Holy Volcanoes Batman!

Today we headed to the Hawaii Volcano National Park. On the way we visited a couple of interesting spots. Our first stop was a rest stop because I had to pee. But aside from that, we stopped at the Southern Most spot in the United States. (Though there's some discussion in our family about the legitimacy of that as Mom and Dad have photos of the Southern most spot in the Florida Keys). The tip of the island was beautiful. The surf was enormous. At the point the surf was coming from the west and the east and meeting in the middle at the point. It was windy as all get out too. The water was turquoise blue and clear as anything. Crazy people were jumping off these 30 foot cliffs into the water below. Not me man.

After the Southern spot we stopped at the Black Sand Beach at Punalu'u State Park. This particular park is famous for its sea turtles that come up and bask on the beach. And as luck would have it there were two turtles bathing in the sun. Beverly almost tripped on one that was laying out. She thought the turtle was a rock.

After that we had lunch at the "Most Southern Restaurant in the US". Fantastic home made bread...yumO.

Then it was off to the volcano. Volcanoes are monuments to Earth's origin, evidence that its primordial forces are still at work. Eruptions remind us that our planet is an ever-changing environment. Of course the Hawaiians believe the Goddess Pele lives in the bottom of this volcano and consequently pay homage to her so to not evoke her anger into another eruption. The Volcano National Park displays the results of at least 70 million years of volcanism.

We took the 11 mile loop around the volcano that stops at several points around the Kilauea Crater. The stops were steam vents in which REALLY hot steam was coming out. It was kinda freaky to be standing on an active volcano. We kept reminding ourselves that we were standing on an "active" volcano. We continued our tour and stopped at the Thurston Lava Tube. The Thurston Lava Tube allows you to see what the inside of natural lava plumbing looks like. After that we headed home.

I've started to come down with a little cold...but it won't stop me from eating at Roy's tomorrow night for my birthday. Yes that's right...I turn the ripe old age of 37 tomorrow. Ugh.