Boring Vacation Slideshow II

First of all, Nae'ole and I would like to wish everyone, in all the languages we have any knowledge of:

I realized after making this that I left off the ENGLISH. So, ummm, Merry Christmas, folks.

Moving right along...

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On this day we drove around the entire island, which was pretty cool. There are lots and lots of different climates (11 of the world's 13) and we got to see quite a few of them.



On a hill, overlooking the north shore of the island.



This is a place called Pololu Lookout. One of these valleys is where Chief Nae'ole raised the king Kamehameha for the first 5 years of his life.



You can just barely see some people walking around on the far end of the shore. Looks a lot like the Oregon coast to me.



A little further down the road is Pu'ukohola Heiau. A heaiu is an important cultural location, like a temple/sacrificial mound. Pu'ukohola means Hill of the Whale. This heiau is one of a complex containing 3, one of which is submerged at high tide so that a victim can be tied to it and sacrificed to the shark god.



Here is Nae'ole trying to look royal standing next to Kamehameha the Great- the ward of his namesake. There was a neat video about chief Nae'ole at the heiau visitor center. He had a pretty sweet mustache.



Finally we made it to Kailua-Kona, on the far side of the island. We made a much needed stop at the Kona Brewing Company, and walked down along Ali'i drive where we bought wedding rings, ate haupia sorbet, and watched the tide come in. The steeple in the background of this picture sits atop the oldest church in Hawaii.

In Kailua I also went swimming in the ocean at La'aloa Bay Beach, after sundown, which is not only the first time I've ever done that, but possibly the single bravest thing I have ever done.

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It rained all day. We didn't leave the house, and watched all the Bourne movies.

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In the morning we went to Volcanoes again to go do the Kilauea Iki trail. Look at all the smoke coming out of Halema'uma'u... yikes.



All my in-laws crossing the crater. It was a long way across.



Here is a lovely photo of a bee, which moments later stung me on the arm.



It really does feel like being on another planet. Here is some sulphurous steam coming out of a pile of hardened a'a.



Life... finds a way.



In front of the giant devastation mound!



We made it across all of that! It's a lot different from the bottom than it is from the top...



Just in case you forgot, we are on a volcano. In the middle of the ocean.



Sheesh... clean your lens, Melody.

Almost as soon as we got back, it started raining buckets again, so we watched more movies.

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This day we drove down to Holei Sea Arch at the end of Chain of Craters Road.



This is the part of the park where the lava flows into the sea. Unfortunately for us, the lava is currently inactive, but we still got to see some neat stuff.



Yeah... definitely...



I've never seen anything so incredible as the colors and textures of hardened lava.







But the best part of this little jaunt is by far the Holei sea arch itself.







Also, hello ocean, you are utterly terrifying.







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The only photo I have is from the tree outside our window. Every day the dew collects all over, and we watch it as the sun comes up and makes the whole tree glitter like diamonds.