Big Island of Hawaii: Days 3-5 and the last day of our trip

 

On Thursday (day 3) we took the long drive to the other side of the island to visit Volcanoes National Park. We didn't get any photos, but there were a massive amount of goats in the largely uninhabited area between Waikoloa and Hilo. I can see why it's such a challenge to corral and contain the goats in this rough, volcanic wilderness. 

I'd only ever driven this road in September of 2007 when it was much more brown. It was enjoyable to see so much green contrasted with the black rock along this drive.

It was still extremely  foggy when we reached Volcanoes National Park, but it was also very steamy. There'd only been little wisps of steam during our previous trip.

It was pretty hazy at the main Kīlauea overlook. It still looked cool up close, but these photos aren't great.

We walked along the Crater rim trail for to see more steam vents, but we turned around quickly since it was so hazy. The air quality in this area was also not amazing due to a recent eruption combined with a recent wind storm. Some parts of the park were actually closed due to the air quality.

The Keanakako'i Overlook was much more clear.

We also hiked the Devastation trail, which is more about the trail itself than the crater lookout at the end. This area was destroyed during a giant eruption in 1959, but life is recovering. 

We were getting hungry, and the kids still had plenty to work on in their Jr Ranger books, so we decided to drive up to Hilo to get lunch and see some waterfalls before coming back to Volcanoes National Park later. We grabbed some quick service food and got more Hawaiian pastries from a nearby supermarket then continued our sightseeing at Queen Liliʻuokalani Gardens. It was quite rainy while we were there, but it was still lovely.

It was so beautiful, that of course, Oscar and Tyler had to make a "duh" video.

I posted with this structure last trip, so we recreated it. Tyler wanted to pose with it too.

Beautiful!

After seeing the gardens we headed to Akaka Falls. This was free in 2007. Now it's $10 for parking plus $5 per person. 

It was even more beautiful than last time since it was so green.

We also saw Kahuna Falls and Allison found a stray cat.

We then went to Rainbow Falls. This was the same cost as Akaka Falls but it's a MUCH smaller state park with a tiny parking lot. We were there maybe 10 minutes. At least the waterfall was beautiful.

There are some interesting trees after you go up the stairs to the top of the falls. We also saw some sort of wild pig when we were within a few minutes of the falls on our drive there, which surprised me since it's in a fairly populated area.

From there we drove back to Volcanoes National Park and got the kids sworn in as Jr Rangers.

The crater lookout was much better than it'd been that morning, though still far from completely clear. 

There was no parking available at Thurston Lava Tube, but there was at the lookout before it and a hiking trail leading to the lava tube from there. We got some nice views along our hike. 

We then explored the Thurston Lava Tube with our two headlamps. It was pretty neat, though I soaked my shoes walking through a puddle in spite of being one of the four of us wearing a headlamp. Thankfully I had a pair of sandals in the car to change into. I'd known it could rain heavily that day and brought them in case the rain soaked through my shoes. I hadn't imagined I'd soak through them walking through a puddle in a lava tube.

After finishing up at Volcanoes National Park, we drove back to the hotel the long way looping around the southern end of the island. The view along the drive was lovely, but I mostly wanted to go this direction to see Punalu'u Black Sand Beach. The kids had fun playing in the sand and I rolled my pants up and got out into the water.

The kids in the water near me saw a sea turtle in the water and pointed it out to me. I didn't get a good look at it, but I still enjoyed the waves. I wished I'd had water shoes though. The sand was more like tiny pebbles than soft sand, and even with my feet in the water little rocks kept landing on my feet and scraping them up.

We also got to see some resting sea turtles! There's a little protected area made for them on this beach.

Oscar moved the car over to a different parking lot and took photos from further down the beach.

After that it was a long drive back, mostly in the dark. We slept well that night after a fun and exhausting day.

The next morning we saw what looked like eggs outside the lanai but turned out to be golf balls. There is a golf course nearby, but you'd have to make two pretty bad shots to get golf balls here at the very bottom of the lava rock. 

 

Grandpa's birthday was just a few days before our trip, so Martha made a cake for him. We sang "Happy Birthday" to him with candles made from sticks.

Friday was a gorgeous day! It was definitely the best weather day of our trip. After how much fun the kids were having at the black sand beach, we figured we should have a full beach day. 

Oscar went for a long walk to us until he'd met up with us at Hapuna beach. He then drove one of the cars back to the hotel to get his shower while I carpooled home with granny and grandpa.

