Kathie’s blog has our day-by-day journal, so I’m not going to repeat everything here… just click through and check out the story there! We’ve also uploaded our vacation photos to an Aspen Vacation album in our Gallery.

There were six to eight people in our class, and we started by hearing all about tripod use and shutter speeds. We started at the World War II memorial, where the lighted fountains were a great night subject. We also had the Washington Monument to the East and the Lincoln Memorial to the West to photograph. Next was the Korean War Memorial, 19 haunting statues of soldiers dramatically lit from below, and then we went inside the Lincoln Memorial. The last two stops were the Vietnam Memorial, and the Albert Einstein Memorial.

I had a few technical difficulties through the night (dirt on lens, crooked tripod, problems focusing clearly at night), but still took some pretty nice photos I think. The best of the night are in my gallery here, and a sample is below:

World War II Memorial

Since we were still getting up relatively early, we headed to Lava Java to get our daily dose of cinnamon pastry goodness and headed south for our drive. This morning did not start out quite as hazy as normal in Kona. Since the volcano constantly spews out lava into the ocean, huge plumes of sulfur dioxide steam are released into the air. The trade winds carry the gray fog west to Kona all day long, and it has been officially named vog (volcanic fog). The residents in Kona hate it when Kīleaua is active because the vog can get pretty bad and cast a thick haze over the west coast. Apparently it’s been quite bad for the past few months.

Our drive to the volcano was uneventful with very few other cars on the road. We definitely seem to have hit off-season in Hawaii — in general most of the places we’ve been were very quiet (which we think is just fine). We made it to the Volcano Park by about 11am and headed straight to the Visitors center where we could get the most up-to-date information about the volcano. We confirmed that active lava flow is currently not visible at the park but the best time to watch was in the evening along the coast, so we had plenty time to see the park before the lava viewing. A relatively new vent at Halema’uma’u Crater contains a liquid lava lake, but the lake is only visible from directly overhead (i.e. helicopter). The vent is constantly spewing out poisonous sulfur dioxide gas, so half of Crater Rim Drive which circles the volcano was closed where the gas crosses the road.

Poisonous sulfur dioxide venting from the caldera closed much of the road that loops around Kīleaua’s rim.

We drove down the open part of the road to the steam vents and the first overlook. Steam vents are found throughout the park but at the first overlook you can see it most prominently. Mostly these are areas where rain falls, gets heated by the warm volcano rocks and comes back out as steam. It’s definitely hot, and a little fragrant. At the overlook we were able to see the huge gas vent at Halema’uma’u Crater with an even better view at Jaggar Museum. No wonder the Kona residents get annoyed: that thing puts out major amounts of vog!

A better view of the Halema’uma’u Crater.

We also hiked through the 400-year old Thurston Lava Tube. Lava tubes are tunnels formed when the top part of the lava exposed to the air cools and hardens, while liquid lava continues flowing underneath. Eventually the volcano stops pumping out lava, and the liquid drains away leaving a smooth, hollow tube. The Thurston tube is giant, about 20 feet in diameter at the largest point. We followed the dimly-lighted path 450 feet to a stairway up and out, but since Kat had done her homework before vacation, we brought flashlights and were able to skip the exit and continue another 150 feet through the unlighted tunnel. It’s amazing that once you get past the first curve in the tunnel, it immediately becomes pitch black. It was a bit spooky going so far in the dark, and we only saw one other couple make the trek into the back of the tunnel.

At the entrance to the Thurston Lava Tube

Next on the agenda was a drive down Chain of Craters road, which is a 20-ish mile drive from the 4,000 foot top of the volcano, down to the coast. The road passes along many old, and some recent lava flows, and many very old (and large) craters from past eruptions. At one point we came across two Nēnē, endangered Hawaiian geese. Along the coast, the road is blocked off, so we parked and walked another half-mile to the point where the roadway was covered by a 2003 eruption.

Chain of Craters road ends where the lava flows of 2003 covered it

After driving back up to the caldera, we stopped at the overlook for Kīleaua Iki crater. There is a great hike to this crater, but we just didn’t have the time for it this trip. The hike is a few miles through the rainforest, and then across the smooth surface of a mile-wide hardened lava lake inside the crater. Instead, we looked down onto the crater lake surface from the rim of the crater 400-feet up.

