Our time on the Big Island was even shorter than our time on Maui. We wanted to give the majority of our time to Kauai, so our stop on the Big Island was brief.  We flew into Hilo so we could focus specifically on Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. For months we had been SUPER excited about seeing lava flow to the ocean at sunrise.  As luck would have it, lava stopped flowing to the ocean on January 13 and we missed the opportunity.  It was our biggest disappointment of the trip.  That said - we still had a great time and were pleasantly surprised by another find.....

A friend at work mentioned that the only good thing near Hilo were the tide pools.  We read about them in a guide book and decided to check them out before heading up to the little Village of Volcano where we stayed for two nights.  We were both expecting tide pools like those on the Oregon and California coasts; these were something completely different and SO MUCH FUN!  The tide pools were more like clear, ocean ponds with lava walls.  The bottoms of the pools were covered in beautiful coral and in many pools the water was deeper than we are tall.  And the snorkeling was fabulous.  We had such a great time.  We loved it. Definitely a highlight of those two short days on the island of Hawaii.

From there we headed up to Volcano.  We stayed in a fabulous B&B (The Kilauea Lodge) that was just 1 mile from the park entrance.  It was perfect.  We were absolutely exhausted that night and didn't do much besides eat the most delicious dinner at the Kilauea Lodge Restaurant and fall deep into sleep.   But the meal -- it was pretty wonderful.  We may have eaten some of the best stuffed mushrooms that have ever entered my mouth.  And the dressing on the salads -- so good that we wanted to lick our plates clean.  How often does that happen?  NEVER!

Our day in the park was full and fantastic.  We did a short hike through the Kilauea Iki Trail that has you walk on the surface of what used to be a lava lake and is now a crater.  Very cool.  From there you could see the gas plume rising in the skies from the Halema`uma`u vent.  We were ucky with the lack of haze and could see things pretty clearly.  All day long we were amazed at seeing the earth in action. I felt like I was living an 8th grade science class.  I loved it.  We drove the Chain of Craters Road down to the ocean -- stopping at the vistas and checking out the frozen lava from flows 30 years ago.   We also stopped to hike out to a view point of the Pu'u' O'o vent -- got a little lost and ended up staring down into an enormous crater.  We stumbled upon the Mana Ulu crater and it was astounding.  Freaked me out a little actually.  We had such a great day.  It ended with a visit far after the sun had set to look out over the enormous caldera at the top to see if the  Halema`uma`u plume was glowing.  And it was!  The lava pit below it was intense enough that the gas plume glowed a deep orange.  The moon was faint that night and the stars were everywhere.  What a sight!

So -- back in November when the lava was flowing to the ocean we called up and made reservations to go out on a a sunrise boat tour and see the lava hit the ocean.  It was going to be spendy - but we figured it was totally worth it.  When we learned that the lava was no longer flowing to the ocean, we called to cancel.  Lee probably should have been the one to cancel because the owner totally pulled the wool over my eyes and suckered me into keeping the reservation.  The promises he made of the things we would still be able to see (skylights, benches collapsing, steam vents) not to mention adding time to whale watch -- were ALL lies.  Turns out he shows up to take your money in the wee hours of the morning, loads you on a boat with a different guy and then disappears.  He's long gone by the time you return from the utterly disappointing boat ride.  i totally got suckered! I'm still not over it.  :)  We did enjoy a lovely sunrise on the water and got to see what the coast line looks like and the tracks of where lava HAD flowed to the ocean.  But not quite what we had had in mind...

After the boat ride we pretty much packed things up, chilled a bit and boarded yet another plane to Kauai! It was a short (and great) weekend with the perk of seeing such an incredible National Park!