Hawaii Day 5/Installment 7 Big Island Hilo VOLCANOES!

Woke early and went to listen to the young woman(The Ships Hawaiian Ambassador) tell us about the Big Island and the Volcano's. She told us we would see red lava tonight as the ship cruised by. Back to the room and got prepared. Had to go to AP to rent a car again. We were told they only had a jeep! Whoooo whooooooo! :) So off we go in our little jeep.
Traveled up up up again, this time to the Hawaii National Volcano Park. This was so worth the car rental for the day and even the cold windy day.

In fact after stopping to view the first steaming volcano we immediately went to the gift show and got hooded sweat shirts! No one warned us about it being cold there and I'm guessing no one else was either because they were flying off the shelves LOL.

While we were in the gift shop/Museum we also looked at some exhibits and history
We saw more steaming volcano's then I can even remember!

Most were fairly far away but the camera brought them in close and they had viewers to see them close.

Some of them were close enough we could see the soft ash bubbling. No one seems alarmed! So I guess it's safe!

I remember visiting Mt. St. Helen's the year after it blew and this reminded me very much of that.

and it also reminded me of the area around Dierkes Lake near Twin Falls Idaho, where I use to visit my Aunt Nellie. Lots of hardened lava and sort of a moonscape look.

They kept referring to "Lava Tubes" and we finally discovered what they were.

Then a little later we drove up to one. There was a trail to hike down in to it but just didn't think I'd make it back up!

Also, in the middle of the moonscape we drove in to a mini "rain forest". They just appear in places all over the islands.
It was beautiful and had some very different looking stuff.

Lots of birds here and there but we didn't get pictures we just heard them everywhere! Some strange stuff in tree's that looked like Spanish Moss.

This is just an amazing park and we could have spent another half a day there but it was getting late and we needed to eat and it was cold and windy so we headed back to town in our JEEP :)

We got some fast food and turned in the jeep and got the car shuttle back to the ship.
Since we were told we were going to see the lava that night, we decided to lay down and take a little nap before going to eat.

So after a couple of hours we showered and dressed a little warmer and headed down to eat and watch.



The ship departed as we were eating and after that we went out on the deck to watch ! We sat and stood and stood and sat. And we waited and waited. We had been told we should see it about 9:30....................And this is what we saw :(At 9:45 the Captain announced that due to the "VOG" and rain we would not see it!





This is what we WANTED to see


So we gave up and went back to the cabin to plan for the next day!

Another Favorite day!