The Big Island of Hawaii- Hilo

We spent Tuesday on the Big Island of Hawaii on the Hilo side. When we came before, we were totally in awe of the volcanoes and the hardened lava that was everywhere. We were excited to go back and show Jen and Jeff!

JenHere is one of the active volcanoes.
Tara and Jason

Jason, Tara and Jeff in front of the Lava Tube Entrance
Jeff and Jason inside a tunnel made by lava flow

Jason and Tara at a look out point with some crazy looking lava behind us!

This sign made me laugh! There were so many signs that I thought about doing a funny post with all of the signs, but I wasn't feeling very creative! Maybe Jen will do it... Anyway, this was one of the many signs just before the area where the road was closed because there was so much lava that covered it!

Jeff and Jason

Way in the back you can see a big gas plume. That is where there is still active lava flowing into the ocean. All of the rock that you see is hardened lava. Pretty cool huh? We took a million pictures of us walking around on it and a few close ups of what it looks like close up. I will try to get all the pictures up on picasa soon. I have our first few days up already but I ran out of space!

After we left Volcanoe National Park, we went looking for The Boiling Pots. One of the crew members on the ship told us about this really cool waterfall with lots of little pools around it that you can swim in. We found this one first. It was beautiful, but there wasn't anyway to get down to it.

Just a few miles up the road, we found it.

There wasn't a marked trail, but we thought we saw a path that was kind of worn...Somehow we ended up here... but we saw pictures of him swimming in it! There had to be a way to get to it...
Jen

Time was running out. We had to return our rental car and get back on the ship. We were bummed we didn't get to swim under the waterfall. As we came back, we realized we could have made it if we crossed the river!!! AHG! If only we had more time! I guess we will just have to come back... Jason, Tara, Jen, Jeff

That night, we got all cleaned up and had dinner in one of the specialty restaurants on the ship. The desserts were SO good! I think we had one of everything on the menu!
After dinner , our ship cruised past the point where the lava flows into the ocean. It was so cool to see it glowing at night! It was so hard to get a good picture of it because the ship was moving, but you get the idea. Can you believe all of that was just one day?! Seriously, it was an awesome trip and that is only half way through!