Home

We are back home. Hope you all enjoyed following us on this trip.

Fire and Water

Well we tried to go see the lava pour into the ocean. In 1987 when I visited with my family, we drove to the end of the road (lava had recently covered it) and then walked out to see the lava hitting the water. 22 years later, it is still entering the ocean in about the same place. The property owners have returned and many have built new houses (or assembled shacks) right on top of the lava. One place had an orchard planted right in the rock. The county has put in a one lane road over the lava. This is all outside the National Park. The property owners do not allow visitors except between 5pm and 8pm. We got there at 4pm and had to leave before 5pm to catch our flight (which subsequently was 2 hours late). We did not get to walk out to the lava, but we met a very colorful local who told great stories and sold us pictures. I will scan a few and post them soon.

Jennifer took the video below. This is over a mile away. You can really see the power of the steam rising from the ocean.

Volcano Day Part 2

From the Volcano House, this is a view of the steaming bluffs to the west. We walked over to them, but the wind was so strong the view was better from here.


This is a field of A'a lava. It was deposited in 1973, still looks like a moonscape in black. There are just little trees growing in it. The wind up here was 40 mph+.

Jennifer taking in the view from our room.

We drove down to the west side of the active lava flow. We walked out to the shore and looked at the waves crashing into the cliffs. As you can see, the cliffs get under-cut. Eventually all this will fall into the sea. In the vistor's center, they showed us a 25 acre section that fell off in one night. Several people every year disappear into the sea. One of the locals told me that the rangers find rental cars that are overdue on a regular basis. They never find the people. It is kept very quiet so it doesn't scare off visitors.

Volcano Day

This is the Kilauea Volcano caldera as seen from the Volcano House. As you can see, the Halema`uma`u crater is active. At night, you can see the lave dome heaving up and down. The crater is really an impressive sight.


Posing in front of the crater.

This is the Devastation Trail. We started walking down this trail in a rain forest. I kept wondering why it was named the Devestation Trail. Then we came out of the forest and saw the lava flow. You can see the lava in the background above. It was stunning.


Just 100 yards from the lava flow, we were back in the rain forest.

We walked through the Thurston Lava Tube. It was not terribly long, but it was interesting. At the end, if you have a flashlight, you can walk another 335 yards through an unlighted section. We didn't have flashlights and we were the only ones in the tube.

We really got lucky. We were ahead of all the day tourists. We had just about every place to ourselves. If you like hiking and plan a visit here, you need at least two days. There are tons of trails.

1st Day on Hawai'i

We flew from Honolulu to Hilo. What a difference. Hilo is much smaller, more laid back, and definitely more economically depressed. This is more a port city than a vacation destination. But, it was quaint and the people were nice. The airport is about the size of my barn. The biggest difference is I have wireless internet access in my barn. Above is a large Banyan tree that we found near Rainbow Falls in Hilo.


Rainbow Falls claim to fame is that it was featured in Fantasy Island. Hawai'i had received a ton of rain the week before we arrived so the falls were flooding and were much larger than in the TV series.

For the rest of the day we drove around parts of the island. We visited Punaluu Beach. This is a black sand beach along a 30 year old lava flow. This is a favorite spot for Green Sea Turtles. We saw some playing in the surf. None of them came up on the beach, so no pictures. They were hard to picture in the water since they only came up for a few second.

We drove up to Kona and looked for Donkey Balls. Check out their site.

The seas were just too rough for snorkeling, so we went back to the Volcano House. We ate a wonderful dinner at the Kilauea Lodge. It was the only place we could find in the very thick fog. It was probably the best meal we had the entire trip.

Off the air

It is unknown if we will have internet access on Hawaii. If not, we will update in Maui on the way home.

Someone's going to look like a lobster....

First, Oklahomans should be very grateful for the wonderful job our weather forecasters do for us. The day we got here, they said sunny all week. That was followed by three cloudy (sun a few times) and often rainy days. Not unpleasant, but not the forecast. Last night, they forecast heavy rain all day and lasting until Wednesday. Today.... bright beautiful sunshine!!!! They don't even try.

Surfers are out in mass. Tons of people, but pleasant. Being at a confined resort keeps most problems out. They even come around and check for room keys. Staff is great.

The pool was full by 9am. I got down there at 8:45 to reserve a couple of chairs. There were only two left pool side. They started the morning in the shade, but quickly ended up in full sunlight. I am taking a break right now while Jennifer stays in the sun. I had a bet with her that one of us would end up burnt and miserable. Guess who is winning......

After lunch we are moving onto the beach.

Royal Hawaiian Grand Re-Opening

We just had quiet a show. The Royal Hawaiian Hotel (old part of the hotel we are in) had it's grand re-opening tonight. We were nearly shook out of our room by the explosions about 300 yards off shore. We go the cameras out just in time for the finale. See the video below!