Kīleaua Iki crater, and 50 years ago, a lake of lava

By now it was afternoon, and we were quite hungry, so we stopped in Volcano Village, a small town near the summit of Kīleaua, and had some lunch. We continued driving east, so that we could get to the lava viewing area by evening. We drove down to the coast, and along the other end of Chain of Craters road. Twice we came to fairly long sections of road that were covered by lava flows in March, 2008, and we had to drive up and on top of the lava for a while until the road was accessible again. The state and county had paved a rough lane on top of the lava so our car didn’t have too hard a time, but it was still pretty odd. At one point we saw a “For Sale” sign stuck in the lava pointing to a house that somehow had been spared when the lava covered this side of the island and destroyed the community of Kalapana in 1990. There’s no power, water, or roads left so we don’t expect the house to sell very soon.

Eventually we made it to the end of the road, parked, and grabbed our gear (flashlights, camera, water, etc.). We followed a ½-mile hike across recent lava flows to get to the viewing area. The route was clearly marked, but it was interesting seeing and walking on the recent lava.

Our trek across the recent lava fields, to get to the viewing area

The viewing area was a roped-off area on top of the lava, right along the coast, and there was a pretty good crowd of people gathering. The lava from Kīleaua has been flowing continuously since 1983, but the eruptions and flows change location, type, and intensity all the time. A couple years ago, visitors could walk right up to the flowing lava, when it was at the other end of Chain of Craters road. Earlier this year, it was visible coming down the mountainside in ribbons. During our visit, the top of the flows had cooled and hardened, so the lava was flowing through tubes and wasn’t visible. However, once the lava reaches the ocean, it pours in creating huge plumes of steam (and creating new land). As the waves crash on the shore, they block the lava flow for a second, causing huge explosions of lava to shoot up in the air every 15 seconds or so. The best time for viewing is dusk, when the orange glow of the lava is most easily visible. We think we were about ¼ to ½ mile away. It was amazing to watch, but difficult to photograph for a variety of reasons, such as the plume of steam obscuring the lava, the distance requiring a long zoom lens, the night viewing requiring high ISO and long exposures, and my lack of a sturdy tripod. I took about 100 pictures, and am pretty happy with some of them, despite them being fairly grainy (shot at ISO 3200) and shaky (most were taken with 2-second exposures at 200mm zoom). Below are a couple good examples:

Well after nightfall we decided we’d better start heading back, so we made the trek back across the lava (in the dark this time, except for our flashlights) to our cars, and then began the long, 3+ hour drive back across the island to Kailua-Kona.

Mike at Pu’uhonua o Hōnaunau (Place of Refuge) National Historical Park

Our drive took us through Kona coffee farm country, a swath of land 2 miles wide and 20 miles long. After some zig-zags through the mountains and a drive back down to the coast, we arrived at Pu’uhonua o Hōnaunau (Place of Refuge) National Historical Park. This was where royal chiefs lived but it was also a place of refuge for defeated warriors, woman and children during times of war, and those who broke the royal laws and needed absolution. The royal grounds were separated from the place of refuge (pu’uhonua) by a massive stone wall. When we entered the park, we were given a brochure that provided information and a map for a self-guided tour. We saw recreations of temples (thatched huts), canoes, wood carvings of gods, and other indications of traditional Hawaiian life. There is also a canoe landing area that is now used by the endangered Hawaiian Green Turtles (honu) to sun themselves during the day. While we were there, there was one turtle already relaxing on the beach and we were also able to watch another turtle swim up.

A Hawaiian green turtle basking in the sun

Partway back up the road from the coast we stopped at St. Benedict’s Painted Church, the walls and ceilings of which are painted to show numerous biblical scenes. Back on the main highway we stopped at a macadamia nut farm where we experimented with some old farm equipment to process nuts. Kathie particularly enjoyed snacking on the fresh nuts right out of their shells.

