Visiting the Big Island

We got to Kauai and spent the first couple days just visiting and going to the District Convention, etc. Saturday we took off for the Big Island. We got to see just about everything there was to see on the island. We only got to go play on the beach once because, believe it or not, there aren't many good beaches on that whole island. Saturday we checked out Hilo, the farmer's market, a couple waterfalls, Rainbow falls and Pe'epe'e falls which were huge and brown because the tropical depression hit the night before and dumped 10 inches of rain, then we saw the west coast drive, Waipio Valley, central part of the island, Waimea, which was buried in fog and was cold, a perfectly awesome sunset at Anaeho'omalu bay (A-bay) and camping at a campground called Kapaa, with a noisy group of locals. Sunday we drove north or east to a beautiful valley called Pulolu. We had to hike down to the beach, it was steep and would have been very slick had it been raining but fortunately it was dry. One of the prettiest spots on the island. We turned around an continued south through Kailua and Kona, played at a pretty beach called Hapuna for a couple hours and got sunburned, then ate lunch at a beautiful park with all the pretty birds and hiked 1.5 mile round trip to a petroglyph site (ancient Hawaiian carvings). We visited Kealakekua Bay (where Captain Cook was killed and his bones were buried at sea) at a beach called Napo'opo'o, then an ancient "Place of refuge" replica called Pu'uhonua o Honaunau and then camped at a quieter although buggier campground called Hookena. When we were having dinner and downloading pictures onto the computer we got a 1.5" cockroach in the camper flying around so I opened the door and jumped out and Dane shooed it out, yuck! We got a good night sleep though and when we woke up we were camped right in front of a "no camping allowed" sign, oops! Early in the morning a fat white guy came and parked right next to us with his radio blasting, then walked away with his dog to smoke and visit witht the people in the camp. Slowly I figured out he was the local drug dealer and the stupid loud radio was his call to come get your drugs like the ice cream man with his music. Grrr. Monday was our best day. We went to the south end of the island, Kae Lae, and people were snorkling and jumping off a cliff. I was considering going in and just swimming but was being hesitant because the rocks had urchins on them and was kinda slippery so I decided to just sit and keep my feet in the water when a big wave came in and decided to take me out. When I saw I was going I pushed off so I wouldn't get pulled out feet first. As I was going out I bumped a couple rocks and now have a big scrape and bruise, oops again. But the water was great, overall I'm glad it happened. There was a local guy there that just watched over all us dumb tourists. When I started swimming I heard him call out and check if I was ok. Then he was in the water near me and said "you doin OK Moms?" MOMS, he called me MOMS! He was at least 60! It's just a respect thing though, I know, I'm not a spring chick so what do you call me, Lady? Then I had to climb up a 40 foot ladder but that was fine, I had no problem with that. We kept driving and I saw a neat longhorn (bull) so I stopped to take a picture and when I parked next to a carport like thing I saw inside a mule and a zebra! We saw wind farms and herds of cows and Paniolo, Hawaiian cowboys. We stopped by a beautiful black sand beach, BLACK sand and a fish pond called Punaluu. It is also a sanctioned Hawksbill turtle resting place and we actually got to see one about 2 feet long. Then we headed to the volcano. When we got there Dane said he wanted to do the Kilauea Iki trail, a 3 mile trail and it was already after 4 PM. So I said great but that we'd have to hurry becuase the sun sets about 7 and typically when we hike it's at a pace of about 2 MPH. So we hit the trail hard and got the hike done in 1.5 hours and it turned out to be 4.4 miles. It was awesome, we actually hiked right across the crater, past the steaming vents. I think the crater was about 2 miles across. So we got that done and wanted to go down to the ocean end of the Chain of Craters road to see the night time lava glow. On the way down we saw another Petroglyph trail, Pu'u Loa, that was .7 mile one way so we grabbed our flashlights and cameras and took off nearly running across the lava. It was easy to do though because there's very little loose rocks, they're all glued together. Ours was the last car in the parking area when we got out. Then we drove the rest of the way to the road that ends at the lava, another little hike to that spot, 1 - 1.5 miles round trip in the moonlight by the ocean. We didn't get to see any glowing lava going into the ocean but when you'd look up at the mountains there was the glow from the eruption taking place on the back side of the mountain from where visitors can see in the park. The road is closed for 1/2 mile so people just stopped and sat on the road and rested. They also have a picnic table and trash cans set up so we sat and took pictures of the glow, it reminded me of what the ancient Hawaiians must have seen and worshipped. So that day total we did about 7 miles hiking and a nice swim and climb up a ladder. We were exhausted and up where we slept on the volcano in a campground at about 4000' elevation called Kulanaokuaiki it actually got COLD at night, we had to have blankets and long clothes. We slept pretty good and when I got up I looked at my watch and said "it's a quarter to 9, get up". Turns out I didn't see it right, it was actually a quarter to 7, so we got a nice early start. After breakfast we went to the Thurston lava tube before the crowds got there. There are 2 sections, one is clean, smooth and lit, the second one, behind a gate is natural, no light, low ceiling in places, fallen rocks, roots hangin down, etc. We used our flashlights and hiked in to the end of that. Then we went to another spot that ade me wish I had my friend Suzanne with me called Bird park or Kipuka Puaulu. It had tons of birds and huge old trees and was the perfect temp, we could have spent the whole day in there if she could have come with me. From there we pretty much just went back to Hilo so Dane could do some more shopping, I needed to rest, the van made my back hurt and I suddenly got a headache so I went and laid down in the van for an hour or so and Dane went to the mall and shopped. Then we ate up the rest of the food before we went to the airport . We got back to Kauai yesterday evening and slept great finally back on a real bed. Today I'm getting caught up on this emailing stuff and just kinda resting. We're gonna start painting and weeding eventually, mom bought a sprayer and scaffold and she's working on assembling all that and learning how it works. Saturday Dane and I will go play here on Kauai while the folks go to a friend's memorial. He was the brother that had their book study at his house and died suddenly 2 days before we came, he was only 46 but had lots of health problems.