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shannon_aToday we were "re-accommodated" from Hilo to Kona. Not in a United-Airlines-likes-to-beat-their-passengers way, just the transition from our second planned accommodation to our third. This was a seven-hour trip, with stops that swung us all the way around the south of the island.
We pass by the volcano again as we swing south, and as we get past it we notice a plume of smoke coming up. This is the closest we've come to evidence of the volcano the whole trip. We get out and we take some pictures and smell the sulphur in the air. Afterward I have a headache and several of us have sore throats. Cough drops are passed around.
As we continue the swing south we stop at a black sand beach (where the sand is hot and occasionally sharp) to swim, then at a bake shop to eat. We have sandwiches there, plus malasadas, which are Hawaiian (actually Portuguese) donuts. Mine is chocolate filled and is OK, but I dunno what people who say "like donuts but better" mean.
The ultimate goal of our journey south is South Point, which is down a long increasingly rickety road. It's the southern most point on Hawaii and thus in the United States (excluding our territories). Kind of cool being there, but the most notable thing is the gorgeous blue water. There's a green sand beach nearby, but we aren't interested in paying $15 each to be transported there, nor do we have time for the few-mile walk. But we enjoy the beautiful views for a while.
The journey north is more of a marathon. We were going to stop at a coffee plantation, but it's closed, so mostly we just travel north for about two hours. We do make a quick stop to see an impressive field of lava rock (all block or brown rock, totally surrounding us, some as recent as 1907, some dating back to the middle ages).
Our third house is the smallest of the three, but it shows what a difference a good house can make. The owner leaves us all kinds of goodies like macadamia nuts and tennis balls and pancake mix and there's plenty of toilet paper and other necessities, whereas the second house was stingy about "consumables". And the locale is so much nicer: our second, big house was nice enough (other than some maintenance issues and the show-stopping sound problems), but in a kind of run-down area, while this one is up in the hills and once more feels like Hawaiian paradise instead of suburban living.
We pass by the volcano again as we swing south, and as we get past it we notice a plume of smoke coming up. This is the closest we've come to evidence of the volcano the whole trip. We get out and we take some pictures and smell the sulphur in the air. Afterward I have a headache and several of us have sore throats. Cough drops are passed around.
As we continue the swing south we stop at a black sand beach (where the sand is hot and occasionally sharp) to swim, then at a bake shop to eat. We have sandwiches there, plus malasadas, which are Hawaiian (actually Portuguese) donuts. Mine is chocolate filled and is OK, but I dunno what people who say "like donuts but better" mean.
The ultimate goal of our journey south is South Point, which is down a long increasingly rickety road. It's the southern most point on Hawaii and thus in the United States (excluding our territories). Kind of cool being there, but the most notable thing is the gorgeous blue water. There's a green sand beach nearby, but we aren't interested in paying $15 each to be transported there, nor do we have time for the few-mile walk. But we enjoy the beautiful views for a while.
The journey north is more of a marathon. We were going to stop at a coffee plantation, but it's closed, so mostly we just travel north for about two hours. We do make a quick stop to see an impressive field of lava rock (all block or brown rock, totally surrounding us, some as recent as 1907, some dating back to the middle ages).
Our third house is the smallest of the three, but it shows what a difference a good house can make. The owner leaves us all kinds of goodies like macadamia nuts and tennis balls and pancake mix and there's plenty of toilet paper and other necessities, whereas the second house was stingy about "consumables". And the locale is so much nicer: our second, big house was nice enough (other than some maintenance issues and the show-stopping sound problems), but in a kind of run-down area, while this one is up in the hills and once more feels like Hawaiian paradise instead of suburban living.