Wow are those waves ever loud outside the lanai! Crashing all night long!
Today we had breakfast by the pool. The hotel provided a great breakfast … including fresh sliced pineapple, and mango juice. Very casual atmosphere here.
Today we headed to Pu’uhonua O Honoaunau National Historical Park. This is a sacred site, and quite beautiful. Plenty of picture taking opportunities here. The wooden statues were incredible, and very scary looking.
Stopped at Tex Drive-In for some hot malasadas. After having these on Oahu, we are now officially hooked on them!
Drove a while, and finally reached Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park. Unbelievable scenery. You just can’t imagine driving through miles and miles of hardened lava piled everywhere. And some of this lava is fairly recent … in the 1980s and in 2003.
There are steam vents through-out the park where you see steam rising from the ground. Drove the Crater Rim Drive and saw plenty of HUGE craters.
Stopped to walk through a tropical rain forest, and through the Thurston Lava Tube. It’s very dark through the tube, and kind of like being in a cave. This tube is probably 10 feet high and 10 feet wide, and quite long. Hard to imagine that lava flowed through it at one time.
Next we did the Chain of Craters road, which ends where a 2003 lava flow crossed the road! The road just stops at lava. You have to park the car, and then walk over the lava fields. We hiked about 200 yards to the ocean. Took about 2 hours to walk out and back, since the lava is very rocky and uneven. They mark a trail with reflective tags, in case you want to take the hike in the night-time. Lava was surprisingly light and hollow. You can easily lift a huge chunk in your hand.
When we reached the ocean we could see huge billows of steam coming up from where the lava was flowing into the ocean. Unreal! It was very, very quiet there, and kind of eerie! Nothing but hardened lava as far as you can see, and then steam and crashing waves.
Left the park and drove a couple of hours back to the hotel, for an early evening.
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