Hapuna Beach was perfect! The sand was soft, the waves were big but not dangerously big, and the water was a nice temperature. I didn't want to keep my phone on me since I was worried it would be a burden to have to worry about, but Marcus got some footage. I combined all his video clips into the video above. In one of the clips Allison says "Swimming in the ocean is the bestest. I feel more alive because it's an infinite wave pool. No breaks just swim!"

After several hours at the beach, we went back to the hotel. Allison, grandpa, and I decided to have a little more fun at the hotel pool before we went in to get our showers. I went down all the water slides and Allison and grandpa enjoyed standing on the ledges falling back into the water. 

Later that afternoon Oscar and I went on the Puako petroglyph trail. Right at the start of the trailhead we saw a lady feeding several stray cats. It made us miss our sweet kitties.

There are several Petroglyphs available right at the beginning if you don't want to hike the overgrown trail. 

Ancient Hawaiians didn't wear shoes, so walking this trail barefoot in the sun to make their mark would have been pretty brutal. There are hundreds of petroglyphs all in this same spot, but it's not clear what they meant to the ancient Hawaiians or what purpose carving one served. Most were petroglyphs of people, male and female, but many others were petroglyphs of animals. 

That evening I was pretty tired after a beach day and a hike, so we just relaxed, cooked up some steak on the outdoor grills, and enjoyed our remaining time together.

The next day was the day we flew out to Maui. In the morning the Grandparents took the kids swimming while Oscar went on a run. He saw some cool sites and saw more stray cats. I stayed at the resort and finished up the laundry and packing. I also saw some nene geese out the window. I'd seen them briefly a few other times this trip, but this was the first time I saw them long enough to get a photo.

This was the first day that it was clear enough to actually see Mauna Kea. 

We flew to Maui that afternoon (which will be my next two posts), but on our way home we had a 5 hour layover in Kona. Since the flight to Kona and the flight to Denver were two different airlines, we weren't able to have our luggage transferred. We had to pick up our luggage from baggage claim only to fight out that we couldn't check it into United until 4 hours before the flight. We wanted to visit Kaloko-Honokōhau National Historical Park, and it was closing in less than an hour, so we had no choice but to take our luggage with us. We grabbed an Uber and made it there about 30 minutes before they closed. There was no indoor area, but they let us leave our luggage in a covered area. The kids stayed with the luggage while they worked on their Jr Ranger books. Oscar and I started on the trails leading to the fish ponds (Kaloko means "the ponds" and Honokohau means "where the waters congregate." This historic site protects those ponds that were a major way of life for the Ancient Hawaiians). We made it to the beach, then Oscar ran back to the kids before the site closed. I stayed a little longer and waded enough into the water to see a sea turtle. I wish I'd had water shoes since I was walking on slippery rocks the whole way. I came so close to falling in the water several times but somehow stayed dry. 

The kids were given their badges, though they weren't sworn in since they weren't done with their books when the site closed. They and Oscar were able to hang out in the area after everyone left since there's nothing to close except the parking lot. They waited for me to get back then we called an Uber. We walked out of the parking lot since the Uber wouldn't be able to pull into it. There the kids saw a pay phone for the first time.

We made it back to the airport and waited for our plane to board at the outdoor Kona airport where we enjoyed a beautiful sunset. While we were there a group of kids from Oahu returning from a Big Island field trip performed several hula songs and dances for us. I absolutely loved it! I was nearly in tears. I took some pictures and video but was later asked by a teacher not to take them. I won't post them publicly out of respect to the school and the children's families, but I'm keeping the videos as a beautiful memory of that lovely sendoff. 

As for the flight, we boarded on time around 7:30pm. Our flight to Hawaii gave us our dinner very early on the flight, even though it was nearly a 7 hour flight and it was only 3:30pm when dinner was served. For that reason we didn't bother getting dinner at the Kona airport, but then they delayed dinner for several hours on the plane. They told us it was because they were expecting major turbulence in the next few hours and didn't want their flight attendants moving around in the middle of it, but the turbulence we did hit was pretty minor in my opinion. Dinner was finally served around 11:00pm. Allison is normally a great sleeper, but she couldn't sleep until after she'd had dinner. There were two empty seats next to us, so she was able to lay down and sleep once her belly was full. She ended up being the only one of us who got any real sleep. She also slept at the Denver airport when our COS flight got delayed by over an hour. 

As for the rest of us, I got a few 10-30 minute chunks of sleep, Tyler got about 2 hours in small chunks, and Oscar doesn't think he slept at all. We eventually made it home around 10:30am MST. I then slept about 5 hours and then about 12 hours that evening. I made up for my lost sleep, but then it took me several days before I could fall asleep before midnight. We got back on a Thursday, and I was back to sleeping normal Colorado hours on Monday.