Bye bye Big Island

Aloha - I'm going to summarize our last 4 days on Big Island in one entry. We went to visit Grandma Yoshimura at Aunty Donna's house Saturday morning. My mom happened to be visiting from Maui that weekend, yeay! Grandma is 83 and sharp as a tack. She works out at the gym 3 times a week! dude... We enjoyed hearing her talk story in her precious Japanese-Pidgin English and then she taught us how to play Hanafuda.

Liane and I drove south around the island to meet up with our friends Rowan and Shannon in the tiny town of Volcano. The vog (volcanic smog) on the Kona side was the worst I've ever seen it but as soon as we reached South Point the weather was gorgeous. Big news: the current lava flow which sprung up from a fissure to the east of Pu'u O'o vent back in July '07 finally reached the ocean last Thursday. A blessing was made and an access road to view the lava was opened to the public on Saturday. We tried to go that evening but the road was closed due to an overwhelming amount of visitors.

Every Sunday morning Volcano Village hosts a bustling farmer's market which has the best produce I've seen in the state! Very pleased to see this kind of healthy/eco/artist community exists here - I wanna live there! Took a tour of the beautiful house Rowan and Shannon are building then we did a hike in the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. The Kilauea Iki Trail hugs the rainforested rim of the crater where we could hear the red and black Apapane honey creeper's bird song-chirp and wing whir. The trail then drops down, traversing the flat wide-open lava rock crater floor punctured with sulfur steam vents.

That night the four of us decided to try to see the active lava flow again despite rumors and signs that it had suddenly "stopped flowing". Millions of other people had the same idea and the parking area was still full. After driving an hour, we had to walk 2 miles past all the parked cars, finally reaching the trail. Spent another half an hour hiking over undulating lava rock in the dark with flashlights. It was a pilgrimage of Pele, the Hawaiian Fire Goddess. The flow had indeed slowed down but was still sending small streams of molten rock into the ocean and there were large hot glowing cracks along on the trail. We could see several patches of firey orange higher up the slope. The sky was clear with a setting crescent moon and STARS galore, and we could hear the waves crashing on the nearby cliff. F*ing Awesome.

Monday morning we were treated with a helicopter ride OVER the lava flow! My dad's partner won a gift certificate and gave it to us - Thanks Linda! Although it was very brief we got incredible views of Hilo's numerous waterfalls, the steaming Pu'u O'o vent, the lava-damaged roads and houses, and the lava pouring into the ocean. WOW! Unforgettable for sure.

Can you see the red lava?

Drove back to Kona side via Saddle Road between 13,000+ ft snow-sprinkled Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea. Sad to leave clear skies to enter the vog and rain. Checked into historic Manago Hotel in Capt. Cook.

We spent our last days hanging out and snorkeling at Honaunau, one of my favorite places in the world to be. I love the energy down there, so calm but exciting. It's a popular snorkel and dive spot with super easy access giving it its "Two Step" nickname. We saw several eels swimming freely and a small octopus! Octopi are so rad - we watched this one put on a psychedelic light and texture show on its skin and whip its tentacle out at fish. Saw a turtle get cleaned by fish on the reef floor. You could tell it was a regular cleaning station as the coral was all broken and flattened there, and the turtle was literally backed in to a garage-like coral opening!
We soaked up the last of our Hawaiian sun and surf and flew out Wednesday. Back to 50-degree Portland. Wahhhh! But it's good to be home.