Trip to Hawai'i, part 3

Thursday was our longest day. We had no evening plans, so we didn't have to hurry back. We drove along the northeast coast, which we had had to hurry past the day before. We stopped in Honoka'a and looked in the shops, then continued on to Hilo, where I bought a beautiful Lehua tenor ukulele. We had lunch at Burger King, then visited the lava tree park and the Mauna Loa macadamia nut farm. The lava tree park was beautiful - everything was so lush and green, unlike our home in the Mojave desert.

We then traveled to the town of Volcano, and drove along the rim of the caldera, stopping to check out the steam vents, which are still quite active. The view into the caldera and crater was eerie and alien, with very little vegetation and steam rising from the floor. After sunset, we made our way down Chain of Craters Rd. to the end, where we could see glowing lava in the distance. We couldn't hike the 3 miles to the lava flow because of Rachel's foot. After that, we headed back to Waikoloa, this time taking the road along the southern and western coastline, though it was dark. I think we just wanted to be able to say we drove around the whole island in one day (a little over 200 miles). We had a really hard time finding a gas station open, and the only restaurant open was the Denny's in Kailua. One look at the menu, though, and we headed for home. There was no way we would pay over $50.00 for dinner at Denny's! Fortunately for us, dinner was keeping warm in the oven when we reached my dad's house at 11:00.