Volcano and Lava Stuff

Did you hear a scream of raging frustration ringing throughout the land?  If you did, that was me, fighting, struggling, losing entirely my battle with the Blogger editing program.  Oh, how I loathe it!  I would like very much for you to picture this as a very well-organized, sensibly ordered post about our visit to the volcano and the lava flow.  It is NOT organized or sensible, but that's because I am being utterly defeated by Blogger.  SO... Here are some pictures and stories, anyway. 

Here are two really excellent examples of a type of lava formation called pahoehoe.  It is defined as having a smooth, flowing, ropy or twisted appearance.  Pretty nifty-looking rocks, huh?  We paid extra-close attention to the details of the volcano and lava flow because Gregory is researching volcanoes for a school paper and oral presentation, and we wanted to be sure that we collected as much first-hand information as possible while we had such a rare chance!

And this is what USED to be a road sign.  Back when there was a road, and not just a 6-foot-thick covering of lava.  The place where we were standing to see all this lava was near a 6-week-old lava flow that was hardened, but still radiating lots and lots of heat.  The active, red, flowing lava was much farther up the hill from where we were, and it wasn't practical for us to get closer to it. 



The little glowing dots on the hillside show the path that lava is traveling from the active vent toward the ocean.  Unfortunately, we would have had to pay BIG bucks for a walking tour to get close to the flowing lava, and the guides were not professionals, geologists, volcanologists, or anyone else who would know for sure how close was "close enough".  The guides were just ordinary citizens who happened to be the unfortunate landowners whose property was covered up by the lava.  Soooo... we looked at the glowing lava from afar.

Here is Astrid's better photo of the glowing lava, taken with a more sophisticated camera

 

There is a type of lava called A'a, which is very jagged, rough, pointy, sharp, and irregular.  It is the kind of thing where you just know you had better keep your footing while walking across it, or you'll be leaving a significant amount of your skin behind.  For that reason, I like to call it "Uh-oh lava", instead of a'a.  And here you can see that Gregory got off VERY lightly after his close encounter with the a'a.

*sigh* There are more pictures that I wanted to add from our volcano and lava viewing adventures, but Blogger is completely stonewalling me.  So ... I'm going to quit while I'm ahead and just publish this. 



Mauna Kea Beach

A few random shots, then Kuki'o Beach and Makalawena Beach

Spectacularly gorgeous Waipi'o Valley. 

Coffee plantation in paradise!!! What a setting, huh??

Gregory and Grandpa Mark working on a sudoku puzzle one day while waiting for lunch to arrive.

Gregory had an assignment to write a journal entry for each of our days in Hawaii.  He usually did his work after breakfast, before we left for the day's outing.

Don't Touch!!  It is against the law to touch sea turtles, with a fine of $1000 to thoroughly discourage people from doing it anyway.  So we didn't touch the turtles at all - but we did spend a lot of time looking at them.  They like to come up and sun themselves on certain beaches, including Kuki'o Beach, which was one of the many perfectly perfect beaches we visited during our vacation.

Setting up to snorkel.  There was *A LOT* of snorkeling over the course of this vacation.  The kids only did a little here and a little there, but we grownups snorkeled every chance we got, and ended up seeing so much beautiful, interesting, and amazing stuff.

See?  The turtles love this beach for sunning themselves!

Here's Lily setting up to snorkel. 

At Kuki'o Beach, the kids spent an enormous amount of time and energy digging a hole almost deep enough to make it to China.  They were joined intermittently by other children on the beach.  Beach building/digging projects were non-verbally, but universally agreed upon to be communal property among any and all children who happened by.  Any group of kids building or digging would inevitably attract every other child who walked past.

THE PERFECT BEACH.  They were all "the perfect beach", but Makalawena was very high up on the list, making an excellent case for being called the actual best beach we went to.  Hapuna was awesome for boogie boarding and sand castle building, Mauna Kea was delightful for snorkeling and swimming, but Makalawena was just perfectly blissful.  Wonderful swimming, excellent snorkeling, fantastic fine sand for digging and building, non-crowded... just heavenly all around!!!

Remember how I said Makalawena was non-crowded?  This is why!!  There's a loooooooong walk over A'a lava to get to the beach!  All the kids were troopers, marching right out there, and right back out again without complaint, despite the distance, rough terrain, and quite warm day.  It is a long walk, but the beach is WELL worth it!

After a long time over the lava, the trail winds around under some trees and over roots and weathered lava rocks.

After that, you walk for quite some time through sand with these very brave plants growing thickly along the sides of the path.  There are lots of wild goats (yes, I said GOATS) that live along the trail. 