Hidden Beach Day

We started out the day at the Dole Plantation near Schofield Barracks in the center of Oahu. We opted out of all the tours and the giant hedge maze. It was a bit rainy out. We did visit the huge gift shop. Sorry no pineapples. They average out to $22 each to ship them home.

They have very nice grounds here. It would be a nice place to take kids on a visit.


Next we moved up to the North Shore area and drove to the "end of the road" literally. You might think Oahu would be devoid of 4X4 trails, but not so. We found a great Jeep trail. So did lots of locals. We walked it to the 15th telephone pole after the gate. This is out toward Ka'ena Point. The walk is along the cliffs you can see above. As always, the pictures fail to capture the true beauty of this area. It was about a 1 1/2 mile walk. Then we found what we were looking for.

This beach was all ours. Granted it was a cool cloudy day. There were lots of beach goers up and down the coast. This little beach is very narrow, but the sand was awesome, very clean, and secluded.

I turned around at one point and took a picture of the two sets of foot prints on the beach. They were ours. This was a hike to get to, but I would suggest anyone wanting there own private area to make the hike. Bring your beach gear and make a day of it. At the bottom is a video of the surf coming in from this beach.

At one point we were sitting about 3 feet above the water, nice and dry. We started looking in the sand at all the shells. Jennifer was searching and I had just found a mutilcolored tooth about 1 inch long. As I turned to Jennifer to show her my find, a wave over took us. We got soaked. Jennifer's jacket had 1/2 pound of sand in the pockets when it was all over. Luckily, none of the cameras were damaged. Lucky!

Kyle: this one is for you. The free-range chickens all over the island seem very relaxed. They must know you are not here. Some of the most colorful rosters I have ever seen. Sorry no picture of the rosters. I had to sneak this picture. We look like hicks as it is. Being caught taking pictures of chickens on Hawaii would be too much.

We spent the rest of the day driving. We came into the area where Jurassic Park and 50 First Dates was filmed. Very tropical and mysterious looking.

Tomorrow is beach day. We are going to take a couple of short breaks from the beach, but we will be there most of the day.

Snorkel Day

This was the view as we approached the exposed part of the reef out in the bay. When we got closer, the coral got so close, we had to turn around in fear of the waves crashing us into the jagged coral. Sorry, added this picture late so it's out of order, read on....


We started off the day at Hanauma Bay State Park. It is an old volcano caldera that is now underwater due to a rise in ocean levels following the ice age. It was a very nice place, clean, easy to get in and out. There was even a tram if you could not make the walk in and out of the volcano cone ($0.50 to go down, $1.00 to go up). Jennifer does not like to submerge her face, so this was a real challenge for her. She looked terrified at first, but she gave it a try. She had the typical "why am I breathing underwater" response. I had it too for just a moment, but I had done this before. She finally relaxed and forgot all about her fears when the first fish arrived.



The picture does not do it justice. I am not a professional underwater photographer and the camera was a throw away. But, at least we captured a few under water pictures. The fish were amazing. We even saw a few fish that are considered rare in the bay. One was three feet long and about one inch in diameter. We followed him for a minute, but then he darted off into the ocean. We saw very small fish that had a body that was angular. They were brightly colored with little stabilizing fins that fluttered like a hummingbird's wings in the water. They were my favorite. There were some rather large light gray fish that would circle and follow us. They would stay on the edge of visibility. They looked like ghost fish. There was a fish colored like the Jamaican flag. Tons of other fish. It was just plain "neat".

This is a view of the whole bay we took while walking back out of the caldera. Truth be told, I stopped to take this picture so I could catch my breath. It was really steep.

This was the "Spitting Cave". It was truly hidden. We drove about 2 miles through a neighborhood and parked in a cul-de-sac. There was a vandalized sign hidden behind a bush marking the narrow public access corridor to the rocks. This was a very high end neighborhood. The lot next to the path recently had the house demolished. The lot only is listed for $3,700,000.00. Great view. The corridor leading to the water was covered (and I mean every surface available) with gang graffiti. Seemed weird considering we were far from the urban element.

When we got to the water, it was all worth it. The water had eroded eons of volcanic rock. You could see all the individual eruption lava flows in colorful bands of rock. The ocean was angry today and the surf was crashing hard against the rock. The spitting cave takes in water then spits it out when the pressure builds up. The waves were coming from the wrong side today, so no spitting.

This is a view looking back southwest towards the east side of Diamond Head. The walk out of this place was very steep. It turns out everything in Oahu is very steep. Somehow they found a way to build roads through it all.

After our adventures, we went back to the hotel and had a moment of reason. We had planned to go shark fishing tonight. There is a storm approaching from the south and rough seas. The boats are more than willing to take our money and drive us 20 miles out to sea, but we were not. So no shark fishing at night. We are researching a couple of alternative plans. We'll let you know tomorrow.

We ate dinner at Duke's Canoe Club. Very nice, reasonably priced (cheaper than most nice places in Bricktown). Live Hawaiian music. We had a table by the pool overlooking the ocean. Prime Rib for me, Steak and Shrimp for Jennifer.

