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shannon_aEvery AirB&B has its challenges, some minor, some very problematic. Our problem for the house these three days is sound pollution. At about 3am I am woken by a constant drum beat, which I later learned is due to the plastic coverings over the patio area out back. Water would overflow off the roof and drop from one plastic covering to another while it was raining (and it's constantly rained since we arrived on Hawaii), creating a drumming. Huge flocks of roosters also started crowing at 3am. Because roosters are really dumb. So when I woke up at 3, it was really hard to get back to sleep.
Tonight we'll have all the windows closed, but the fan on, which should help the problem in two ways. (Fingers crossed.)
The big plan for today is to see the volcano. Spoiler: we are not successful.
It's gray and raining (of course) when we head out and I suggest it might not be the best day to see the volcano, but we head up anyway. And, that turns out to be pretty prudent. Because the lava in the volcano is dropping due to the eruption, and when it hits the groundwater level it might cause an explosion throwing multi-ton rocks up to five miles. So they're going to be closing Volcano National Park tomorrow for an indefinite time. Which means that today is our only chance.
But it's no chance. I had hoped we might get above the cloud level in the park, but at first it's still raining, but then the clouds settle down to us and we're in then. We really can't see anything in either case. The best we get out is when we go out to the edge of the caldera and we can occasionally make out bits of ground, but not much, and definitely no lava. (Though it's possible that the lava has dropped far enough that it's no longer visible anyway.)
So, we see a little movie-let in the visitor center that doesn't actually have a lot about the volcano, but is a kind of nice history-of-Hawaii in 20 minutes. It increases my desire to read Mitchener's Hawaii and we later go to the full museum, whose highpoint is some artwork of Pele and other Hawaiian gods. And we try to see the volcano from a few spots. And we get wet a lot.
And we also experience a slight bit of the volcano at the steam vents, which are really amazingly hot. That's the coolest actual geologic thing.
But the highpoint is the Volcano Art Center where they sell a lot of local art. I expect it to be overpriced, but it's all totally reasonable. And there's quite a lot of attractive art: jewelery (Kimberly buys a piece), ceramics, photographs, paintings. I'm quite won over by an artist named Elizabeth Miller, who lives in Volcano, which is just down the road from the park. She has several pieces called Field Notes which seem focused on 19th century scientific discover. Each one has a mildly three-dimensional book in the foreground, which is an artistic rendering of a field journal, and then more painting in the back. Kimberly and I talk it over for a while (and go see the movie and come back) and eventually decide to buy one.
And here's where we really commit to our move to Hawaii: we ship it to my Dad's house, where they'll store it in their dehumidifier room, so we don't have to ship it to the US and then back to Hawaii and chance damaging it each way. So we've now got our first thing waiting for us in Hawaii, and also our first piece by a Hawaiian local for our walls.
Most of the park is closed. There are no paths to walk (except from the visitor center to the museum, and we don't walk that anyway due to the constant rain and mist and due to Kimberly's broken food), even the lava tubes are closed. We wander around for a while, and do spend a few hours in the park, but eventually head back out.
In some ways, this is grossly disappointing, because the volcano is really the big tourist spot on the island. But we continue to have great company. The rides to and from are nice, the lunch in Volcano is nice, the hanging out in the afternoon is nice, and even after dinner we just sit around and talk until bedtime closes in.
So, despite the touristy disappointment, it's a good day.
Tonight we'll have all the windows closed, but the fan on, which should help the problem in two ways. (Fingers crossed.)
The big plan for today is to see the volcano. Spoiler: we are not successful.
It's gray and raining (of course) when we head out and I suggest it might not be the best day to see the volcano, but we head up anyway. And, that turns out to be pretty prudent. Because the lava in the volcano is dropping due to the eruption, and when it hits the groundwater level it might cause an explosion throwing multi-ton rocks up to five miles. So they're going to be closing Volcano National Park tomorrow for an indefinite time. Which means that today is our only chance.
But it's no chance. I had hoped we might get above the cloud level in the park, but at first it's still raining, but then the clouds settle down to us and we're in then. We really can't see anything in either case. The best we get out is when we go out to the edge of the caldera and we can occasionally make out bits of ground, but not much, and definitely no lava. (Though it's possible that the lava has dropped far enough that it's no longer visible anyway.)
So, we see a little movie-let in the visitor center that doesn't actually have a lot about the volcano, but is a kind of nice history-of-Hawaii in 20 minutes. It increases my desire to read Mitchener's Hawaii and we later go to the full museum, whose highpoint is some artwork of Pele and other Hawaiian gods. And we try to see the volcano from a few spots. And we get wet a lot.
And we also experience a slight bit of the volcano at the steam vents, which are really amazingly hot. That's the coolest actual geologic thing.
But the highpoint is the Volcano Art Center where they sell a lot of local art. I expect it to be overpriced, but it's all totally reasonable. And there's quite a lot of attractive art: jewelery (Kimberly buys a piece), ceramics, photographs, paintings. I'm quite won over by an artist named Elizabeth Miller, who lives in Volcano, which is just down the road from the park. She has several pieces called Field Notes which seem focused on 19th century scientific discover. Each one has a mildly three-dimensional book in the foreground, which is an artistic rendering of a field journal, and then more painting in the back. Kimberly and I talk it over for a while (and go see the movie and come back) and eventually decide to buy one.
And here's where we really commit to our move to Hawaii: we ship it to my Dad's house, where they'll store it in their dehumidifier room, so we don't have to ship it to the US and then back to Hawaii and chance damaging it each way. So we've now got our first thing waiting for us in Hawaii, and also our first piece by a Hawaiian local for our walls.
Most of the park is closed. There are no paths to walk (except from the visitor center to the museum, and we don't walk that anyway due to the constant rain and mist and due to Kimberly's broken food), even the lava tubes are closed. We wander around for a while, and do spend a few hours in the park, but eventually head back out.
In some ways, this is grossly disappointing, because the volcano is really the big tourist spot on the island. But we continue to have great company. The rides to and from are nice, the lunch in Volcano is nice, the hanging out in the afternoon is nice, and even after dinner we just sit around and talk until bedtime closes in.
So, despite the touristy disappointment, it's a good day.