We have arrived in Hilo Hawaii on the big Island--our vacation rental is rustic but nice, and the view is wonderful. We were tired after returning to the airport to collect Helen who was on a later flight, so it was an early night for all. On Thursday, we breakfasted-in while watching a large Princess Lines cruise ship glide past our deck to settle in port barely a stone's throw away. The Bay is calm, and the weather slightly overcast as we head out for Volcano National Park, about an hour away.
The first stop was the visitor center, where we watched a film of the geology and cultural history of the park, then gathered maps and headed out to devastation trail, and other overlooks.
Our picnic lunch was at a pretty site at the end of a road where we passed grazing ne-ne geese amid vast stretches of hardened lava from slow-moving flows. New "island" area was visible from the overlook--where kava had flowed and hardened in the sea, for mining a brand new and very large stretch of rock bench shelf just above the water's edge. At the Jagger Museum we saw the crater and steam vents shown below.
As we headed back the day grew cooler and the wind stronger. What had been a calm flat bay now was a white-capped angry patch of water crashing against the rocks at the base of our rental lot. The wind carried the salt spray all the way to the upper story deck. Surprisingly, the cruise ship began to leave in these stormy waters, heading out through the bay to the open sea. The winds howled all through the night.
Friday morning it was still windy and we decided to look around Hilo, as the winds were expected to die back by Friday night. Helen and I took Lizzie to some of the places we enjoyed in Hilo--the lovely Japanese garden park off Banyan Drive, the tsunami memorial (and Vietnam memorial), and the exquisite gilded statue of King Kamehameha.
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