Disclaimer: Back in May of 2006, when I started posting about our vacation to the Hawaiian Islands, we were severely limited regarding photos I could share due to bandwidth limitations. Here in 2022, I’m updating these posts using the original image and text I shared, but I’m adding the rest of the photos I would have liked to share if bandwidth and storage had not been issues 16 years ago. 

This was our luxury cabin here at Volcanoes National Park on the Big Island of Hawaii. Okay, so maybe it wasn’t exactly luxury and was actually kind of primitive, but what does that matter when we are able to visit an island of absolute luxury? Not only was this where we spent our very first night in Hawaii, but we have two more nights right here.

Maybe there’s something similar regarding the gas and steam escaping their underground lair here in Hawaii and the same phenomenon occurring in Yellowstone, but somehow, it’s tremendously different out here in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The most obvious difference would obviously be that volcanic activity is a near-constant threat while nobody has any real idea when Yellowstone will awaken. We are looking at Kīlauea Iki from an overlook; this “smaller” feature is part of the much larger Kīlauea Caldera.

Mind you, as I wrote in my disclaimer, this is mostly being written many years after the experiences were had back in 2006. What had been posted was a short blurb about waking here in Volcanoes National Park, driving up the Kona coast, and then back down to Hilo so we could attend the Merrie Monarch Festival, so bear with me if a succinct description from the past feels generic.

A couple of things I do know was that we were astonished to see relatively recent lava flows and then ribbon lava at that and the other thing that stood out was that we were here all alone. How could it be that no one else bothered to wake early in order to best use every moment of sunlight during their pricey vacation out here in Hawaii?

You can bet that we were a bit nervous about stepping on lava, as who knows where the crust might be thin and if we might break through it.

Sure, with the cracks, it could easily be considered that this lava had cooled a considerable time ago, but because we can’t really see any erosion, it looks like it was flowing just last week. Up to this point in our lives, the lava we’d seen and walked over might as well have been flowing during the age of dinosaurs due to its ancient appearance.

In this sea of black rock are patches of wildflowers; that’s just wild.

Not only is there a rainbow of color bursting forth from the flowers but also from some of the lava, where various oxidized minerals are showing off their hues in the morning light.

This was about the moment I experienced the epiphany of how fortunate we are to be early risers. Again, where is ANYONE? Have the other travelers decided to sleep in? Are they tourists whose ideas of adventure mean they need not capitalize on their precious time? While I’m thrilled that this view of lava entering the sea is ours alone, I can’t help but feel a bit sorrowful that others don’t understand their own good fortune and find extended time in a hotel room and gathering around a buffet to be more important than filling their senses with the things never before seen.

Stone Rainbows…should be the name of a band.

How many times were the grains of minerals, sand, and soil part of something else before being pulled into the roiling furnace of the earth’s core so that they might be reconstituted and spewed right back out onto the surface, allowing us to hold a thin foil of metallic-like stone that has traveled across time for us to find it here in Hawaii?

While the side of the road can no longer be found, we get a general idea of what lies below the cold black lava.

Heading south so we can go north.

It appears that we are somewhere close to Whittington Beach Park with my intrepid scavenger looking for treasure.

Hmmm, seems I found my treasure.

The Hutchinson Sugar Plantation is now defunct. The plantation operated for more than 100 years, but by 1972, this and another company were consolidated, becoming Ka’u Sugar Company, which appears to have ceased operations in 1996.

The ornamental fruticose nailhead is straight out of Hellraiser.

Jeez, do these horses eat sugar cane or pineapple?

We are approaching Kona. After hearing so much about the place, it seemed like a good idea to learn for ourselves what the hype is all about.

This is the best thing we found in Kona, a dilapidated old theater. The rest of what is here will only appeal to the pretentious crowd that thrives in places of arrogant privilege, such as Palm Beach, Scottsdale, and other wealthy enclaves that know how to appreciate a total lack of diversity.

With that behind us, we needed a nature break here at Puako Bay.

About to turn inland as we move to finish our circumnavigation of the island. We need to get moving as we have an important date tonight.

Goodbye, leeward side of Hawaii; by the way, Kona means leeward, though that doesn’t make the place any more appealing to me.

Hello, windward side of Hawaii and the drive south to Hilo.

In Hilo, we attended the 43rd Annual Merrie Monarch Festival. This is the world’s largest hula festival, requiring some dedicated planning on our part to be able to attend. When making plans last year to go to Hawaii, one of our objectives was to visit this festival. Tickets, though, are only available beginning December 26th, and we were out on the road in Northern California at that time, so we brought our self-addressed and stamped envelope with our request for seats, stuffed that into an overnight envelope, and first thing on the morning of the 26th sent it off.

If your request is postmarked earlier than the 26th, it is sent back to you unopened. Even if they receive your mail, there is no guarantee you will be awarded tickets. Ours did come on Valentine’s Day, February 14th, 2006.

Privileged is the only way to describe our being on hand for one of these annual hula events; it’s a just wow moment that seriously took us out of our element.

The festival was nothing shy of great, and even though we have tickets for tomorrow night’s competition, I’d still like to offer big thanks to all these wonderful dancers for sparking the dream that we might one day have the opportunity to return for another to visit Merrie Monarch Festival.