Hot Burnin' Lava

Oh...that's what happened to Uncle Herb's old Audi....

red hot molten lava
Some hot stuff....I think I singed the hairs off my arm

....did you bring the marshmallows?....

Craters and Petroglyphs

After a physically, emotionally, spiritually hard year...you know the whole Ben thing and just in general church ministry, Ed's doctors (and Conference leaders) recommended some much needed time off for Ed. So as of March 10, Ed has been on a leave for spiritual and physical refreshment.

During this time we took a break from Kauai and boarded a short puddle jumper flight to Kailua-Kona, Big Island. A 3 day weekend afforded a quick peek at another island in the loaf (they are called the sandwich islands, ya know) and a sort of kick off to our time as a family together. Lucky for us this visit coincided with the state opening of the current lava flow fields on the SE side of the island near Hilo. Oooooh...do you smell sulfuric excitement in the air? How many of YOU have ever seen... not only red hot molten lava but stood on soil younger than you? God is literally making land as we speak!!! Very cool!! We buckled up for our 2 1/2 hour drive and ended up at the Kilauea Volcano National Park. A short stop at the info center to get our bearings and then on to Crater Rim Drive past the steam vents (shown on rt...they were all over...on both sides of the road) to the Kilauea Caldera. The Caldera is a HUGE crater that actually houses a smaller crater called the Halema'uma'u Crater. Check out the picture below and you'll see the crater is filled with steam vents as well (all that white stuff). It was kind of eerie.

After a few photos we headed into the Jaggar Museum where we read about the life of a volcano and saw some burnt offerings in the form of Volcanic bombs (cooled chunks of spewing lava) and Pele's hair which is a collection of shreds of volcanic glass. In Hawaiian mythology, Pele, pronounced /pele/, (peh-leh, not pay-lay) is the goddess of fire, lightning, dance, volcanoes and violence. She is a daughter of Haumea and Kane Milohai, and her home is believed to be the fire pit Halema'uma'u at Kīlauea crater on Mauna Loa, earth's largest mountain; but her domain encompasses all volcanic activity on the Big Island of Hawai'i. Enough of the impromptu history lesson...we then headed down the Chain of Craters Road where we toured through the Thurston Lava Tubes and saw the charcoal remains of recent lava flows between 1969-1979. We lost the younger and smaller one who got sucked up in the crevices of the lava field. Joking mom........(hey....not nice, those clothes make me look fat!)Lots of hiking and a very patient and cooperative Ben and we saw all kinds of lava fields...in fact...they were everywhere with no end in sight. Acres and acres of complete and utter devastation with hope for a rebirth. Oddly enough, green things (I won't call them plants b/c they were probably just very hardy and resilient weeds) pushed up and through often 6 feet of hardened lava to greet the sunshine. We continued to hike 1 1/2 miles to the Pu'uloa Petroglyph Trail through scalding heat as you can imagine how those nice black rocks soak up the suns rays. It's like walking through the desert without the sand in your eyes.

Here is a sampling of one of the largest collections of petroglyphs on the big island of Hawaii

Now comes the exciting part...what we waited for all day....the active lava flow. We were on a mission to see the present offerings of the Pu'u Huluhulu Cinder Cone and Pu'u O'o Crater off Hwy 130. We were...for just one afternoon...the volcano chasers. Drive, drive, drive, drive... that's all we did all day but it was all for this moment. There was a crush of people getting in the gates...the hwy was lined with cars, trucks, jeeps, and any thing else you could fit your family of 14 in. We got sucked into the draft created by the flow of tourists and local islanders and floated (not really but we have to make this exciting) to the trail leading to the current flow. Aaaah.... the moment had arrived....