Why I love traveling with Sherry

Yesterday's adventures were mostly sites that were on Sherry's to-do list. And they were awesome.

Our path for the day

Here was our basic itinerary.

1) See a Black Sand Beach. I expected this to be intriguing, though it proved to be a little bit more intrigued than I expected. We brought swim suits in case the swimming was good, but the skies were overcast and the surf quite rough (I noticed only one family braving it). It was lifeguarded, however. Rather than swim, we let our feet get wet and took in the wildlife and scenery, which didn't disappoint.

crabs

sea turtle

We all enjoyed seeing these critters, including several sea turtles swimming near the beach.

Caroline along the beach.

The sand were like fine little marbles. Grains were bigger than sand we see on the East Coast.

It's okay for sculpting, but not great. 

Caroline's feet.

I don't regret our decision not to swim. Too much good stuff to see anyway. Sherry was happy.

Good choice: Parks Canada shirt on a tropical isle.

2) Visit a National Park (and get a stamp). Kiluea's eruption means most of the park is closed. There's one small unit of it, Kahuku, that's open. It's probably the sort of stop we wouldn't have made had the main park been open. But this was a little gem. A very manageable but steep climb took us to the top of a cinder cone overgrown with grass. Erosion and mining meant it was only 100 feet high, not 200. Sam really liked the remnants of the quarry inside.

Climbing the cinder cone.

Sam views the quarry.

Sam explores the quarry.

It seemed improbable that near this grassy area would be a rugged lava flow field from 1868. Walking it was one of the eerier things I've done. Though rock, it's more porous and therefore lighter than one would think. Often it would crunch or shift beneath your feet. There were several lava tubes (almost like little dens) and tree holes, where the lava surrounded a large tree and hardened around it.

Sam explores depth of a tree hole.

Sam near a lava tube.

It looked like the moon, but badly paved.

I feebly offered to the ranger that we had something like this back in PA: Centralia. Boulder Field, too. Remember, I said "feebly."

3) Visit southernmost point in U.S. This underwhelmed us a little bit. Lots of folks there. Many going to nearby green sand beach which we thought was a little sketchy for a family with an 10- and 12-year-old. So we were satisfied with seeing the southernmost edge of our nation.

Nothing but Pacific behind us.

And then there was after dinner.

4) See the lava flow. A Park Ranger advised that we could go to the town of Pahoa and see the lava flow. As we drove to it, it looked at first like a sunset, but the moon was high above the red light and we were driving south-southeast. We parked at Sacred Heart Church there and walked about 1/8 of a mile to slightly elevated patch of land to get a close view.

Above the treeline from Pahoa.

From Pahoa.

From Pahoa.

Pretty good day. And our least expensive since coming to Hawaii (even with gasoline at $3.96/gal.).