January Hawai'i Trip: Volcano & Akaka Falls

We were supposed to go to the volcano on Monday, January 22. Pod had reserved a cabin at KMC for us. Then the government shut down, so everything was canceled. In a happy miracle, the government and the park reopened quickly, and Pod was able to get us a four-bedroom cabin for the night of Friday, January 26. We were so pleased that everything worked out.

We headed to Hilo via Saddle Road (I still love to see all the different regions of the island) and made an obligatory lunch stop at Cafe Pesto in Hilo.

The children did pretty well. Anson made eyes at the ladies eating next to us, and Wrenzy ate the flowers, as she is wont to do.

We checked into our place at KMC, which was lovelier than I remembered those cabins being (although I never had a problem with them before). Coco tried to get poor, sick Anson to take a nap. She finally got him to sleep, but Jim and I were trying to track down a pack n' play at the office for her and then couldn't get organized and get our kids out of the place quickly enough. So probably our noise woke him, and we all headed to the visitor's center together in time to catch the last movie of the day. Then, after being told that the gases along the Sulfur Banks Trail could be harmful to kids under two, we split up. Coco and Mamo drove Tiny and Antonio to the crater lookout/steam vents, while Pod, Jim, and I walked the Sulfur Banks Trail with Ever and Wren. As we watched the girls run ahead together, Pod commented on how they play together and how he doesn't remember playing with Uncle Terry when they were that age. Turns out Ever and Wren share almost exactly the same age difference as Pod and Uncle Terry - like one day off. I hope that bodes well for a deep and abiding friendship between my biggers.

My big girl:

Yet another effort to capture the spriteliness of Wren:

I love Ever's being silly and then looking adoringly at Wrensington.

We caught up to Tutu, Coco, and the little people. Tutu had been entertaining Tiny.

Tiny's curls are my flave.

We went back to the cabin, fed the little people, and got Tiny and Antone to bed. I'm not sure if it was this night, but at some point Jim took this video of Tiny trying so hard to feed herself Cheerios:

Then we went in shifts to Jaggar Museum to view the crater at night. Coco stayed back with the sleepers at first. It was fun to see lava spewing up. There were two visible fountains when we first went.

I dream about walking out to the edge of the crater and looking down into it, and I talked to a ranger about my desire. She said a few people every week try to do it. The area is patrolled, so they're generally caught and fined or, if they get ornery, thrown in jail. She said if you stood on the edge of the rim where all the gas and smoke is coming up, you could die within minutes without realizing what was happening until the very end. The gases are super toxic. (Within about a week of this trip, a noxious steam cloud killed a tour guide who was taking a group out to the site of a flow when it started to rain. It seems the ranger wasn't lying.) That made me feel better about not being able to go out there.

After staring at the crater-within-a-crater for a long while, we went back to the cabin. I put Ever and Wren to bed, and Coco and Jim went in search of dinner. These little sweeties were out like lights:

Jim and Coco came back with some not-great food from the KMC bowling alley, which they said was much better than that being offered at the cafeteria. They also got ice cream treats from the gift shop. After we ate, Pod, Coco, and I went back to Jaggar for the second viewing. This time the fountain had moved to the right. Coco somehow got this neat picture:

Back at the cabin, we ate our treats and played Dominoes before turning in.

Saturday morning, we found Pele's hair on the cars - super-long, fine threads of volcanic glass. It was quite exciting. I've never seen it outside the museum before, and there was lots of it on both cars. We figured it must have landed on the cars while we were parked at the Jaggar Museum the night before. (Although, now that I think about it, I'm not sure we took both cars that night?) 

Coco and Antone stayed at the cabin so he could nap, while the rest of us went to Thurston lava tube. It's a pretty walk, but man, is the lava tube a letdown now that they've closed off the unlit portion of it! Why do regulators have to ruin everything fun? No pictures were taken in the tube.

Sometimes Tiny just won't go.

We crossed the street and checked out the view from one last lookout. I really wish I could have been there when that crater was a giant lava lake. Back in the day, people would go and watch and just shield themselves from falling volcanic material with newspapers. Pod said Glenn Bertelmann remembers watching from here during high school. I'm jealous.

Before we checked out of our cabin, we had to finish the remaining the ice cream treats. We dug deep, and the mission was accomplished.

Tiny's face kills me.

Then we hit the Jaggar Museum (Ever's favorite place) and took one last look at Halema'uma'u. 

I would have enjoyed a more leisurely (and kid-free) Jaggar experience. The kids were tired and losing it, so we had to get going. 

We figured the kids would sleep in the car, and maybe we could visit a drive-thru in Hilo without waking them and then head on to Akaka Falls. Despite the extreme fatigue, however, nobody slept very long. We lunched in the parking lot of Burger King and Panda Express, hit the potty, and went on to the falls. 

Jim was (and is) convinced it was his first time at Akaka and wanted to know why we haven't gone there every trip. I am certain he's been before and just doesn't remember it. Someday I will look for photographic or other documentary evidence of that. In any case, it's a heavenly place. They've chopped down a bunch of trees (apparently to clear the view), and that was a little weird for me. But it's still amazing.

Coco won for best photo of the waterfall:

Sick Tony looked so incredibly miserable and tired, but he wouldn't just give up and sleep.

The man lurking in the background of the picture below seemed nice but perhaps a little overly interested in Tiny. Jim was certain he was going to abduct her.

Love how my parentals always hold hands:

I'm so glad the government shutdown didn't ruin our plans. I love me some volcano and Akaka. What a neat island I get to call my motherland!