Hawaii 2025 - Day 10 (Big Island)

 Our hotel room never got very cool, the vent was blowing cold air, but the temperature stayed around 79/80 F.  Even though it was warm, we both seemed to have a pretty good sleep.  We didn't have anything much planned this morning as we were taking it easy, and wanted to be at Volcano National Park in the afternoon and into the evening.

View of Mauna Kea from our hotel room. It was sure a clear day.

We went down to the hotel restaurant for breakfast (same place we ate supper).  Breakfast was way better than supper.  AA having a breakfast wrap and Lola having the typical breakfast (but it wasn't called something typical... something she couldn't pronounce in Hawaiian, so she pointed).

After breakfast, we packed up for the day, and headed to a park near our hotel.  We drove a very short distance and then got out and walked.  It was a Japanese Park,  Liliuokalani Gardens, full of trees, ponds, bridges and pagoda.  We also walked along the water and saw crabs, a turtle and fish.   There were Nene (the state bird) also in the park.

Once we got through the park, we headed a short distance to a bridge that took us to "coconut island", Moku Ola.  There we walked around this small island, that was full of local families setting up for birthday parties, swimming in the calm waters and enjoying the ocean.  Kids were also jumping from a structure (not sure what it use to be).  We climbed up... but didn't jump into the water.

After this short adventure we headed to target for water and some snacks. Then into downtown Hilo for some lunch.  Lola found a restaurant that had gluten free options that she wanted to try, plus it was called Pineapple's. Who can go wrong with a place that was full of pineapples.

Once parked a large famers market was just around the corner.  We headed there to see if there were any good finds.  It was huge.  There was a variety of vendors with jewellery, clothes, soaps, decorations, etc.  There was also a big section of fruits and veggies (which we didn't go to as we can't take that home).

After we spent some times browsing the shops and making a few purchases  (not too many as Lola's checked bag was 50.2 lbs the last flight we were on). We headed for lunch.

Lola had to have a drink in a pineapple.  The Pineapple no-pow was what she had, without the whipped cream.  It was a mix of pineapple, watermelon and orange juice in a hollowed out pineapple... it was so good.

For lunch, AA decided to have another wrap, this time Jerk Chicken, Lola had the Muscles in a coconut sauce.  We both enjoyed our food very much! We also thought it was interesting the the traffic lights were actually under the overhang of the building.  That would never be like that in Canada.

After our relaxing morning, we headed in the car for about an 1 hour drive to Volcano National Park.  This is our 4th time visiting the park.  MbMell had told us that the US Administration had cut funding and jobs at national parks, and we hadn't heard that as we were away, but we saw the picketers at the gate as we entered the park. 

Once we arrived at the paying gate, the lady said, "its your lucky day I am not ready" handed us a map and let us enter for free.  It was very nice of her.

The park is under some pretty major renovations as the Visitor Center is getting a complete makeover.  So we visited the welcome centre at the temporary location at the Military Camp.  Lola got a patch and pin, and then we headed to the trail head for our planned hiked.

We hiked the Kilauea Iki Trail.  After some google searches and reading the blog from past trips, this was determined to be the best hike, and one that Lola and MBMell had wanted to do previously.  Although MBMell isn't here, we decided we should try it.  We bought a large jug of water from Target the day before in preparation.  We got our backpacks, cameras and water, and headed on our way.  Essentially you hike from the top of the crater down to the bottom, across, and out the other side.  We did the hike clockwise as this was the recommendation from the blog post Lola found the night before.  

This was one of the neatest hikes we have ever done.  Walking through all the different states of the lava that hardend,  AA reading the guide at the numbered markers, and learning about how it was formed in 1959.  We were worried it was going to be a scorcher down in the bottom of the crater but it actually wasn't.  Don't get me wrong, we were warm, and sweaty, but there was a nice breeze and we didn't feel like we were in death valley.  The elevation we went down was about 400 ft (and came back up again).  The hike was a total of about 4 miles.  Once you walked across the bottom of the crater, we hiked back up and around the side.  At the mid point of the hike, we could see Kiluela Crater that is currently steaming but not erupting.

The hike was incredible, but was happy to see the washrooms when we got back.

Back at the car we headed to Volcano House where we had a dinner reservation at The Rim Restaurant.  We were a little early, so we walked along the wall admiring all the steam.

In the restaurant we realized we were ordering the same meals that we had in Jan of 2023 the last time we went there.  the sun was warm, and the food was pretty good.  We got to see the sunset over the mountain, and enjoyed the view.

After supper, we changed into pants and jackets as it really cooled off up there. We headed to see if we could see any of the glow... it took way longer to get dark than we thought, like almost an hour, and the glow was pretty small. we missed the eruption by like 2 days and spoiled from the last time we were there.

We headed to the car to drive to a different viewing point.  We got there, and couldn't see very much, so went for a little walk in the dark. We could see some small glows but nothing to be particularly excited about. 

Although the volcano wasn't as exciting in the dark, the sky was so clear... we could see so many stars, it was incredible.

Back in the car, we headed back to the hotel.  We were thankful we had less than an hour drive vs when we typically stay in the Kona area.

Back at the hotel just before 9:00pm, and we arrived there were cars everywhere, as there must have been a wedding or some kind of event.  There were also 2 police cars and men, not sure what happened while we were away.

We made it to our room after waiting a long time for the elevator.  To our disappointment Golden Girls wasn't on CMT on Saturday nights, but Lola found it on Hallmark channel.  Funny it had the same episode we had watched a few days earlier about Blanch wanting to get plastic surgery. We watched it again...  Our feet were tired, and our room was still warm, but we managed to be sleeping well before 10:30pm.