Captain Cook Monument

We took a morning and kayaked Kealakekua Bay to Captain Cook Monument. It was a beautiful morning! We rented kayaks from Maile's Kayaks. They are AWESOME, and launch their boats in a great spot. We kayaked across to Captain Cook Monument. There is a lot of history here, which I loved! The Hawaiians gave the spot of land that the monument stands on to Britain, so we were able to stand on British soil! The water is the most beautiful I have ever seen. Crystal clear and varying shades of bright turquoise, depending on how deep the water was. We came the week before and saw dolphins playing out in the bay. Unfortunately, there weren't any the hours we were there kayaking. The kids snorkeled when we got there, along with all the other tours of snorkelers there! It was such a great morning! Such a beautiful place! I could have kayaked there all day--if we had brought enough food! :)

New trail

We found a new trail the other day! It's on a small road on the way to Hilo. It was such a cool place! It let down to the ocean, with lots of water falls and beautiful rainforest all around us.

Panalu'u Black Sand Beach

On the way home from the Volcano National Park we stopped at Panalu'u Black Sand Beach. It was really cool and really different!

Volcanos National Park

We took a day and went to the Volcano National Park. There is no lava flowing right now, but we still felt that it was a great experience!

We got to head into a real lava tube! The first part is lit up and is a nice walk. When we got to the end, you can either head back up and back to the car, or keep doing in the unlit part--we went the rest of the way in the tube! There are no lights, and it was cool, very damp, water dripping from the ceiling and sides, rocks and drops, parts where you have to duck down, and very very dark! We all had flashlights, and even with our lights it was kind of scary!

After that we took the Devastation Trail. That led us to an overlook of the Kiluauea Iki Crater. After looking down and seeing all the steam vents we decided that we had to get down there and see it close up! So we took the 4 mile hike down the to crater floor. The hike starts out with a beautiful walk through the rain forest. Did you think there would be a rainforest on the edge of a volcano? At certain points we could see the Halema'uma'u crater in the distance with a huge plume of steam coming from the hot magma just below the surface. This spot where we were waking erupted in 1959. A fountain sometimes as high as 1900 feet of spurting lava drained into this basin. It said there was enough lava flowing that it could cover a football field 15 feet deep in lava every minute! People came from all over the world to see the lava, and looked at it from the same spot that we started our hike! Cars lined up sometimes 10 miles long just to see it. Anyway, back to our hike. We walked through the rainforest and down to the crater floor. In many spots there was steam rising up from the bottom. Apparently there is still hot magma below the surface. When rain water seeps down, it boils it and steam comes up. We were able to walk right over and into some of these steam vents! It was HOT and STEAMY!

After our hike we drove to more steam vents, and drove further on to see a closer view of the crater. It was pretty amazing to walk on new land, born in 1959, and know that not too far below us are rivers of hot magma!

We took so many pictures that I couldn't pick through them, so I put them ALL up in a gallery. Some are blurry and some many be redundant, but it gives a great peek at our day!

Click here for the gallery.

dolphins

Gary got to head out paddle surfing this morning. He and Josh and Mimi went in search of spinner dolphins. There are tons of them out every morning. They found them! They take their snorkel and masks and when they find the dolphins, they slide off the board and swim with them! Pretty cool huh!?

parasailing

We did our first big excursion yesterday. Up until now, we have just been exploring the island, seeing the sights, hitting the beach and lots of hiking. We told the kids they could pick 2 or 3 big things to do while we are here, and we'll try to do them. One thing everyone wanted to try was parasailing. It was great because our whole family could do it! The boat holds 6 people, so it was just us. It was REALLY fun! I had never done it before. You really feel like you are flying!

Waialea Beach

So, we set out to try Mauna Kea Beach. It's at a big resort, and looks beautiful! Here is a picture of it . . .

But, the parking lot was full. So we tried another beach. We started to head to Hapuna Beach, but we'd already been there! At the road to Hapuna Beach parking, another road led left. We took it. It bumped along went around a few hills and soon we could see a parking lot up ahead. We scouted it out to see if it would be an ok beach. We were in for a TREAT! We happened to stumble on Waialea Beach, or known to the locals as 69 (due to the fact it's at the 69th telephone pole). Its our new favorite! Well, another favorite! The great thing about this beach is that it is great for swimming AND snorkeling AND there was a spot to jump into the water from the rocks AND there are trees growing almost right up to the water! Instant shade! We staked out a spot and set up camp! It was an AMAZING day at the beach! Thank goodness the parking lot at Mauna Kea was full! (We'll try that beach another day!)

What a way to spend a summer day!