At Mount Kilauea (part of the Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park), we stopped at the Visitor Center to find out where it would be best to see the lava flows. Turns out the lava flow that goes out into the ocean is another 2 hour drive away from where we were. We had already been in the car quite a bit today, so we thought it was probably not that fair to make Holly sit for that much longer. We decided to look around at Kilauea at some of the other sites, and wait for the sun to set.
Kilauea is the youngest volcano on the Big Island, and is the home of Pele, the Hawaiian volcano goddess. Kilauea is one of the world's most active (and possibly THE most active) volcanoes.
First, we headed to the Thurston Lava Tube - created by a flow of lava hundreds of years ago and discovered in 1913 by Lorrin Thurston, a local newspaper publisher.
After that, we drove a few minutes down the road to check out the steam vents. Rain soaks into the ground and is warmed by the rocks, which carry heat from the lava below. Hot water then rises through cracks to condense in the chilled air, creating steam!
It's warm, which was really nice on this chilly day - and it's great for the clearing your pores! After standing here for a few minutes, I was pretty damp and had to RUN back to the car to get warm!
Next stop: Jaggar Museum. It sits on the edge of the Kilauea caldera (not to be confused with a crater, which is something else entirely, but I can't really explain it properly - I believe a crater may be formed when a volcano erupts, but a caldera is not?).
Here you can see evidence of volcanic activity!
The tiny plume of smoke in the crater (just to the right of centre) is part of the active volcano...
These are called "Pele's Hair" - they are bits of lava that become strands as they cool in the ocean, looking like hair. Because Pele is the goddess of the volcano, it was believed that these were pieces of her hair.
After exploring the museum, we ate some leftovers that Yasu and Dani gave us for the drive and waited for the sun to go down. It's usually dark by 6:30pm. While we waited, we listened to some of our CD's.
Holly has been listening to Krishna Das with me in the car since before she was 3 years old. My sister and I went to a concert of his and Holly came with us and knew the words to our 2 favourite songs! This is one of them... Om Namah Shivaaya.
After sunset, the little volcanic opening glows red in the dark - very cool!
When we got to our hotel and checked in, we were still a bit hungry, so we decided to go for dessert . . . yes, it was as yummy as it looked!
