Hawai'i Vacation- Day 2- Beaches, Waterfalls and Parks.

My second day was Sunday and the local bus doesn't run this day.  So again got on the bike and did some exploring on my own.  First I headed down toward the beaches.  There were so many to stop at and they were all so different than the beached I am used to.  Very rocky for a little distance from shore breaking the waves leaving nice little pools to wade in.   

 As I was looking out at the scenery and taking it all in from a tall lava rock I saw something in the water.  At first glance it just looked like a rock but there were 3 of them that were moving.  They were sea turtles swimming in one of the large pools of water.  I went in to get a closer look.  So cool!

My next stop was going to be a bit of a ride, an up hill excursion to Rainbow Falls.  After finally getting there and totally exhausted this was it.  Just a little trickle off the mountain.  So I went on to explore on top of the falls...I was not disappointed.

I found up there some teenagers jumping off high cliffs but I wasn't so sure it was the safest thing to do.  Then I saw a woman who told me that those were her kids and she was watching over them .  Apparently they come here often and do this as a family thing.  That was enough for me, I was hot from that bike ride...I went for a swim.

The girl in the blue swimsuit just jumped from where those kids are standing on very far upper right. I only dared jumping from where that person is standing on the middle left of the photo...well I climbed down as far as I could and jumped about like 8 feet (about half the distance that water fall is falling).  

This picture below is the area of water that flows down into the waterfall shown 2 pictures above.  I so wish I had a way to take pictures of the beauty that I witnessed going even farther past where you see me.  Falls every where going into little pools with sun pouring down warming me (the water was freezing).

I am standing by the falls

 Me swimming

After that I wanted to check out the Boiling Pots water falls up the hill another mile or so.  At first from the viewing point it was just..meh.  Then I saw some other people way down there so I jumped the fence too. 

 I found a more impressive and higher water fall than the others.  I ventured over there and went for a swim there too.  I thought Rainbow Falls was cold...this was suck the breath out of you cold.  That swim didn't last long.

 The picture above is a close up of the picture above that.  These pictures just don't do the these two fall justice.  There were so high.

After the waterfalls I biked back to town...well, I never peddled once and rode the brakes for portions of the  way.  It was so fun gliding down the hill that I had to tell someone about it.  So the poor girl I ordered ice cream from at the bottom of the hill was polite and humored my excitement.  Any way, once back to town I stopped at a nice park with a geocache in it.  There were tons of these types of trees around.

It was a great exploring day on the bike.

Hawai'i Vacation- Day 1- Lava Hike

This past week I had the option of taking a week off from work. My contract ended over at Cedar Sinai Hospital.  That place really wore me down and I really needed to take a nice break.  I last minute decided to take a trip to Hawai'i via plane.  I googled popular hostels and went to the first one that came up which was on the Big Island in Hilo.  I spent 5 days there and stayed busy the entire time doing anything from toured adventures to swimming in beautiful waterfalls.  So over the next few days I will be posting what I did.  

For starters since Hawaii has a National Park about Volcanoes and just about everything there has to do with them let me introduce you to how Hawaii was formed and about volcanoes in this basic National Geographics video.  You will be seeing that a huge portion of my photos have volcanoes or lava in them.

The first day I rented a bike and rode to town to see what was all there and to find maps and places to go the rest of the time.  I was supposed to go on a waterfall excursion but there were not enough people signed up to go.  So I went on a guided lava walk tour.  It was AWESOME!  I actually saw active lava and poked sticks in it.  

When you stick you stick in it fire exploded out releasing all the gases that are inside.  It was sooooo hot you could just barely stand there and had to get out of there.  This was the slow flowing kind of lava.  The kind that if its heading toward your house you can pack your stuff and get out of there safely.  

You can see the smoking areas in the back ground and dried lava as far as the eye can see.  Pretty crazy.  

This is one of the cool designs it makes when its hardened.

HOT!

I learned that over time the lava that reaches the ocean sort of extends the land.  The island gains acres of land at a time.  Also over time the lave decomposes to black sand making all of those black sand beaches you read about.  The lava is full of minerals and stuff actually starts growing again pretty quickly within a few months.    

Trees that have been planted already

Some people refuse to move despite the risks of living here such as breathing toxic air and risk for their home being destroyed over and over again.

The lava just eats up what ever comes in its way.

Here you can see how the lava just went though the middle of these trees and completely wiped it out.

So in pictures that will be posted later you will be seeing how this entire side of the island is just all sort of barren because of the constant flow from the volcanoes.  Roads have been destroyed and there are no plans to make new ones in this area because the lava still flows.  

Misc info:

Another popular thing to do it view at night when you can see all the hot lava in the dark from a helicopter ride or by boat when its flowing into the ocean or by foot.  I did try this from the volcano park but the weather turned foggy and rainy and you couldn't see anything.    

A really good video to watch.

Kilauea Volcano Active Lava Flow, Hawaii is a link showing whats going on there from 2008.

This map shows most current flow.

I visited the Kalapana side on this day.

A Lava tube is a : long, tubular opening under the crust of solidified lava. 

A lot of the lava that we saw comes from breakouts from underground from these lava tubes.  

Current news about the flow.

There are people who are so into this stuff and religiously follow the route and paths of lava  like this guy. Nice blog with pictures and updates.

I Learned so much about all this stuff while I was there.  I learned about hot spots.  Hot spots are the reason Hawaii exists. Over millions of years as the tectonic plate moves the hot spot stays in the same place resulting in a chain of islands.  Apparently there is a new island forming now but hasn't emerged over the water yet.    

Hawai'i has tons of legends about gods/goddesses and how things came to be.  Pele is the goddess of fire. (click the link to read the story)   

Notice her hair is like lava.

Christmas in Nome

"Snow Machining" (aka snowmobiling) in Nome.  We are dressed for 0 degrees F.
I got cold just waiting outside for the snow machines to be started
and ready to go.  Deb and Rolland bought seal skin hats.
We all wore two hats, many scarves, and feet and hand warmers (of course after we
got too cold). 

Bianca running away from the camera (a common event)

Jannelle getting the the van for our snow machining afternoon.

Rolland in his seal skin hat.  

Rolland, Deb, Bianca and Jannelle.

Bianca

Rolland gave us all really sharp knives for Christmas.  I unfortunately experienced just how sharp while removing it from its case.  No one believed me that I sliced my thumb, I just got scolded for swearing.  The blood that came next was a little more persuasive.  Rolland  was more than excited to use his first aide kit (contains everything to run a small clinic-including intubation kit but just short a defibrillator).  I had my wound irrigated and a pressure dressed before I knew it.  

Jannelle

Ninja

The Trowbridge family with all of their loot.

Me in front of the frozen ocean.

Christmas with the Trowbridge family was very good.  We did some snowmobiling (only for a few hours...soooo cold) the first day on Christmas Eve and later to church and then a nice little Christmas dinner and gift exchange.  Saturday was vegging out and doing nothing and later some sledding (man that wind can be wicked).  We did pretty good with two sleds.  We dressed a little bit better for the sledding by putting the hand/feet warmers in before waiting for our appendages to get too cold.  (It makes me wonder why we never used those things when I was growing up.  Those endless hours of outdoor work in the cold would have been much better.)  It seemed to be such a process before going anywhere...had to dress before going, even if driving there (the van doesn't warm up especially fast.) And then upon arrival removing everything before you start sweating too much.  Sunday was radio station for Rolland (I went with him) and then church and a lot of time of just hanging out reading/movies/eating/music etc.  The last day was actually a productive day.  Since it was Monday Rolland was back to work so Deb and I did some work on the upstairs apartment that they will be moving into this week.  Deb cleaned the walls and I taped for a coat of paint.  Rolland surprised us and got the afternoon off and we finished up by getting 2 layers of paint in the living room and kitchen.   We covered up the previous color we think was called "dirty water" and now looks 100% better and brighter.  All ready for the Landlord to put in the new kitchen cabinets.  We all had one last evening together sharing a taco dinner, a movie and even desert.   I left that evening, took a night flight home and now here in 60 degree F weather in LA and back to the busy city where people steal from you the cab that you are already getting into.  Pretty crazy how different things are in all aspects. It was good to be in Nome for a nice slower pace.

Marina Del Rey Boat Parade

Merry Christmas!

 Sunset just before the parade

 There was a dingy in the competition.

Pirate snowman

This on was my favorite.

Dingy and all.

I was having a little trouble figuring out taking pictures in the dark with lights that are moving.  Thank goodness the boats rounded 3 times plus some so there was plenty of opportunity to catch a few good shots.  

This Christmas I will be going to visit Deb, Rolland and the girls in Nome, Alaska.  I went to the storage unit to dig up all of the cold weather clothing that I have.  Can you believe I don't even have boots any more?  I haven't been in snow for two years now.  I tend to get rid of stuff that I don't use and winter boots got the boot.  I think we will be doing some sledding and some outdoor Nome type stuff.  Either way it will be good to be with loved ones.

Freak Show/Venice

Two headed turtle

two headed snake

This guy swallowed the whole balloon

Venice Canal

Venice houses

Strange man on strange roller skates selling strange things

Windmill