April 21 - 24 - Volcano Village and Myrna's Birthday

Staying  at Volcano Mist Cottage in Volcano Village

This was actually one of the first places we booked. There wasn’t many reviews of this place but the two that I read had me convinced. First of all, I really wanted to explore the volcanoes of the island and I wanted to stay in this area for than just one day. I really wanted to see the volcano at night so we had to stay close. We are less than 2 miles from the Volcanoes National Park entrance and we will be there for 3 days. The cottage we are staying at is secluded in the jungle and is just the right place for us to spend Myrna’s entry into the Seniors. On Monday, the 23rd Myrna will be celebrating (I hope) her induction into the half century club. We will have internet access here so you may send her greeting by emailing her here. If you want to see where we are on the map click here. The house is at the end of this 9th Street.

Plans for Volcano National Park Area:

--> Hiking to the Lava Flows (in the dark)
--> Biking
--> Hot Tubing
--> Snorkeling in the Kapoho Tide Pools

What we really did

Sunday April 22 (6:30am HST)

We arrived yesterday around 3 in Volcano Village in the rain and it's basically been raining since. The place we are staying in is really nice. It has fireplace (gas) which we really needed since it's not that warm. The east (windward) side of all the Hawaiian Islands is having bad weather. On Maui, I think we will only stay one day in Hana and spend the last 2 days in the sunny side. It's a little depressing but we will make the best of it. We have a tin roof on this cottage, so I hope it sounds worse than it really is. We are going to have breakfast and set out for the day. They stock the fridge here for breakfast and you make your own.

Here a funny little tidbit. It's 7:34 here and I am watching the Devils/Lightning game on LIVE on TV. They must really enjoy Monday Afternoon Football here.. We will soon head out to the Volcanoes. It's cold and damp.

Sunday April 22 (2:55pm)

We are heading off to lava flows so we can see them at night. It has stopped raining, so we hope it stays that way. We have a 8 mile hike ahead with more than half in the pitch dark. We are used to dark as earlier we went a 1000 feet down the completely dark Thurston Lava Tube. It was creepy and fun. Myrna and I we the only ones in the tube at one point. The creepy part were the piles of rocks that have fallen because of earthquakes.

Sunday April 23 (12:30am)

This was our longest day by far. Woke up at 6:30 and still awake at midnight. We also walked at least 13 miles today. 11 of those miles were on shaky ground. As Barb (one of Myrna's colleagues) reminded us, today was Earth Day. We both can honestly say that we could not have done anything more 'earthy' than today. Words cannot describe what we did today and pictures will be lame, We actually stood on an active lava flow with red cracks all around us all this in the dark. Myrna freaked out a bit because it was so hot but it was an unbelievable feeling. I will try to put a short video clip of this on my site when a get home. We came back to our cottage and immediately jumped in the Jacuzzi. I could hardly get out. Tomorrow we are driving everywhere. No walking.

Being in Hawaii delayed Myrna's birthday by 6 hours so 50 has only just arrived. She will surely remember her last day before reaching the half century. Although it just starting pouring now, the 6 hours on the lava flow was almost cloudless. When the stars came out it was an incredible show. It really doesn't get better than this. Here are a few pictures.

Another funny story for the day. Our first stop today was the Volcano House. Mark Twain stayed there and it's in the Guinness Book of world records for having the longest fireplace fire. It's been going for 135 years. Here is the sign that was on the fireplace today:

We had a good laugh over this one.

Monday April 23 (11:30am HST)

Still recovering from yesterday's hike, so we are not mving too fast today. It's Myrna's 50th birthday today so we will enjoy a nice meal tonight (more on that later). We are going for a drive (not sure where but I want to put the top down for the first time in 2 days). I actually had it down for a minute yesterday to allow a huge wasp to get out of the car.

April 23 (9:00pm HST)

Today we headed North and to the shore. It was warm and sunny. We saw where the road was covered on the other side (not in the park) of the 2003 lava flow. When we got back, I surprised Myrna with a supper. I had arranged for a chef to come and prepare a meal at the cottage. It was very good and very filling. Myrna was almost surprised because she had read about this on the cottage's web site. Click here for a picture.

Click here for the final 4 days.