate. I also ate a passion fruit from the Lucky Farms B&B (that hadn’t gotten lost) and the macadamia shortbread, and read my book until the Mac Pie factory opened. Soon I went and got some free samples, but they weren’t as good as the shortbread I’d just had.

I drove north over to the other side of the island again, returned the car and took a shuttle to the hostel (stopping for an ear of supersweet corn which was to become my lunch while waiting for the shuttle). I arrived in time to take the expedition to the summit of Mauna Kea and see the observatory. A number of other people from the hostel were going also. Since the trip would take us past dinner time, we stopped at 7-11 for snacks first. I went against good judgment and got some musubi (a sort of spam sushi). We stopped again near the top to acclimate and took a short hike to a local summit, then continued to the very top. I forgot to call Ryan until the sun was already setting, and as a result we weren’t able to do the webcam trick. We got back late, and I stayed up talking to another guy who had been on the trip. We had a couple beers, then wandered about a mile and a half to some weird local karaoke bar where we had more to drink and also got served a bowl of boiled peanuts. Then I came home and went to sleep around 3 or so.

In the morning I rented a free bicycle and biked all the way back to Pe’epe’e falls and the Boiling Pots. I climbed down the bank and swam upstream to the pool beneath the falls. The water was cold or cool, but the sun was hot. I spent most the day swimming and sunning. Later some locals came and joined me. We played a while, then it started to rain (harder than the sprinkles off and on through the day) and we left. The bike ride down the hill was so much easier than up, and when we got back to town I kept pulling up alongside the car of locals I’d been swimming with. We laughed a couple times, then they turned and went their own way. Rather than go home right away, I went for ice cream, but the girl who had been there before when Ryan and I came through wasn’t working, and instead an old crotchety-looking woman was. I decided to see a movie ("the Adventures of Pluto Nash" starring Eddie Murphy - amusing, but not compelling) and then wanted ice cream, but the shop was closed by then. I biked to get supper at a little dive of a drive-through plate lunch Chinese place (where I had too much food and not very good at that), then wanted some dessert, so I found a little Chinese bakery selling pretty yummy lilikoi cookies. I bought a bag of them (some for later), and ate while socializing with another guy who biked up. He was an exchange student at the university here and had arrived just that day, and didn’t know where anything was yet. Then I returned home, read a little and went to bed.

In the morning I took a shuttle back to the airport and flew to O’ahu where I met up with Toni, whom I’ve known for many years now, since staying with Kevin years before when she was still in high school. We returned to a waterfall we’d played in when I lived here before, and this time hiked back further into the jungle until we got to some slick mossy rocks perfect for sliding into the stream on. We played a while, then came back and watched some people jump from a very high rock. I jumped from a little lower place, and we all left.

That night, we went to Toni’s friend’s house and partied. His house is the one that MTV rented for "Real World: Hawaii". There’s a great pool and hot tub, and we drank mai tais and had so much to eat. I stayed the night with Toni in her mother’s house, then caught a flight back to San Jose the next afternoon.

When we were at My Island B&B in Volcano, the old man there told the story of how the road to the top of Mauna Kea was blazed. He had a friend (who is now a car salesman) who was into jeeps and off-roading, and they had always talked about trying to drive a 4-wheeler to the top of the volcano. They finally got around to making the attempt on New Year’s (the only time they both were off work). His friend had rigged together a 4-wheel drive vehicle with various technical car items, and they drove up the mountain some distance before the car broke down and bits fell off of it. There was no going on, so they turned around and decided to try again the next year. The man from the B&B was a journalist for the newspaper, and wrote the story of the attempt in several installments and a lot of interest was created. So the next New Year’s, about 3 or 4 other vehicles were gathered to try to make the attempt too. Again no one succeeded (they all got stuck at the same point as the previous effort), and had to wait another year. The third year, a even more buzz had been generated, and now all the major car companies had teams and 4x4s, and the race began again. This time pretty much everyone made it to the same point as before. They continued further, but none of them could make the final bit to the summit. So the journalist’s friend (the car salesman) stripped his vehicle down to the bare minimum, and all the competing teams lined up on the trail to the summit, pushing the car to the top. Later, the state came by and plowed the path they had chosen, making it the road to the summit.

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