Tuesday 7/24 - The Big Island - Volcanoes NP, black sand beach, & plates

Today we headed out to Volcanoes National Park, which is quite a trek from our hotel. The Waikiloa Village area is a collection of resorts and luxury condos which share two different shopping areas and golf course. The Kings Place has all the fancy-schmancy shops like Tiffany and Macy's, and the Queen's Place has an ABC store to rival Trader Joe's with upscale grocery items and other goods.

On the way out we stopped at the ABC for breakfast pastries and coffee for me - my first Kona coffee, and a bargain (even by home standards) at .99 for 12 oz. Of course the same can't be said about most of the other items in the store, like a can of Arnold Palmer for $1.89, and a bag of lime flavored Tostidos for $4.99.

It takes over 2 hours to get to the park from our hotel, and taking the North route around the island, we decided to make some stops along the way. First we checked out the Waipio Valley overlook, complete with a waterfall into the ocean.

With the kids asleep in the back, we took advantage of the Whine Free time to take a short 4 mile scenic route; a narrow, winding road which felt like we were taking an adventure ride through a rain forest attraction at Disney; Safe, but not without a little thrill here and there!

Two small stops resulted in magnificent views of lush valleys and waterfalls. Definitely worth the trip through the bumpy, winding road!

Like much of the ride to the park, there was a heavy mist blowing. Mike picked up four very attractive clear rain ponchos for us, since none of us packed rain gear. With the wind blowing so hard, we looked like we'd been shrink wrapped. Schlepping it in the wet wind, we made our way to the first steam vent and then on to the Kilauea Overlook area. Very cool to be able to see the caldera and the steam venting in the distance.

To get a better view, and possibly see some lava, we had to go to the Jagger Museum overlook where you can see the actual cinder cone. However, there was no viewing of actual lava today, folks! If you come at night, you might be able to see a red glow from down inside the cone. We would settle for steam and VOG (the volcanic version of smog). After a few pix, we were out of there and off to walk the short Devastation Trail.

Devastation, indeed. It was a miserable jaunt through the rain and wind across this barren area, and I couldn't help but laugh, feeling like I was in some kind of apocalyptic movie where we are the last survivors, and if we just go a little farther, we will make it to safety! This is mostly because the kids were not digging this. But the view of the lava field at the end was worth it.


Looking down into the still cooling lava field with all of it's crusty cracks and frozen black waves was pretty impressive, until you saw that there were people down there, then it was even more cool! The perspective is all off, and seeing the folks down below who were making the 4 mile loop hike across the lava made you realize the immensity of the whole thing. I really wanted to make that hike, but with the weather being so nasty, I knew there was no way I was talking anyone else into it. All they could think about was finding the next meal, so it was off we went. We skipped the Thurston lava tubes because there just wasn't any parking the two times we went by the parking area.








Last stop before heading back to our Shangri-La was to the black sand beach of Punaluu Beach park. Aside from the damp, cloudy weather, the waves were roiling in and out and there was not going to be any swimming. But we were in luck anyway, since several sea turtles had come up on the beach to rest, and we were able to see them up close and get some really nice shots of them.

The sand really is black - "like crushed up Oreo's!", Emma said, and the sand at the water's edge is so powdery soft! It really is quite beautiful. The pictures of the beach online couldn't really do it any justice - it is so much more black and beautiful in person. The kids enjoyed exploring the tide pools in spite of not being able to swim.

Gravy is NOT the same as hot sauce...

We had our second Hawaiian meal at a small hole in the wall place called Hona Hou's. We thought the plate meals would be similar to the garbage plates we have at home, and Austin was pretty excited to sink his teeth into one. However, although the plates are similar in that they have one part mac salad, one part rice (we have potatoes) and one part meat, they are kept separate on the plate, and not all heaped together like we were thinking. No wonder the waitress looked at me funny when I told her that we use home fries instead of rice, and we call them "garbage plates".

Austin is going to start his own garbage plate restaurant in Hawaii and call them Lava Plates!