Jamming two busy days into one long, final Hawai'i post. The Hilo side of Hawai'i is volcano land! So after a visit to idyllic Onomea Bay, we creeped closer to the moonscapes with a visit to Lava Tree National Park. The lava crust around trees that burned away long ago was very cool, but the trees shading the park were actually my favorite part.
Then we headed to the coast for the real thing: tide pools enclosed by black basalt, black sand beaches, walks over black lava rock, everything black and emanating great heat from grabbed sunshine. We were even able to see the smoke and gases from the only current flow of lava from Kilauea Volcano that reaches the ocean, from a cooled flow (less than two years old) that covered the 1990 flow that buried basically the entire town of Kalapana...though some Robinson Crusoe types have stubbornly rebuilt new homes on their land. (How did they know which land was theirs, though?)
The next day: our last in Hawai'i. I didn't actually cry but it's possible I wanted to. It was a great last day, though. Spent it in Volcano with Peace Corps Morocco friends who live there who I hadn't seen in a decade. Between paying attention to them, their adorable kids, and the volcano (Kilauea) that was first in the background and then a pretty obvious feature of our hike through the crater.
Couldn't have asked for a better day, or a better two weeks of vacation. Lucky my mom was there or I might not have gotten on that plane....