We returned to the hotel and checked the weather. It looks like rain tomorrow. Might be a good day to ATV in the mud up in the mountains!

Pearl Harbor Day

I'm not real sure why this blogger puts all my stuff in the reverse order of how I uploaded it. Just bear with me. All the stuff is in the reverse order of how we did it.

The last place we visited today was the USS Oklahoma Memorial. The USS Oklahoma was one of the battleships that was lost forever on December 7th, 1941. It held the second highest death toll of all the ships (Arizona being the highest - more than double the Oklahoma). Each of the white pillars respresents one of the sailors / soldiers killed. Nice, if not small, memorial. It is just outside the gates of the USS Missouri. Not one other person walked over to see it while we were there.


This was our last stop on the USS Missouri. This is the location where the surrender was signed by Japan. It was very cool standing where MacArthur was as he signed the instrument of surrender. They have pictures of the ceremony hanging on the ship walls. You can look at the pictures, then turn around and see the same position on the ship. We took the guided tour so we got to see where Admiral Halsey waited, drinking coffee, until the Japanese delegation was on board. Neat little piece of history.

Huge, intimidating ship. They are currently replacing the Teak wood deck. Too many tourists stole the knot holes. The ship is in absolutely wonderful shape. It is due to be dry docked later this year to repair the hull and be repainted.

We stopped in and saw the USS Bowfin. This submarine is the best specimen of a WW II submarine I have ever seen. There was even a worker milling around the sub polishing everything. As you can see in the pictures, all the brass shined. Made me think of Hee Haw in his Navy days.

Jennier took control of the ballast tanks. She really doesn't like her picture taken.

This picture was taken inside the USS Arizona memorial looking up at the flag. It was truly amazing to see boat load after boat load filled to capacity, on an off day, going to the site. It was a moving experience. In the gift shop, Jennifer thought it would be nice to have a US flag that flew over the memorial. She grab one out of the diplay and it showed it was flown on Sept 11th. She had the opportunity to register it in honor of her grandfather who fought at Guadalcanal.

And last night. I ordered the first "foo foo" drink of the trip. A Mia Tai. Wow did it pack a punch. Jennifer had a Lava something. She was fun to walk back to the hotel. We ate at the Oceanarium at the Pacific Hotel. It was nice. Lot of pretty good seafood. All the crab legs you can eat.

Tomorrow we are going to go snorkling at Hanauma Bay. Jennifer has never been. It should be fun. If we don't wear ourselves out too much, we may hike to the top of Diamondhead. Look for pictures tomorow.

We made it!

Well we made it to Hawaii. Flight was, well bad. The technical aspects were "ok". The plane was old with no leg room. This was a 757 with the TV's hanging from the ceiling in the center aisle. Sitting next to the window, I could not see any of the TV's clearly. Won't have mattered, the audio was so bad that it was annoying to listen to. Halfway through the first set of programming, they had to stop it and start a different tape. AWESOME. Did I mention US Airway is going under. Can't imagine why.

It was all worth it. Got a nice Ford Mustang convertible as a rental. Drove the 7 miles to the hotel on the beach. For whatever reason, the hotel upgraded us to a suite (living room, huge bathroom, two balconies). It isn't the spit into the ocean room we asked for, but the view is still spectacular.

We are going to dinner and then early lights out. We are headed to Pearl in the morning.



Oh, Jennifer wanted all of you to see me in my Hawaiian shirt at the airport. Turns out I was the only one wearing a silly shirt, weird.

Preparing for our journey

We are making the final lists, packing our one bag (damn baggage fees), and trying to decide what to do while we are there. So far we have the following plans:

• Pearl Harbor (all day): USS Arizona Memorial, USS Bowfin, USS Missouri, USS Oklahoma Memorial
• Beach Day (all day): Snorkeling in a lagoon, Waikiki Beach (hope it is really crowded and gross)
• Drive Around The Island Day: It is impossible to see it all in a short trip, but this will take us along the island's "spine", to the North Shore for lunch, and then around the eastern coast. We will pass the Polynesian Center. Wish we had the time to spend a whole day there.
• Quiet Day of Beach and Pool lounging followed by a surprise "Night Trip"
• Then it is off to Hawaii (The Big Island). There we stay at the Volcano House. It is a historic hotel inside the Volcano National Park. It is literally on the rim of a volcano. 20 years ago, there were active steam vents along the edges of the hotels property. Hope they are still there. Hopefully, we will feel an earthquake while we are there.
• We will have two days on Hawaii. Most of it will be spent trying to take in the volcanic wonders of this island. We may sneak away for a drive around the island.

Give us a shout if we are missing something that is a "can't miss". Remember, we will have to cancel something (quiet day is not negotiable).

Any restaurant suggestions? We have the Oceanarium Restaurant on the list.