Earlier this month Todd and I went to Hawaii (the Big Island) for a week by ourselves. My awesome mom came out and took over kid duties, and did a great job keeping them happy, safe, and busy while we were gone. They loved having Nana time!
When Todd and I weren't sleeping in, napping, or lounging about reading books, we were out exploring. The Big Island is a lot more rugged than Oahu. Good thing we had a 4-wheel drive rental, but we still had to turn back at some of those crazy roads!
Our very first day out, we attempted to drive out to a beach along a 4x4 access only road. We made it about a hundred yards before we parked and decided to walk the two miles down. Such naivety! A hike is a hike, but a hike across rough road hewn from lava rock... It wore us out. Good thing we saw sea turtles in the water, or the whole thing would have been a major bust. Especially when we found out later that there was an easier way to get there... Bygones.
The second day we went to see a couple of waterfalls, searched around and found some natural steam rooms to sit in (heated by the volcano), and visited a national park showcasing trees that had been mummified in an old lava flow. That night we walked out to a spot where you could see the lava from a distant viewpoint, sparkling like red glitter in the night sky. Todd's thirst for adventure was whetted, and we determined to pay a tour group the next night to get us closer to the lava.
The next day we met up with our tour group in the afternoon and proceeded to hike for over two hours across brittle, sharp lava rock. It was brutal, but the reward was quite impressive: the opportunity to come close enough to flowing lava to not only feel the heat, but poke and nudge it with sticks! Todd pulled some of the lava out, waited for it to cool off, and carefully packed it home as a souvenir. We arrived at the lava flow as dusk was falling and stayed until it was completely dark. It was interesting to be able to see it in the different lighting. It was quite difficult to then hike two more hours across the lava in the dark.
We didn't quite get enough of lava that night, so the next day we went on a four-hour tour of a lava tube cave. It was about two hours too long. More walking across brittle lava rock. We were starting to hate lava! And it turns out lava caves are far less interesting and life-sustaining than other caves are. There just wasn't much to see, and we were worn out from all our strenuous hiking. When we finally made it to the turn-around point, our tour took a turning-point itself. We turned off all our flashlights and waited for Steve, our guide, to tell us to wave our hands in front of our faces or something. Nothing. Silence. Suddenly, Todd pulls out a fast one with a well-worn line Hazel quotes multiple times a day: "Tell me a spooky story." I giggled a bit. Steve took him completely seriously. "One about caves?" he asked. And then proceeded to fill our entire two hour walk out of the cave with personally experienced ghost stories. He gave us plenty of laughable quote fodder to last through the rest of the week.
We spent the rest of the week playing in the water and checking out beaches. We made another arduous journey (this time via vehicle) to witness with our own eyes a green sand beach. We also went to a black sand beach.
We kayaked across the bay to Captain Cook Monument, where we did some impressive snorkeling. There were plenty of colorful fish in the water, and interesting coral, too. We saw dolphins in the water as we kayaked back. That was awesome.
We spent some time at a couple different tide pools, checked out some natural volcano-warmed pools, did a lot more snorkeling and a bunch more R&R.
We paid a visit to Place of Refuge, a spot where anyone who broke the law and was in danger of punishment (back in the day) could race to arrive at before he was caught by the guards. If he got there first, he received full forgiveness of his crime and was allowed out and free.
Like everything else we did on this trip, the bigger the sacrifice, the bigger the reward. One of our final nights out, we rode a boat across choppy water to a place where the manta rays come to feed at night. There were three other couples on the excursion, and one of the ladies had a major run-in with motion sickness. At first I felt bad for her, but my compassion wore thin as her retching grew louder and seemed to never end. It was a trying time for me. ;) But it was well worth it. As darkness fell, we geared up in wetsuits and snorkel equipment and jumped in the water. Holding on to a surfboard equipped with bright lights, we swam a ways out to the "manta mosh pit" and hung out, literally, for only a couple of minutes before we had our first spotting. We stayed out for probably 45 minutes as these enormous, graceful manta rays swam up and did flips truly just inches below us to snag all the plankton that swarmed around our lights. We saw six different rays, ranging in size from eight to 15 feet from wingtip to wingtip. They were so big, and right there, and we never had more than a couple minutes at at time where they weren't right next to us. It was a breathtaking experience.
Overall, Todd's favorite part of the trip was "plucking that stone from the jaws of Dante's inferno" (poking the lava) and mine was the manta ray snorkel. The best parts of taking trips alone are feeding our love (getting to be boyfriend and girlfriend and not dad and mom for a few days) and appreciating our kids more when we get back. We sure missed Hazel and Jack a lot.
