On to the Big Island - Day 21

Wednesday, July 2nd

Today we packed up and left our Air B&B around 8AM to catch an Uber ride to the airport.  While we are here we wanted to go to the Big Island and see the volcano.  It had an eruption on June 29th where, for about 11 hours, it spewed a fountain of lava into the sky more than 1000 feet tall.  This “episode” is finished, but at least we know the volcano has been active recently.  I am praying we will get to see some lava.


We got on a plane for a quick flight between the islands.



I enjoyed the view out the window.  The water is an amazing range of colors!



One of the islands I could see out of the window was red from the iron.



When we got to the Big Island, we picked up our rental car, and played Tetris putting all of our luggage in the back.



Only to discover that the middle seatbelt was non-functional.



So we had to trade vehicles, and reload all our luggage into another Hyundai. 





This vehicle is almost identical to the front of the Santa Cruz Bryan drives at home, so it feels familiar to him, which is nice.



We drove to a restaurant nearby which turned out to be in a food court.  But the BBQ chicken (which I would think of as teriyaki) was delicious.



Next we did a bit of sightseeing.  First we stopped at a shoreline to see if we could see any turtles.  



It was raining a little bit.  We didn’t see any turtles.



Then we stopped at a waterfall.



It had stopped raining.



Desmond has been happily listening to Gary Paulson books all day.




And we did see the waterfall.  Also it was jungle-y and wonderful.  I love all the variety of plants here!


We went to a Safeway and picked up a few groceries for breakfasts.


On our way to the Air B&B we saw some wild boar on the side of the road.



The Air B&B is nice.  I like the decor, and it is all very clean.  After getting ourselves situated and taking a rest break, we drove in toward the National Park. We stopped for dinner at Lava Rock Café.  They had an extensive menu and the food was good.


Then we went into the park to see lava!  Only, it was dark, and misting heavily in our faces, and we didn’t know where we were going or where to look.  We were following a paved path with orange lights on the side, and a group of people came walking back the other way and said that we would see it from the top of the hill.  We kept walking and walking, going quickly, Desmond shining his flashlight around in the dark to illuminate our path.  Finally, having gone almost a mile, we followed a dirt path to look over the side and didn’t see anything but mist out in front of us. Cold and wet, we decided to go back to the car, looking for anywhere we might be able to see it.


Heading in this direction, we were able to see the glow off in the distance.  It wasn’t as impressive as I had hoped it would be, far away, and cloudy.  But I have now seen the orange glow of the top of an active volcano, so that is cool.  And the pictures actually make it look a little better than it did to our eyes because of the longer exposure time.





We tried a couple other places to see if we could get a better view of it before heading back to the house.

Tonight the sounds we hear in the night are lots and lots of frogs.  This is a far cry from the city sounds we were hearing of people enjoying themselves at the bar the last few nights in Waikiki.  I prefer the frogs.

And now to get some sleep so we can go and try again tomorrow in the daylight.  The weather is supposed to be much nicer (70s and cloudy) so we have that going for us as well.  Good night!

Want to keep Traveling with the Schmidts? Read Day 22



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