Lava Flow

Well, I finally did it - I've put together the lava flow recordings along with some pictures to make what I think is a very nifty video. It's about 4 and a half minutes long. As with the whale video, if you want the full (43M) version, email me (or comment) and I'll set up a DL link.

And this concludes the Hawaii 08 updates to my blog. Unless someone wants to send me back to Hawaii this year. Then I can do more. But until that happens, you'll just have to be satisfied with my previous Hawaii posts. To see them without random tea, hockey and other stuff mixed in, you can go here.

Aloha!

Video - Whales

I finally edited the whale videos I took into one video. It's about four and a half minutes long and pretty neat, I think. If for any reason anyone (Mom?) wants the entire file (42M), let me know and I'll set up a DL link.

And, yeah, it'll take a few minutes to load. Sorry. Whales are big creatures, you know. Lots of megs in whales.

More Pictures!

Not here, you goose! In the Hawaii 2008 Album. I got mom's pictures added. Check 'em out - there are some really neat ones!

Hawaii Goes Boom (Sorta)

My dad sent me this article from Fox News:
Rare Explosive Eruption at Kilauea Volcano Rains Debris on Hawai
It is crazy to think we were just there - in fact we were at the observatory which now sounds like it is unaccessible to visitors due to the recent activity.

I replied to Dad's email saying that we really went to Hawaii at the perfect time. Any earlier and we wouldn't have seen any lava flow (the trail to the active flow opened only the day before we went) and any later and we wouldn't have been able to see everything we did at the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.

Finally!

Well, it took over 24 hours, but I finally got all the Hawaii pictures uploaded into our online album. I might have gone a little crazy - there are over 500 pictures. Because of the size of the original photos (3.5M), I have lower quality pictures in the album, but I have the original high quality photos, so if you want a copy of a high quality one, let me know. Anyway, go check out the massive number of trip albums in our Hawaii 2008 album.

Oh yeah, videos will be coming at some point, but uploading the pics to the album took way longer than I thought it would.

Better Late Than Never

Okay, you may have noticed that I have neglected to post the pictures from our final day in Hawaii. No, I didn't run away and stay in the islands, as much as I wanted to. Our luggage tried to, actually. It was tracked down, though, and arrived back home about 8 hours after we did.

Our final day in Hawaii, we got up and left Kona and flew into Honolulu, where we spent about 12 hours before returning home to DFW by way of Salt Lake City.

Two sea turtles that were hanging out near our hotel during breakfast time (our's not their's - well, maybe it was their's too)

The Kailua-Kona Airport - seriously the best airport ever.

This is our gate at the airport. Seriously. Isn't that great?

On Oahu, the first place we went was Pearl Harbor...

...where we went to the USS Arizona Memorial.

After Pearl Harbor, we went to Byodo-In...

...a Buddhist templed copied after one in Uji, Japan.

Then we took a nice drive along the north coast before returning to the airport and flying home.

Well, that was our trip! This weekend I'll be adding ALL of our pictures to a photo album and I'll post a link to that on my blog. I also am going to edit the videos I took. I'm not sure which I want to do - either make one long video to show all of our Hawaii goodies or just edit the videos and post them separately. Or do both. Any opinions? C'mon! Someone tell me what to do!

Thar She Blows!

Whee! Wales! No wait, not the country. Whales! Gia-normous fishies!

Today we got to whale-watch. And boy, did they do stuff for us to watch! There was a very interactive pair that we saw that swam around the boat a lot and then later we saw a mama and her baby. There were even some dolphins that played around us! It was awesome. Very exciting.

Whales!

More whale!

Breathing whale!

Whale flipper!

Whale tail! (Okay, that makes me giggle because it makes me think of this.

I also took a lot of video. Here's a rough edit of one (about 1:20):

(I'm hoping to edit the videos I took and either post them separate or make a long video focusing on all the Hawaii neat-ness. Any preference?)

Awesome-ness at 900+ degrees

So today's theme was volcanoes.

We went to Kilauea...

...where we saw Halema'uma'u Crater and inhaled some noxious sulfur fumes...

...and saw some steam vents...

...and into a lava tube and through a Hawaiian rain forest where we saw some neat flora...

But forget all that junk! Let's get to the good stuff: erupting volcano-ness!

