Site Seeing.....the Volcano at Waimea

Here we are on our 2nd day on Big Island. We are taking a long drive to Waimea, but I think everywhere you go on the Big Island is a long drive. But at least we're going to the wet side of the island where it's more lush, green and beautiful. Then we're heading to Akaka Falls, Hilo and if time permits, which we didn't think in the beginning that we'd have time to visit the Volcano today.

Here we are at Kahuela Deli in Waimea for a local breakfast. It was pretty good to start off our day.

The next stop on our road today is Akaka Falls. It was a nice little walk to go see this beautiful waterfall. There's Makayla with Grandma & Grandpa Arakaki.

Then from Akaka Falls we went into a little town called Hilo. There we visited our famous Big Island Candies factory. This is where Mommy & Grandma J get a lot of their Christmas goodies for everyone. Plus there was a special request for Uncle Alan too. It was nice to see how the candies are all made right there. Yummy! There was taste testing too.

On our road back we stopped to visit the famous statue of King Kamehameha!

We still had about 1/2 our day left so we decided to venture towards the volcano. We're so excited that we're actually here when there is supposedly active lava flow. We'll see if we're lucky enough to see it?! Here I am standing in front of the giant crater at the volcano visitor center. You can see the steam holes behind me. Hot stuff, but good thing I'm far away.

Here we are inside the lava tube, one of the many stops while visiting all the different sites of the volcano. It was really wet and dark, but a neat adventure. Good thing Daddy had a flashlight.

We heard that we might be able to see the active lava flow down at the bottom of the volcano but not until after 3pm so we headed down the road and got a bite to eat at the famous L&L. Afterwards it was perfect timing to go see the lava flow. As we were driving towards it there were signs that said "NO ACTIVE LAVA FLOW AT THIS TIME" we were disappointed but wondering why there were still so many people waiting, so we went ahead and waited too. But I think we had Makayla's luck since we got really, really good parking. It was about a three mile walk from the sign. Even though we got good parking we still had to hike quite a ways which was lots of work with me falling asleep and Daddy having to carry me all the way since this was not the spot that was stroller friendly at all. Again, we didn't think we'd be able to do all this today so we pretty much all had flip flops on while hiking to the water to see the flow. Plus Mommy is preggies too. We're just too crazy! I hope it's worth it!

As from this picture, we were soooo lucky to actually see red lava flow. It was nuts! We were so close that Makayla kept on saying hot Mommy, hot! Ryan & I just couldn't get over that we were standing right next to it and saw the bubbling and slow red flow. You could also hear the crackling sound too. This was soooo worth all that we went through to wait for it! It seriously took us probably over 2 hours of hiking and waiting before we actually got to see it! A once in a lifetime opportunity for sure!

On our way back up from the water we took a family photo. This is the kind of terrain we had to walk through to get down to the actual water and flow. It's all hard lava from previous flows years back. It's really sharp with lots of divots and wholes. As you can see we were so prepared for hiking in our flip flops! I think that's a day for us. Now for a long drive back to the resort. We didn't get back after dark. Long and tired day but so worth all of it! Makayla was such a trooper!