Lava and Surfers

This is my last night on the Big Island before I move on to new adventures on Oahu, so it feels like I ought to round up the last of my day posts, as well as re-pack all my stuff!

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This day was really mixed. I still had a wicked sunburn and the beginnings of this persistent chest cold, but we did a lot of neat things. Probably if I'd brought along more food and water, everything would have been great. Anyway, my father-in-law took us out on a tour of some of his old stomping grounds at Kalapana, which got covered in lava in the late 80s and early 90s.

We stopped at the Star of the Sea painted church- a catholic church built in the late 1920s.



When the lava started flowing toward the church in 1990, they picked it up and moved it!



The Hawaiian Islands and Mother Marrianne.



Father Damien. I think there's a movie about him.



The creepiest stained glass ever.



THE COOLEST PLANT EVER! It's called Sleeping Grass!



Nae'ole was looking for this fern everywhere we went and he was so happy when he found it outside the church.



Then we went to the lava floe at Kalapana. I love lava! These look like braids.



There were a surprising amount of houses on the fresh lava...



Flip flops on fresh lava.





And suddenly, lava!









It was really, really neat. We looked at it for about 30 minutes from a distance when suddenly we heard sirens. The park officials had come out to round us up and get us off the lava. Turns out we were standing on a floe that was less than a month old, and it was extremely dangerous. I, being an incurable worrier, was perfectly aware that it was dangerous, but it was actually comforting that they came out to escort us off the lava.

Next we went right over a ways to the old black sand beach, which got covered in lava in the 80s.



Where the treeline is was once the beach, and all the lava we were walking on was the bay. The whole bay was filled in with lava, and when we got to the edge, we found the new beach!





I got a lot of pictures of surfers, but this one is the image of the day:



Then we drove over to MacKenzie State Park and I watched the huge swells come in.


50 foot spray.


The end. I'm not going to talk about the rest of it because it mostly is about how Nae'ole left and now I'm super sad. Saying goodbye is the worst thing, ever.