Next we stopped at Bay View coffee farm, and the gentleman manning the gift shop took us on a thorough tour of the farm. Since this coffee farm is a bit off the beaten path, it was quiet and we were the only ones there. Coffee trees are pretty small overall, they almost appear to be a cross between a tree and a bush. Cherries (the fruit of the tree) are picked when they turn bright red. The cherries are then taken to the coffee mill where the green beans are separated from the cherry (imagine the seed inside a cherry, that would be the coffee bean). The cherry pulp is used as fertilizer, and the beans are soaked in water for 24 hours to remove the protective clear coating around the beans. Then the beans are dried — either in a dryer or laid out and dried by the sun. Next, the husks on the beans are removed and re-used as mulch, and the beans are sorted by size — the larger the bean, the more flavor, so the big beans are extra fancy, and smaller are fancy, then prime. Most cherries contain two coffee beans, but sometimes there is only one bean and it’s round. These are called peaberry and are used for milder coffee. The green beans can be stored in burlap bags for 2 years before roasting, so while they only harvest cherries 6 months out of the year, they can roast and sell beans all year long. The difference between medium and dark roast is only one minute of roasting time — medium roast is 16 minutes while dark roast is 17 minutes. The tour was very interesting and for a coffee-lover like Kathie, very intriguing to see how the entire process works.

Having sampled the Kona coast the whole morning, we opted to have lunch and spend the afternoon exploring the northwest Kohala coast, looking for a nice beach to relax at, get some sun, go for a swim, and read our books. Lunch at Huggo’s On The Rocks was really disappointing. The fantastic location and views (the tables and chairs are in the sand 15 feet from the beach) unfortunately couldn’t make up for the food.

The Kohala coast is famous for its beaches, and is where most of the expensive resorts have been built up recently. The resorts look incongruous in this setting, since the northwest quadrant of the island is a stark moonscape of lava beds devoid of almost any life. Then occasionally along the highway is a fancy resort entrance, complete with beautiful palm trees and perfectly manicured grass. Turning in to the resort, the grass and trees end abruptly after a hundred feet, and the drive through black rock continues to the resort at the beach. Interestingly, Hawaiians have their own form of graffiti, where they arrange dead pieces of coral (which is bright white) into words and patterns on top of the jet-black lava landscape along the highways (see photo below). This continues for 50 miles along the western coast, and also elsewhere on the island. The grafitti is continuously changing as people re-arrange the coral daily to personalize their own messages.

Much of the Big Island is a barren landscape of ancient lava flows.

Our beach hunting didn’t go as well as planned, since the day before, Big Island Civil Defense spotted approximately 15 large (6- to 16-foot) tiger sharks along the Kawaihae coast beaches. After a few unsuccessful attempts at finding an open beach, we came to Spencer Beach Park which was open, mostly empty, and a great place to spread out in the sun (or shade from trees along the beach) and read in front of the shark warning sign. Several hours later, having both finished our books, we packed up just before sunset and headed back down the coast.

Darn.

Before returning to our condo, we stopped in Kailua as usual for a light bite to eat. We had a fairly light pizza / salad dinner at Boston Basil’s, followed by some ice cream and a giant snowcone for Kathie from Scandinavian Shave Ice which froze her insides until we could get her wrapped up in a sweatshirt.

Evening in Kailua-Kona

Snorkeling near Captain Cook Monument

During the morning sail to the Bay, we were fed a light breakfast (tea, juice, muffins, danishes, and fruit) and watched the coast go by. This morning the ocean had some pretty heavy southern swells coming into the coast so there were some amazing views of the swells breaking against the coast into huge sprays. It looked almost like fireworks as the water exploded up and outwards.

Ocean swells breaking along the coast

Kealakekua Bay is surrounded by sheer cliffs and the water felt great. While the snorkeling was very good, we think Molokini crater near Maui was more beautiful with a greater variety of coral and fishes. At Kealakekua there were a lot of interesting sea urchins and various other sea creatures stuck to the coral, but you had to look pretty carefully or dive down to get a closer look.

After a BBQ lunch on the boat and a little more snorkeling, it was time to head back home. We headed back to the condo, showered, and relaxed for the rest of the afternoon. After all, this is vacation! We drove to Kailua-Kona for some dinner at The Fish Hopper and walked around the shopping area. The shops are surprisingly interesting and fun to browse, not as full of tourist trinkets as other islands we’ve been to.

