« Sleep in – no way! Day 3 | Home | Hawaii and Abe Lincoln Meet in Paradise, Day 5 »
Day 4 in Paradise
By Coach Colleen | May 16, 2009
An Awakening
Another Day in Paradise is like any other day filled with little decisions about what to do. Today our choices take us in opposite directions – one north, one south.
Even in Paradise You Have to Live with the Consequences
North to the lava tubes, then to the unparalleled Hawaii Botanical Gardens in Hilo; then back to the free flowing lava at dusk for the dramatic orange glow of molten earth flowing into the sea. Or, south to stand on the southern-most tip of the United States, a very spiritual place we’ve been told. And, a walk in to one of the two green sand beaches in the world (so we heard).
I watched the weather report and a front was forecast to arrive tomorrow. It’s a 20 minute walk to the lava flow, so we decided to beat the rain and go today.
Any guesses where our first stop was? Turtle Beach, of course. And, we were not disappointed. Sitting here I think I want to just sit and watch the turtle. Watching a turtle sunbath in the same hot baking sun as you are sitting under is not the most exciting venture – my hat’s off to all those National Geographic photographers.
Walk-In Tubes
The Lava Tubes, our first stop today, were quite dramatic. 
I can say this with all certainly because I did not notice the gain in elevation. Walking uphill in hot, humid weather is taxing if you are not used to it. Seattle is rarely 85 degrees during the peak of summer. We had descended several flights of stairs to reach the lava tubes. I was so engrossed in the surroundings that I never noticed the elevation change which was not insignificant because we only ascended one short flight to exit.
Next, we drove to Hilo and sat at a city park on the bay and ate a late lunch before we strolled the grounds. It was getting close to rush hour and we were on vacation and considered getting out of town now to avoid the traffic congestion – flashback to home. But, seeing at least one lush tropical garden was top on Mar’s list of wants, so we decided to brave the traffic and go there. We ended up in gridlock but it was so worth it.
Hawaii Botanical Gardens is a must see. How to describe the over the top extravaganza of color and drama. Red was the predominant color. I’m sure there is a botanical reason, but I don’t know it. All I know is that it was extraordinarily big and bright and exotic. In every direction we looked we saw a different flower. Thankfully, there were not hoards of insects because my mouth hung open as we looked up and around to the next explosion of nature on steroids. Mar’s repetitive verbal reaction was ‘Oh, my God!’ All I could say ‘Look at THIS!’ and THIS! and THIS! and THIS! You get the picture. If not, here are a few.
About ¼ mile outside the gardens in the middle of nowhere on a windy road, we passed and backtracked to a smoothie stand. Oh, my God! Was my reaction. I’d go back to Hilo just for another mango, pineapple juice, papaya and banana smoothie.
On the Road to Lava: Gridlock and Rain… Torrential Rain…
Let me set the stage. The main road around the Island, Highway 11, is a two lane, winding highway where passing is nearly impossible. Plus, the closer you get to the equator, the quicker the sun goes down. In Hawaii, it’s dark, dark and darker after sunset.
We plowed right in to the middle of rush hour traffic as we exited Hilo on the adventure of a lifetime – seeing flowing lava. Remembering, Hilo is the rainy side of the island, we were expecting an afternoon shower, but NOT a torrential rainstorm. It seems that the storm front was ahead of forecast and arrived just as we were leaving Hilo. Dusk was an hour off, but who would have guessed. Darkness and driving rain exaggerated by our speeding car (40 mph) combined with us not knowing where we were going contributed to our 6 miles to the lava turn and another 11 miles and a 20-min walk to flowing lava.
11 Miles to Lava… Or So We Thought
It took us over 1 hour to go 11 miles because of the traffic and the rain. We pulled of the road a couple of times because we could not see the car in front or behind us. Charging on at turtle speed we decided that rain would only make the steam plume bigger and we were from rainy Seattle, so we were going to the Lava Flow in the rain… or so we thought. Here are two what we missed photos from the USGS site. 
As we finally approach the rangers who were to direct us to flow, we saw people not going forward but turning around. The wind had shifted with the front and it was too dangerous to allow people into the area.
VOG, Volcano Off Gas, is noxious and can kill. We had seen the VOG every day but hadn’t thought much about it. My friend Martha who lives in Kona part of the year warned me about VOG. Her ex-business partner’s friend died of an asthma attack triggered by VOG.
My Reaction Could Spoil My Day… or NOT
As we turned around, we both knew we wouldn’t be back this trip. Seeing flowing lava was on my must-do list. In that moment, I thought about my reaction. I could be upset and throw a temper tantrum. Or, I could go with the flow (or ‘go with the wind’) and accept what is.
For me, it is often more easy to accept what is when I’m on vacation than in my everyday life. So, I put seeing flowing lava on my ‘to do in my lifetime list’ and we started on our two hour trip back to our Island home.
We had made a decision early that morning. Was it the right one? Who would I blame anyway – the weather forecasters, the storm front, the rangers, God?
It was my choice
I was at a choice point. I decided that nothing was going to get in the way of me having a wonderful time on my anniversary vacation – nothing has that kind of power over me.
Coach Colleen
Find yourself and then find you can find your true love. The Total True Love system is a self-discovery system for finding yourself in relationship to love. Then, you can if you want find the love of your life. Finding the love of your life is an inside job. Use this system with online dating or even before.
Topics: 10-Yr Anniversary Vacation, Love |
Comments are closed.