Travel Log: July 5, 2012

Slept poorly last night, there was a dripping noise from outside that sounded like a faucet leaking that kept waking me up.

Mark did a great pencil drawing at sunrise and I took some good pictures of him doing it.  I relaxed and read until breakfast.  Breakfast was okay, but just that.  Cooking is not this B&B's strong suit.  However we had an interesting mix of people this morning.  A couple of composers from Australia and 2 couples from Florida.

We got a late start, but went for a beautiful scenic drive through the Puna district.  Waded in two natural hot springs (the second was far superior to the first).  Breathed the cleanest air in the world on the far east coast of the island.  Saw some breath taking vistas.

Had a fantastic lunch at Kaleo's in Pahona: Sesame crusted Ono for M with wasabi vinaigrette and mountain apple salsa, Caprese sandwich for me with fries.  Also partook in some decedent deserts: banana spring rolls and chocolate lava cake.  Met a couple from Tahiti there.

Things deteriorated from there.  M became obsessed with seeing flowing lava and I was just plain worn out.  We walked out to the new black sand beach at Kaimu through a lava field and wrote Grace's name in the sand.  A tour guide from an adventure company offered to take our picture and we got completely drenched by a wave that destroyed Grace's sand name, a complete family wipe out.

The tours out to the lava were canceled due to weather, too rainy.  M still wanted to wait and walk out on our own at dark.  So we waited for 90 minutes for the sun to go down.  I read in the car, but he listened to live music from a hippie band at a place called Uncle Robert's.

Once the sun had set M left me waiting at the restrooms for him while he walked out to the lava field.  We fought and I cried and I missed Grace so badly I could taste it.  Due to the rain all you could see was steam from the rain hitting the lava.

Then we drove to a place called the end of the road which has public lava viewing.  It is where a previous eruption destroyed the road.  We got some flash lights and walked out as far as you could and finally saw lava.  Very anti-climactic... all you could see were flecks of red a orange on a hill in the distance, but little else.  The best part was watching the line of flash lights of people hiking up to where we were.

Then M was too tired to drive to Volcanoes National Park to see the Kilauea caldera, so we drove back to the B&B in the dark, in the rain.

The day started so well, I was sad how it ended.  Further evidence to not plan so many activities in one day.  Tomorrow begins out last in Hilo, then off to Kona for some beach adventures.

Sunrise

The artist at work

Pencil drawing

M in the natural hot tub

My sexy look :)

Lunch at Kaleo's

New Kaimu Sand Name

Family wipe out

Trail of Flash Lights on the end of the road