Map of Hawai’i

Not a big surprise, but we woke up very early Saturday (3:00am early), due to the 6-hour time difference between Hawai’i and Virginia. After trying to sleep some more, then reading books for a while, we gave up and decided to make the best of things and get an early start to the day. We headed to the nearby town of Kailua-Kona and enjoyed a very good breakfast at Island Lava Java.

Kathie checking out the beach after breakfast

We decided to drive to Hilo on the other side of the island, via the northern route, and see some sights along the way. So by 7:30am we were heading North on the Māmalahoa Highway, and continued on, climbing steadily in altitude, until we reached the town of Waimea. There, we decided to take a detour and turned onto Kohala Mountain Road, a steep winding road that took us up to around 3,500 feet and a view of the western coastline.

On the advice of some locals who were also at the overlook, we continued on our detour to the northern tip of the island, and to another overlook, this time above the Pololū Valley. After admiring the view, we decided to attempt the hike down the 420-foot cliff face to the black sand beach, knowing that the hike back up would be an even greater challenge. There’s a zig-zag path cut into the side of the cliff which makes the hike manageable for us amateurs, but I was still impressed that we made it (mostly, that we made it back up). Think about climbing to the top of a 42-story building… in the hot tropical sun… on a steep rock and dirt trail. At the bottom, we got to check out the very fine black sand, and watch a few locals surfing, swimming, and fishing at the beach. Back at the top, we gulped down our water, turned the air conditioning on full-speed in the car, and retraced our route back to the beginning of our several-hour-long detour.

After hiking down to the black sand beach

Shortly after turning East again, we crossed over to the rainy side of the island — rainy means it gets 130 inches of rain per year — and the Hāmākua coast. Because of the rain, everything grows huge and dense here. Our next detour took us to Waipi’o Valley Overlook, which was so similar to the Pololū Valley Overlook that for a few minutes we thought we were looking at the same valley from the opposite side. Luckily no downward trail for us to hike down this time. There is a meandering drive one can take to the bottom of Waipi’o Valley but only with a 4×4. This valley was once (13th through 17th century) the center of Hawaiian life, with 20,000 Hawaiians living here.

Looking out over Waipi’o Valley

Our next stop on the journey to Hilo was Laupāhoehoe Point Park. This local watering hole was full of kids swimming and diving off rocks. The waves crashing on the rocks were sending up giant plumes of ocean spray, and Kathie was thoroughly enjoying sitting on the pier and watching the show.

Watching the waves at Laupāhoehoe Point Park

We were quite hungry by now (no doubt due to the strenuous hike earlier in the morning, and the many hours since breakfast), but decided to make one more stop on the way to Hilo. This time we drove to ‘Akaka Falls State Park, where a 10-minute walk on a paved trail took us into the rainforest to witness two giant (over 400-foot high) waterfalls: ‘Akaka falls and Kahuna falls. Kahuna falls was further away from the trail and cut into the mountain surrounded by trees, so it almost looked like a very fast waterslide. ‘Akaka falls into a large basin so it’s very open and visible. The water falls so far that much of it turns into mists and fine sprays.

‘Akaka falls

Finally exhausted and hungry, we pressed on until reaching the city of Hilo around 3pm. Hilo is considered less touristy and more “Hawaiian” than Kona. Most of the locals live on the Hilo side and commute to Kona. We stopped on the main drag and grabbed some food from Café Pesto. After feeling refreshed and ready to see more sites, we walked towards the Big Island Visitor’s Bureau. Unfortunately it was closed on the weekends so we decided to walk around further and see some of the shops. Shortly after walking around we realized something very odd: many of the museums and shops were either closed on Saturdays or closed early on Saturdays so we were unable to actually visit many of the sites. Since we were tired and still had a 2 ½ hour drive back to the hotel, we decided to call it a day.

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Enjoy!

The hawthorn trees at the end of our driveway looked very pretty with their red berries standing out against the white snow. I grabbed the camera to get some photos, but it was already raining pretty steadily so I only spent about 20 seconds on the attempt: