A Wedding in Hawaii - Big Island Fun - Volcano

We stayed in Volcano, HI the next night.  Yes there exists a town called Volcano and it's next to a volcano

but first we did a kayaking and snorkeling tour literally in front of the Captain Cook monument.  Which is a contentious spot because it's the only plot of land that isn't US soil on US soil.  It's British and dedicated to Captain Cook, who came to Hawaii and started the ruination.  The best defense for Captain cook is if it wasn't him it would have been someone else, which is true and is sad.

we saw lots of spinner dolphins and some of them jumped up spinning and everyone was giddy as a 5 year old.

we inherited the original GoPro and its in focus above water but much to my disappointment I learned that its not in focus when it goes underwater.  Jen said this was the best snorkeling she's ever done, even in Thailand.  There were tons of fish out there.

Captain Cook Big Island Hawaii Snorkelling from Jason Raish on Vimeo.


XXXtreeeeme diving from Jason Raish on Vimeo.

So I dove down trying to do a cool vid for the camera and the whole day Jen was saying you have to "blow out" whatever that means to relieve the pressure in your head.  I've never snorkeled before so normally when I dive down I naturally blow out.  I couldn't get it with a snorkel so halfway through this video something popped in my head and when i got to the surface I was reeling.  My equilibrium was gone and the world was swirling and I was looking at Jen in terror and thought I could really drown right now.  I somehow got my body over to the shore and had a headache for a while.  As you can see I went down like 5 feet and it was super not extreme but still scary.  For the whole trip my ear was like an open wind passage, like another nostril if you want to think of it in a gross way.

The description of the Manago Hotel restaurant sounded awesome to me so we had to go.  Built in 1917 by a Japanese mail order bride and her husband, the menu hasn't really changed since it catered to migrant workers back then.  Filled with locals and its cheap too.  I thought it was really cool.


food was great, everyone was eating the pork chops. My first intro to chicken long rice and now I love it.



Kept driving south to the black sand beach, Punalu'u.  It was actually kind of disappointing because it was small and there were so many tourists.  But there were lots of sea turtles.


You call that a steam vent Margaret?  I didn't wear my skeptical sweater today for no reason.  Humpfff.  Ok we made it around the southern part of the island to Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park.  The chemicals in the steam will knock you out. 

volcanos and molten lava more specifically mystify me.  It's rock that is so hot that it liquifies!  And we are standing above liquid rock so hot that steam comes out of the earth?!!!


Kilauea crater.  A few years ago it bubbled up to the brim with lava and they thought something big was gonna happen but it didn't.

cool art by Herb Kane at the Jaggar Museum where you overlook Kilauea crater.

half half

hardened lava landscape everywhere right up to the ocean.

mars?

many kinds of lava.  Two kinds here meeting.

some of that unreal Hawaiian sky

Drove all the way down chain of craters road.  It's 19 miles and leads to the ocean



Holei sea arch.  I should also mention that it was cold and ULTRA WINDY

Where the lava meets the road, this happened in 2004


it's lava!  We saw it bubble up a couple times.  We ate somewhere in Volcano, there's only a few options at night and it was the worst food of the trip, but oh well.  We got home, tried to make a fire in the fireplace of the bed and breakfast, didn't really succeed and went to bed exhausted.  I was exhausted every single day in Hawaii cuz everyday was filled with activities and jetlag.  But I like activities.


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