Volcanoes National Park - Chain of Craters Road

I have been trying to write this post for weeks but I've been experiencing a severe case of writer's block. Every time I sat down to write, my mind would go blank. It's been frustrating because I really would like to cross this of my to-do list. I mentioned my dilemma to a friend the other day and she said "You know, a picture is worth a thousand words. Just post the pictures." That's probably not exactly what she said word for word but it was pretty close. This friend is very wise. I go to her for advice a lot. In the years since I have known her, she has never steered me wrong. So, on the advice of my wise friend, here is my first installment of pictures of our trip to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. Included in this post are pictures of lava fields, the famous Holei sea arch, and petroglyphs.

The view flying into Kona. You can already see the lava rocks.

It was crazy windy on the open lava fields

Manta Rays!

When we decided to take a trip to Hawaii's Big Island, I started researching things to do there. One thing kept coming up over and over again: night manta ray snorkeling. Intrigued, I decided to look into it. Years ago, people started noticing a number of manta rays in the water on the Kona coast. That is where lights from ocean-front hotels and restaurants would shine into the water. It turns out that the lights attract plankton, and manta rays eat plankton. Some entrepreneurial genius decided to start taking people out into the water to watch the manta rays eat. From there sprung the most popular thing to do on the Big Island. 

Basically, it works like this: There is a portable, floating platform, with lights and handles attached. Donning a snorkel mask, you get in the water, grab onto a handle, lay on your stomach, and put your face in the water. Then you wait for the manta rays to come. When I was first reading about this, I thought "Nope. No way I am doing this." Getting in the ocean when it's dark while holding onto what amounts to a surfboard with a car battery on it to generate electricity for the lights? That sounds like a recipe for electrocution! And the ocean at night doesn't seem like the safest place. However, the more I read about this adventure, the more I knew I had to do. I knew the likelihood of us going back to the Big Island was slim and I didn't want to leave with regrets. Thankfully, my brother and sister-in-law had done a nighttime manta ray snorkel on their trip to the Big Island a few months ago so they were able to assure me that it was not as scary as I built it up in my mind to be. Pushing down my inner screaming, I told Husband I wanted to see manta rays. I found a company that appeared to not use a surfboard or a car battery, made the reservation, and hit the "pay" button. Then I spent the next few weeks wondering how I could cancel. 

The night of the tour came and I was ready to call it off, but my dear, sweet, patient, rational husband reminded me that manta rays are harmless (they don't have teeth), and that he would be right beside me so if a shark suddenly appeared out of the darkness, he would save me (I am beginning to realize I have a lot of irrational fears. I should probably look into therapy). Besides, if I can swim with sharks, surely I can hang out with some manta rays and live to tell about it. I put on my brave face, and off we went to see some manta rays. We got our wetsuits on and enjoyed a gorgeous sunset while waiting for the tour to start. I had to get one last picture of the two of us, just in case.

After a short boat ride, it was time to get into the water. Husband jumped in right away and I knew if I wanted to be next to him, I had to jump in next. This was the scariest part. The ocean is DARK at night. D-A-R-K. And scary things live in the ocean! But, we paid a ton of money to do this so I really had no choice. I jumped in and swam to the floating platform. I put a pool noodle under my ankles (this helps keep your legs parallel to the surface and away from the manta rays), grabbed onto the platform, said a little prayer, and stuck my face in the water. Within minutes manta rays were swimming by us, eating all the plankton. It was amazing. Absolutely amazing! They were so close to us that if I wasn't holding onto the handle for dear life, I could have touched them. A couple of them brushed up against me as they passed by. It was so cool to watch them approach out of the darkness, their wing-like fins flapping as they swam through the water to the lights. Husband called them "majestic sea flap-flaps," which he apparently saw in a meme at some point, and that description fits them perfectly. 

After about 30 minutes, which really seemed like 5, it was time to swim back to the boat. I didn't want to leave. I could have stayed and watched the manta rays all night long. I had the hardest time deciding which videos to post. I hope the ones I posted below give you an idea of how truly spectacular this was. A huge thank you to Husband for taking these videos. This meant he was holding on with one hand the entire time in order to operate the camera. That is true love. 

Another trip to paradise

Husband had the opportunity to go to Hawaii for work and of course we jumped at the chance to visit Oahu again. I tagged along because, well, it's Hawaii. We went down a few day before his work conference so we could have some leisure time on the island. June in Hawaii is different from December in Hawaii. The sun is much hotter (we both got sunburns this time), and the weather was nicer overall. The waves on the North Shore are calmer, almost non-existent. Beaches that were too dangerous to swim at in December were perfectly safe this time. Husband was able to jet ski this trip, something he wasn't able to do in December due to the rough waters on the North Shore. The highlight of this trip, however, was coming across sea turtles while snorkeling in Hanauma Bay. On our trip in December I desperately wanted to see sea turtles. We went to the popular spots to find them but had no luck. It was disappointing. This trip we got lucky and saw some in the water! It was amazing! The turtles are huge and absolutely beautiful. We were able to watch them for a long time, as they seemed content to hang out in the same area, eating their breakfast. We don't have any pictures, as we did not bring an underwater camera with us. To be honest, it was nice to just watch the turtles instead of trying to get the perfect picture of them.

Since we didn't hike to a waterfall on our last trip, we decided to do one this time. We hiked Manoa Falls, which took us through a bamboo forest. One crazy thing about Oahu is that there are wild chickens everywhere! I even saw one try to go into Target! These chickens were in the parking lot at the falls.

Besides seeing the turtles, we both got to check things off our bucket list. Husband got to ride a jet ski and I got to drink water from a coconut. Husband enjoyed the jet skiing more than I enjoyed the coconut water. If I was ever stranded on an island and coconuts were my only food source, I would most likely die. I never want to taste that nasty stuff again!

We also discovered the Ko Olina Lagoons this time around. These four man-made lagoons are stunningly beautiful and picture perfect. While the snorkeling wasn't amazing here, the calm water, protected coves, and white sand beaches made for a great way to spend the day. The lagoons quickly became one of my favourite places on the island. We also saw a few mongooses (mongeese? mongi?) at the lagoons.

We had a bit of rain one day so we decided to visit the Iolani Palace. This is the only royal palace on US soil (well as long as you aren't counting Cinderella's castle!). It has a throne room, so you know it's legit. We took a tour and learned the history of the royals in Hawaii and how they were overthrown. Fascinating stuff.

While Husband was hard at work, I got to explore a bit on my own. I spent one morning at the Ho'omaluhia Botanical Garden. I am convinced this is where they filmed Jurassic Park. As I wandered around, I kind of expected a dinosaur to appear on the path.

We ended our trip with a drive up to an overlook of Honolulu, a tour of the USS Bowfin (which sits near the USS Arizona memorial), a stop to see where the USS Utah was sunk during the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and a visit to the USS Oklahoma memorial, where white pillars line up representing the 429 Sailors and Marines killed when the Japanese attacked. The USS Oklahoma was pretty sobering, especially when we read that the design was inspired by the Navy tradition of "manning the rails." Manning the rails occurs when the crew of ship, dressed in full white dress, line up along the ship's rails and stand attention. It is the Navy's way of rendering honour to important people.