Yesterday was another crazy busy day on the Big Island! The main trouble with the Big Island is that IT’S SO BIG!! (that’s what he said! —sorry, I had to). Anyway…because of that, it takes forever to drive to the “interesting” sites.
So today we drove from the West side to the East side to see the Hilo and Puna areas. And because we’re still concerned about Garry’s folks on the bike–and because we’re making the same trip tomorrow–we convinced Garry’s folks to go with us today to preview the ride and decide if they want to attempt the drive on the bike tomorrow. So off we went.
It was a fun drive…we did a lot of talking, gawking, and laughing. Eventually we arrived at Hilo and stopped to stretch our legs.
Russ found a coconut tree that he felt he could climb, so he did so.
WOW! He is good!
Garry-Monkey-Toes found a tree to climb…
After everyone was refreshed, we pushed on to the Puna area. Our first stop was one of our favorites. It’s “Hale Park”…but what we call “Hot Tub Beach.” Why? Well, the answer is easy. First….it’s a rather pretty beach (although more rocks on the beach than sand). But…about 20 yards from the beach is a “pit” carved out by nature and filled in by rain and heavy surf.
Why do we call it “hot tub”? Because …. some distance beneath where we are, the lava from Kilauea (the active volcano) runs to the ocean and is heating the rocks beneath the pool. As a result, the pool you see is somewhere around 90-degrees. When we arrived, a Hawaiian mom was there teaching her child, Kapono, how to swim. He glommed onto us and we all took turns letting him swim to us, teaching him how to to the backstroke, watching him do 1…2…3 underwater flips! He was a super cute kid.
We got out of the pool to discover that BoyToy Garry’s folks had vanished! After some searching, we found them down the beach a-ways enjoying the sun!
Good for them!
So…although we had places on our schedule…we adjusted to give them some time. Russ and BoyToy Garry walked along the beach a short distance and found a whole bunch of coconuts! Garry wanted to know if they were suitable to eat…
No, no. That’s not how! Russ then showed a more-or-less way more adept way of breaking into a coconut…
He beat it into submission and then—after another 30 minutes—got it open! We all had fresh coconut for lunch!
After that, the group tromped back to the van…
…and headed to our next adventure.
We had lunch at a fabulous, if rustic, Mexican place then stopped at the Lava Tree Park.
The short story of the Lava Tree Park is that ages ago, the lava rolled through the area. The trees were wet. So the lava flowed around the trees and “piled up.” Eventually, more lava piled up around (a) the lava that was already there and (b) the rest of the tree. Then…ultimately, the tree gave up the ghost and burned away. So there’s now a vertical “hole” where the tree used to be….
There were other sites to see as well….Ferns unfurling…
…and other flowers…
…oh…and Garry hanging from a tree…
Eventually, however, it was time to return to the resort….10000000 miles away (or so it seemed to Damian who was driving). We went across “the Saddle” and made it back to home at a decent time.
Back at the resort, the folks there helped us move into our new room….1 floor above our previous room…
Then it was sunset…but we were too tired to care much… Still, it was crazy-pretty (although this picture only shows it from the tree-tops and upwards).
Then—as is usually the case—we collapsed into bed. Tomorrow…we go to Hilo again!
ALOHA!