After all that walking (I think it was 40 minutes or something that we walked), you come up over a dune and see a beach more beautiful than you had dared to imagine!  The water was perfectly clear, the sand completely fine and clean, the water so intensely blue and aqua (like what you always see in advertisemsnts for the Caribbean).  Oh, my.  So very worth all the walking!!

All three Mears kids buried in the sand.  Lily is under that hat.

Gregory digging around the the sand with a postcart-perfect beach scene behind him.

A few things from the rainy side of the island

We stayed on the Kona side of Hawaii, which is famous for its sunny beaches and reliably good weather.  The other side is much rainier, so not as predictably pleasant for outdoor activity.  But all that rain makes for a beautiful, green, lush, rainforest-ey look.  We went over that way three different times during our trip - once to go to South Point and Hilo, once to go see the lava flow, and once to take a tour of the various gorgeous waterfalls.  Here are some pictures from those three trips to the Hilo side.

Bamboo along a trail leading to Hakuna and Akaka Falls

A fleet of the cutest kids posing by the bamboo

Rainforest with Akaka Falls visible in the background.  So pretty!

Akaka Falls

We came across a very nice man with very extensive camera gear, photographing this nifty tree.  He offered to take a group photo of us, and we just had to say, "Yes, please!"  There aren't all that many pictures of all of us together, since someone usually had to be behind the camera.

Lily and Astrid looking over some flowers that Lily collected from the ground in Bill & Donna's yard in Hilo.  Donna told us that this flower is called an African tulip.  It also comes in bright yellow.  Very pretty!

Oh, how we love the smoothie shop, "What's Shakin' "!!  They make insanely delicious all-fruit (no sugar, no dairy, no anything - except fruit!!) smoothies, and they grow the majority of their fruit right there on the farm behind the shop.  Gregory is standing under a banana tree, pointing up to show you where the bananas are growing.  There were also pineapples, papayas, oranges, and limes growing where we could see them. 

Three sweet little Mearsies at the boiling pots and Pe'e Pe'e Falls.  We had never before seen these sights in sunshine, as it's very often cloudy, rainy, and/or foggy on the Hilo side. 

A kid-less view of the boiling pots.  They're called that because there are various rocky basins along the river bed, and the water in them flows in such a way that they look like they're boiling.

Bill & Donna have two terribly sweet and friendly little pugs, and the kids enjoyed playing with them so much during our quick stopover at Bill & Donna's house.

I can't get enough of giggling at this sign.  You know it's supposed to be Pe'e Pe'e Falls, but apparently the sign maker didn't have apostrophes. 



Look at those sweet kids in the lovely yard in front of Rainbow Falls. 



The trees near Rainbow Falls were just astonishing.  They were all joined together by branches that seemed to belong to either, neither, or both of the trees they touched.  It was like a forest made up of one big tree or ... system of trees... or something.

I love the way these trees arch over the clearing.

Rainbow Falls.  Isn't it pretty??



More Fun in Hawaii

Hapuna Beach is truly one of the best beaches in the entire universe.  It's gorgeous with fine sand, pretty shade trees, attractive lava formations around the edges, and the most consistently good boogie boarding waves of any beach we've visited.  Hapuna was so incredibly good that we went twice this vacation, and had a GREAT time both times!!!!!

Before heading to Hapuna, we fed the kids a tropical breakfast made up of French toast topped with local apple bananas, shaved coconut (from a coconut Mark FOUND ON A BEACH, how cool is that??!!), and coconut syrup.  On the side was fresh fruit from the farmer's market - papaya, mango, pineapple, bananas.  Oh, yummy!  Lots of good boogie boarding fuel right there!!!

Gregory was BORN to boogie board.  This boy needed absolutely no instruction - he hopped on the first wave that came by and rode it all the way to shore.  He can ride any wave, large or small.  And he LOVES IT!!!!

Gregory waiting for a wave.  Any wave will do.



Lily is a fair hand at boogie boarding too!  She and Annika spent hours out in the waves.



Daddy can boogie too!

Gregory got a little waterlogged and chilly a couple of times, but only stopped for a SHORT time to warm up, then went out to ride more waves.

Daddy and Henry lounging in the shade at Hapuna Beach. 

The kids made massive sand fortresses at every beach we visited.  Each was more elaborate than the one before it, so that by the end we had some amazing structures!  This is an early model, not particularly large.

Ride that wave, Annika!!!!!

Doesn't that look like fun?!?!?!?!

Even mommies can boogie board!

Grandma Beverly calls Gregory "The Cork" because he can stay on top of absolutely any wave.  It helps that he's riding an adult board and only weighs 45 pounds.  But his timing is excellent too - he just knows when to get on the wave.

Boogie, boogie, boogie!!!

Ride'em, Lily!

No boogie boarding for Little Henry, but he had heaps of fun in the waves at the shore.