The distant smoking is where there is lava flow (no, not the drink) going down the hillside.

But we also got to get up close and personal with the real thing...

...and let me tell ya, it is hot!

Everyone was asked to stay away about 10 to 20 feet from the faster moving lava (which was still slow) so it wouldn't spit stuff at us in case there was a pressure build up...

...but since the "cool" silver lava is about 900 degrees, even that "far" away you can still feel a lot of heat! And we were allowed to get even closer to the non-flowing hot lava (Dan says that whatever company insures the State of Hawaii has not seen this set up).

Flowing into the ocean, turning the water to steam.

All in all, a really long day but way cool. I've got some video of the flowing lava (which was awesome! - if you haven't figured that out yet) but I need to edit it first.

Oh, and we swung by Long's Drugs this morning and found some aloe with lidocaine. Woot!

What Time Is It?

Time to regret not applying sunscreen!

Dan has a permanent watch now. But it keeps time horribly.

I particularly like the scalloped edges of my burn. It's the new style.

The white stuff on my chest is Noxema. Aaahhh, cooling.

Green Sand Beer

Today was South Point, the Green Sand Beach, then the Kona Brewer's Festival.

There were a lot of lava fields on the way to South Point...

...including some spots that had this type of lava formations - called pahoehoe (pah-hoy-hoy) which is so fun to say I had to include it (really, it is, say it with me - Pah-hoy-hoy. Wee!)

View from South Point, the southern-most tip of Hawai'i.

In between South Point and the green sand beach, is the Pu'u Ali'i burial site...

...which is a site that hundreds of sets of bones have been found.

Also on the path, there is some graffiti - white rocks on lava rock. You can see this sort of thing beside the highway in a lot of places, too.

That swell in the middle of the horizon is where the green sand beach is. The hike was 50 minutes one way. Seriously.

Of course, that gave us plenty of time to admire the flowers...

...and try to figure out what type of flowers they are.

But finally we made it!

So we decided to take some pictures to delay the hike back!

The green sand is from olivine, which you can also see in the lava rocks in the area, like here.

After the hike back to the car, and a nap in the car back to the hotel, and a shower to wash the dirt, dust, sand and sweat off of us, it was time to go to the Kona Brewer's Festival.

Dan used both his tickets and most of mine (we got 8 each), which probably isn't a bad thing since he's not feeling the pain of his sunburn now!

Tomorrow (in theory) is the Volcanoes National Park and Hilo.

The First Full Day in Hawaii

What we did today:

After eating breakfast, we wandered around the outside of the hotel...

...including the beach next door...

...where we saw all manner of critters, including sea urchins,...

...a blue crab,...

...and even a green sea turtle (don't worry - he's okay, he's just basking... he perked up when I got about 4 feet away).

Then we meandered back to the hotel where we saw several geckos...

...and some really neat flowers.

Then we took of to tour the island. (This was on the way to Waimea).

In Weimea we stopped at Merriman's...

...where I had a delightful pinapple, genadine and coconut rum martini...

...and then we went on to Waipio.

I just think this is a really good picture of us so I had to post it - still overlooking Waipio Valley.

Then we went to Akaka Falls, where we walked a rain-forest-y path...

...to see one of Hawaii's two tallest waterfalls.

At 440 feet high, I couldn't back up far enough to fit the whole thing in!

Then it was time to go back to the hotel, where we got lost looking for Costco and almost got lost looking for our hotel.

We just shouldn't be on the road after dark. Currently we are 0-2 for finding things in the dark.

Too Tired to Think...

I'm too tired to think of something witty to write (or something I think is witty), so instead I'll just post some pictures.

My Parents on the way to Salt Lake

Mountains on the way to Salt Lake

Dan and Me on the plane from Salt Lake to Oahu

Landing at Oahu - Pearl Harbor

A liquid dinner at Honolulu Airport

Departing Oahu - Diamond Head and Waikiki

Landing at Kailua-Kona (this is the coolest airport - no ceilings except for baggage claim!)

At baggage claim

Our hotel room

My parent's is adjoining

And I assume looks like a mirror image of ours

Even though it is nine-something here, my body thinks it is one in the morning. I'm dying to brush my teeth, wash my face and feet and go to bed.

Aloha!