Chapter 20: In Which We Climb on Lava, Sink our Toes in Black Sand, and Reluctantly Fly Away
On Friday morning, my mom chose to relax at the vacation home, because we had a lot of walking planned. We headed back to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, and took a drive down Chain of Craters Road, stopping periodically to get out of the car to take a closer look at the destruction that has been caused by the volcano over the years and the subsequent rebirth of new life that has followed. It was just overwhelming – the scope of the devastation.
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Lava has flowed over this road repeatedly, as recently as 2003, making the end of the road impossible to use, as it is covered in huge masses of black lava rock.
We drove as far as we could, until a road block prevented us from continuing. We then got out of the minivan, because we would need to walk the rest of the way to the end of the road where the lava covers it.
I made a quick stop in the bathroom, and as I was washing my hands was startled to see this visitor pop into view. (I did let him know afterward that in the future doing such things is not a good idea!)
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The boys loved climbing all over it. After I took a bunch of photos, we headed back in the direction we’d come from, this time at a leisurely pace, enjoying all of the scenery.
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We stopped at Holei Sea Arch on our way. Formed over the past 100 years through a process called differential erosion, this arch is about 90 feet tall today. It will eventually crumble and sink into the ocean, so we’re thankful we got a chance to see this dramatic work of nature.
Everyone was feeling pretty hot by this time, because we had dressed too warmly for this section of the park. We’d worn layers of clothes for our visit to park, because we knew it would be cool in some places.
We continued driving around the park afterward, and then saw the cooler temperatures that we’d expected. According to my notes from the trip, at the lowest point of the drive it was 82 degrees, but as we the minivan climbed 3700 feet higher, we hit a low temperature in the mid-60’s.
At one of our last stops as we were returning to the visitor center, Kevin realized he had lost the boys’ camera.
We turned the minivan around and attempted to retrace our steps, pausing at the overlooks that we thought we’d stopped at before. Eventually we gave up and drove back to the visitor center to report the missing item to a park ranger. We completed the required form, but had little hope.
We drove back to the house and picked up my mom. She had clearly been enjoying herself.
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We then drove to Punalu’u Black Sand Beach, which is on the south-eastern part of the island, about a 35-minute drive away from the house in Volcano village.
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It was a beautiful beach, but, sadly, it was raining when we arrived there. We saw four sea turtles there, in a little roped-off area to protect them from any over-eager fans.
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I took off my shoes and walked in the soft, pretty sand for a little while, until I was forced to admit we needed to go.
The rest of the family had returned to the car due to the rain, and was surely getting hungry and itching to get on the way.
While we were driving back, I noticed that I had received a voicemail from an unusual area code, so I ignored it. When I did finally bother to check it, I was stunned to hear a message from the visitor center at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. Our camera had been found! We were SO relieved, partly because I had not backed up any of the photos from the trip and we really did not want to lose them.
We enjoyed a snack of Maui Style potato chips and cookies on the way to lunch. I guess our exciting day had everyone famished!
We consulted our trusty guidebook for a restaurant for lunch near Volcanoes National Park and decided to take a chance on Lava Rock Cafe in Volcano... It turned out the mixed review was spot-on: several mistakes were made with our orders, but the food was good overall. While there, I enjoyed my 4th burger of the trip (and I almost never eat burgers at home!), but my malt unfortunately didn't live up to the hype (from the review).
After lunch, we dashed back to the vacation home to grab our bags and take a few final pictures, before saying good bye to our sweet, cozy home-away-from-home, because we had to get to the airport for our flight back to Oahu. That’s right! We are not done with Hawaii yet. We get one more day on Oahu!
On our way to the airport, we stopped at a gas station, where I realized I did not have my driver’s license. Oh no!! Of course, as we covered in the beginning of this Trip Report, identification is required when flying. So I was concerned… Eventually, I was able to locate it in one of my bags, and we got on the road and reached the airport on time. We had to say goodbye to my mom at this point, because she was staying another couple of nights on the Big Island without us.
She was headed to the western side of the island, to Kona. Funny thing, though: because she does not drive, the best way for her to get there time- and money-wise was to fly there with a stop in Waikiki (a completely different island!) because there are no longer direct flights between the two airports on the Big Island. Anyway, after our family said our sad goodbyes, we enjoyed a short, pleasant flight to Honolulu.
Once there, we rented our third and final minivan of the trip and drove to our hotel, the Doubletree Alana Waikiki.
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I was so thankful that we’d decided to visit the Big Island during our trip. We knew it would be a whirlwind visit due to our limited time there and it truly felt like we just grazed the surface, but we loved it and it was well worth the extra flights and cost. Someday I hope we can return and see the other side of the island.
Before closing out the day, I think it’s worth taking a look at my tally of LOST items on our trip thus far:
Jeff’s wallet
3 beach mats
Sam’s stuffed buffalo
Aulani Key card
Boys’ camera
My driver’s license
We certainly made a habit of losing things in Hawaii! And there's more to come, even though we only have about a day left.
Next time: Pearl Harbor!