As I looked through all our pictures for ones to add to the blog, I realized I had neglected to say anything about Bradley and the beach. In short, he despises it. He cries the moment you put him near the sand, screams when you put his foot or hand in the water and will grudgingly accept sitting on a towel, if his parents are right beside him. Very, very different from his brothers, though he may start to like it more once he spends a summer or two in our sandbox.
Today was our first full day in Hilo and for the majority of the day, it rained. In fact, we dug out our jackets for the first time this trip. Hilo is on the east side of the island and gets quite a bit of rain. Part of the area we explored today was a rain forest, with 100 inches of rain per year.
Anyway, we started the day by going to a local farmer's market. I tasted a bunch of different types of coffee, as coffee is grown on the Big Island and ended up buying some that I really liked. Sandra and I also discovered a guy who made his own chocolate and we bought some for a treat.
We then headed out to Volcanoes National Park. The Big Island is the last island in the chain of Hawaiian islands, and is therefore the only one with active volcanoes on it, as the plate movement has moved the other islands away from the crack where the lava is escaping. The park encompasses one of the volcanoes, but it was quite rainy at the top, so we weren't able to see in the crater. We did get to stand beside some steam vents, which were extremely warm. The biggest draw at the top was a seismometer in the museum that recorded you jumping up and down. Alexander and I lucked out and managed to land at exactly the same time, causing the needle to move a really long way.
The next road we took headed down the side of the volcano to the ocean. This road winds through a bunch of places where lava from eruptions has flowed in the past 40 years. Before we got there, though, we stopped and walked through a tunnel created by a lava flow a very long time ago. The tunnel was really cool - it felt like you were walking through a giant worm hole.
On the way down, we stopped a couple of places and walked through the hardened lava, which the kids really loved, especially as it wasn't raining once we got off the mountain. I have to admit that walking through the lava rock was very cool. At the very end of the road, you can stop your car and walk a ways to where an eruption from 2003 covered the road with lava. It was a long walk, but the boys were really excited to see the lava and ran ahead of us. After a few pictures, they took off over the lava like little mountain goats. I chased after them, as the strollers could not follow. We ended up walking out to a Road Closed sign sticking out of the middle of the rocks, snapped a few pictures and then headed back.
After the park, we headed a bit farther south to a black sand beach, where the entire beach is black, as the sand is completely made up of lava rocks. Due to the black sand retaining heat, the beach is a favourite resting spot for sea turtles and there were four of them out sunning themselves when we arrived. All in all, the beach was extremely cool.
We then returned to Hilo, went out for supper and then collapsed in bed.
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