Big Adventures on the Big Island

(A word of warning: in addition to being ridiculously late, this post will be ridiculously long and contain a ridiculous number of photographs. Call it an adventure in ridiculousness.)

Way back when Nan and Grandpa were visiting, we took advantage of a three day weekend to go on an adventure to a volcano! There aren't too many times in your life when a three day weekend means that you can visit an active volcano, and we'd been meaning to make the trip to the Big Island to visit Kilauea for some time. So, on a Friday morning, the six of us boarded a plane for the fifty minute flight to the Big Island. The flight alone would have been adventure enough for Kathleen, who pestered us about when we'd get on the airplane from the moment she woke that morning, which, not coincidentally, was the first she'd learned about the big plans. Good thing we had an early morning flight!

When we arrived in Hilo, we drove right to Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park and made it there just in time for lunch. The military has a resort on the Big Island, right inside Volcanoes National Park, which couldn't have worked out better for us! We spent the weekend in a three bedroom cabin, which was ours for less than the price of a hotel room in other locations. Since our cabin wasn't quite ready for us, we threw caution to the wind (read: we skipped naps) and headed out to explore the park. Not too long into our exploration, both Madeline and Kathleen were sound asleep.

So, while the girls slept, the adults alternately whispered and pantomimed to one another, pointing out the unbelievable landscape as we drove our rental minivan down Chain of Craters road. The scenery is truly breathtaking. You can see the way the volcano's eruption has changed the landscape over the years. The lava has done distinctly different things at different points. It can be smooth and ripply or sort of crumbly... and in other places there are vents where big clouds of steam puff out of the ground! And out along the horizon is the startlingly blue water. Afraid that the sliding doors would wake our sleeping beauties, we just kept right on driving. Eventually we reached the end of the drivable road and held our breath (hoping we didn't wake the girls) to hop out and take a peek at this:

Amazing! After that Kathleen did wake, so at our next stop, she came with us. Madeline was still sleeping, so she and Nan took a little break while the rest of us hiked out to see petroglyphs carved in the lava rock. Kathleen got the best deal:

It wasn't a long hike; it was maybe 1.75 miles. But it was a gorgeous day and we could see out to the brilliantly blue ocean. Plus, we got to see the lava formations up-close and personal:

It was sort of amazing to see the petroglyphs carved in the rock. You see some of the characters so frequently (on so many touristy things) that I'd practically forgotten their origin!

By the time we finished hiking and driving (lots more driving!), we were able to check into our cabins, get settled, and have some dinner. Our cabin had a fireplace, and since the altitude makes the park cooler than we're accustomed to at home, we actually lit a fire. And since there was a fire, we had s'mores... Chocolate and marshmallows and graham crackers certainly made us happy! Messy, but happy.

Full of sweets and tired from our first big day of adventuring, we called it a day. Kathleen even slept in a twin bed for the first time. We were nervous, but (like so many other things) she wasn't! With a kitchen chair pushed up against her bed so she wouldn't fall out, she slept right through the night.

When we woke the next morning we were freezing! I don't know how cold is was, really, but it was awfully cold to us! (Friends on the mainland, feel free to mock us for our inability to handle temperature change. Moving back to the "real world" is going to be quite a shock.) Fortunately, the sun was out, so it warmed right up! But we made a habit of lighting a fire in the morning after that! And having the fire turned out to be just perfect for our slower-paced day. We decided to let Madeline take her morning nap while the rest of us relaxed -- we read, took walks, played at the playground (wonder which one of us that was!). And when Madeline awoke, we headed out to see some more volcano sights.

We decided to take a stroll through Thurston lava tube, a tunnel the lava created as it ran into the sea.

Kathleen passed on a ride in the Beco, leaving it for Madeline. Instead, Kathleen insisted on carrying her own backpack, laden with toys. We kept offering to take it for her, worried that it would weigh her down, but she wouldn't have any of it. "My carry it myself!" she'd insist. After the lava tube, we hiked to the edge of the Kilauea Iki Crater and peered in.

Wow! We hope to be able to go back some day when the girls are older and we can hike down into the crater. But after our little hikes our "do-it-myselfer" was tuckered out, so we headed back to the cabin and for a picnic lunch and naps. (Sightseeing with children is an entirely different matter than sightseeing without children!)

We spent the afternoon in Hilo, taking in the enormous banyan trees on Banyan Drive. Each tree was planted by a visiting celebrity. We saw trees planted by Amelia Earhart, Richard Nixon and FDR, to name a few. We also stopped by the Lili'uokalani Gardens and took a walk, enjoying not only the beautiful pagodas, bridges, and plants, but also the views of the bay. Kathleen was particularly impressed with the koi and the little crabs that played in the ponds.

We also visited Rainbow Falls, another sight Madeline missed because she was asleep in the carseat!

We had intended to spend our last day on the Big Island seeing more of the volcano, but we were stymied by Madame Pele (the volcano!). Of late, the volcano has been spewing a lot more sulfur gas into the atmosphere. Sulfur gas is poisonous, so parts of the park had been closed. We'd done our sightseeing in the open, safe areas of the park, but on Sunday even the open areas of the park weren't considered safe for babies and small children. The air quality was really bad. We snapped a quick photograph in front of the Kilaeua Caldera and then headed out of the park and into Hilo, where the air was at least moderately cleaner. We took an incredibly scenic drive along the waterfront, ate an enormous lunch at a local restaurant, and before we knew it, it was time to fly home.

We were happy to be able to share our big adventure with Nan and Grandpa... and we hope we get to have another one soon!