Hawaii

Once we realized that many of the National parks we wanted to see in California and southern Oregon were still going to be deep in snow, we decided to go to Hawaii for the two weeks directly after visiting Pinnacles. We were sad to leave our RV in San Francisco, but going back to where we spent our honeymoon was a treat!

Our first stop was Oahu. We had not been on this island during our original honeymoon so we took advantage of the chance to visit the Pearl Harbor Memorial site and some museums on native Hawaiian culture. We also spent plenty of time eating by the beach (see the rainbow that greeted our breakfast), driving around in a convertible, and enjoying all the fruit and fruit drinks on the island

Hiking Diamond Head, an impressive volcanic crater, was a highlight of the time in Oahu. The crater was quite large, had a wonderful view of Honolulu and the ocean, and we even saw old military barracks at the top.

Our last day on the island we discovered a beautiful rock cliff with interesting shaped rocks and the site of a perfect sunset. We also saw a guy diving off the cliffs into the water- It seemed crazy risky to us, but he had clearly done it many times.

Kauai was our second stop and the island is just as lovely as we remembered it. Our resort on the beach was wonderfully relaxing. We took some walks along the coast where we marveled at the stunning coastline, fascinating rock formations and enjoyed exploring the rocky tidepools. We saw many black crabs about as big as my hand scurrying and jumping along the rocks, and interesting hard backed sea urchins.

We also took a strenuous hike in the center of the island where we walked into the glorious Waimea canyon and stood atop a very high waterfall. In our travels around the island we enjoyed all the flowers and wildlife we saw. Most of the birds were not ones we knew from New England - except the chickens. Hawaii suffered a hurricane a few years ago and all the chicken coops were blown over - now they have tons of feral chickens!

Our last island was the big island. Ken was sick the first couple days unfortunately, but the resort was an excellent place to hang out. Ken slept on the couch on the lanai and I read by the pool.

We spent two days on the eastern side of the island visiting Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park. The park is a fascinating combination of lush rainforest combined with lifeless black lava. We hiked through both (it was rainy both days) and we were lucky that the volcano is currently active. We saw the steam in the caldera during the day, but when we went back at night, we could much more easily see the lava. It was so cool!- Uh, I mean hot!

The lava doesn’t stay in the park, and we could see evidence of it all over the island. We went by a recent flow that had destroyed hundreds of houses. The lava flows that were older were starting to slowly support life.

Walking along the beach and exploring the tidepools were our favorite activities. We saw so many animals and creatures including monk seals, sea turtles, eels, urchins, snails, sea cucumbers and coral. We miss Hawaii already!