Because I did find some more blogworthy material to share with you about our honeymoon...
This is me jumping up and down to get the seismograph? to record the trembling.
Showing posts with label Honeymoon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Honeymoon. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Honeymoon Outtakes
Waiting in the airport to leave Indy.
Driving from the airport to our resort on Maui.
After carrying our luggage to our room, our bellhop took our picture in front of the balcony on our first night on Maui.
Scenery as we drove to different snorkeling places.
Big man dancing.
Fire juggler (I doubt that's his professional title.)
View from our balcony:
A painting of "the lighting of the torches" that takes place just outside our resort every night. When the guy has lit all the torches along the rocks, he dives into the ocean.
Surfer Dudes
Cows? In Hawaii? I felt right at home.
Pretty blue water
A bouquet, Hawaiian style. And in a 5-gallon bucket.
Kyler repeatedly telling me to get out the camera and take a picture of this cross before we drive past it. I was going as fast as I could...
Waterfall from the airplane:
The missing toilet picture from a previous post. Classy, I know.
Being the wonderful student I am, I thought that being over 4000 feet in the air meant that we were a mile high in the air. Not only was that incorrect, I was told not to say repeatedly that now we can join the Mile High Club. Apparently that phrase isn't used literally to mean that you're a mile high in the air...I'll let you Google that yourself.
And unless I find more blogworthy photos or remember a blogworthy story from our trip, this probably concludes the Honeymoon series.
Cows? In Hawaii? I felt right at home.
And unless I find more blogworthy photos or remember a blogworthy story from our trip, this probably concludes the Honeymoon series.
Monday, June 20, 2011
Honeymoon Day 5
On Friday, our big day had arrived! We were spending the day at Volcanoes National Park! Although our cabin-owner Barry had given us a ton of suggestions of what to see, we decided to stop by the visitor center to get the scoop on the volcano's current conditions. Unfortunately there was no lava flow that we could see. If I understood correctly, there was a lava flow, but it was making its way to the ocean through lava tubes underground. Bummer. Regardless, there were still many other sites and views we wanted to take in, so we headed out into the park.
First, we headed towards the overlook of Halema'uma'u Crater. Inside the crater was where the top of a cone had collapsed. So way deep down in there, there was some lava brewing. [Does lava brew?]
This crater was deep down in a canyon, the Kilauea Caldera. We're standing on the ledge of the caldera looking down into it that holds the crater. And all along the ledge of the caldera was Wahinekapu or steam vents. Below is a picture of steam coming from the side of the caldera.
The park had about fifty different climates. Hot. Cold. Rainy. Dry. Humid. Windy. Foggy. Clear. Seriously, each time we got out of the car, we had no idea what to expect. So as the pictures progress, you'll see we shed layers of clothes.
Just past the caldera was another open view of the crater/brewing-lava-hole and the Jagger Museum. The museum was named after the guy who came up with volcanology, and it housed a lot of information about volcanoes, lava, and seismic activity.
Kyler was really into reading every bit of information in the museum. I, being the more visual learner in the group, was drawn towards the more interactive sections of the museum. Below is a seismic meter reader [not the technical name].
It reads any movement in the earth, usually earthquakes, that could lead to a volcanic eruption around these parts. See that little blue blurb on the line to the farthest right above? That was me jumping, but once Kyler saw what I was doing, he thought he should come over and put me to shame.
Well done, my love. You are better than me.
Then we were back in the car to travel to the other side of the park.
Onto Chain of Craters Road. We took a turn to go to the Hilina Pali Overlook. Even though we had no idea what was at the end, we thought we'd try it out. After nine miles of twisting and turning, this is what we found:
...a sign. Okay, back to Chain of Craters Road. Our helpful guide at the visitor center told us to take the hike up to the overlook to check out the Pu'u Huluhulu Cinder Cone and Mauna Ulu Shield. Yeah, I'll have to study those names for another hour or so before I can say them out loud.
First, we saw this fissure in the gound.
Then we hiked up, up, up, and then a really steep up to reach the top of a mount. The view was incredible even though the photo doesn't do it justice. In the photo below, we're very high up even though we look like we're standing on the ground.
After that long walk, we decided to travel to the end of Chain of Craters Road where the lava actually crossed the road. Along the way, we saw this sign.
Does that really say what I think it says?
What exactly are they mowing!?
A quick stop at another over look. Freezing cold. We ran to the end of the viewing deck, snapped a photo, and ran back to the car.
Just a couple miles down the same road, we stopped at another overlook. This time it was a bit rainy, but the temperature was probably ten degrees higher. Much better!
Then we got to the end of the road. We were standing right on the edge of the rock, where the lava had hit the ocean.
We walked down to where the lava had crossed the road. Where do we go from here?
Good thing Kyler had already put a ring on it because with that outfit, I was definitely turning heads...just kidding. Kyler made fun of me all day once I changed out of my jeans. I had brought shorts to change into, but it never crossed my mind that I only had high socks. Oh well.
Kyler reluctantly taking a picture with me in my stylish attire. [Not that he has any room to talk...wearing black and blue?]
Kyler voyaged out beyond the beaten path to grab these awesome photos.
The sea arch.
This was our view on the drive back up the road. The dark brown streaks are the most recent lava flows (maybe 2007?).
Then we left the park to eat lunch. It was yummy, and the lady gave us free refills on our Pepsi. Score! And when we came back in, we hit up the sites we had saved for last. The Thurston Lava Tube and the Kilauea Iki Crater hike. Because in this area of the park it was very damp, we saved it for last because we knew we'd be soaked after walking through a cave and across a rainy lava lake.
Here I am going into the first cave (just a bit chilly):
And inside thecave lave tube:
That lava tube was nice and well-lit through its entirety. The next lava tube, we had to break out the flashlights. I saw a sign on the gate that told its distance, and told Kyler it was only 344 feet. After walking and walking and walking and then walking back out, Kyler saw on the gate that it said 344 meters. Woops.
It was very damp inside that cave. Good thing I look good in yellow :)
Then we headed over to the old lava lake. The sign at the entrance said it was a four-mile round trip. Immediately on the trail, we made a steep descent. Then we got to the bottom of the lava lake. At one time, this huge expanse of "lake" was filled with lava...hence the name.
Entering the lava lake:
There were no signs pointing which way we should go, but someone had ever-so-nicely stacked rocks to mark the roundabout path we should take. Sometimes the rock stacks were very clear, but when you're hiking through a land of a gazillion rocks, sometimes we just had to guess. And when we got to a point where we didn't see any rocks, we had to turn around and look for different piles of rocks. Very technical directions, I know.
Eventually, we made our way back out and back up the mountain. And we could see other people walking where we'd just been. Here is a photo from our view at the top, completely zoomed out, and you can see those teeny tiny little people down there to get an idea of how much climbing we did.
Then we left to eata horrible supper at Kiawe Kitchen. We'd heard they had a great lunch...guess we should've heeded the advice and gone for lunch, not supper. But we were so excited because after we ate and it turned dark, we were going to go back to the park to see the glow of the lava. Our friend at the visitor center said since they'd had some activity in March, the lava was really putting on a show and "the view was spectacular!" So back we went. Rainy. Freezing cold. A hazy orange glow. Kyler tried to take photos but the reflection of the light on the rain drops prohibited any good ones and we ran back to the car.
And that was our final night in Hawaii.
First, we headed towards the overlook of Halema'uma'u Crater. Inside the crater was where the top of a cone had collapsed. So way deep down in there, there was some lava brewing. [Does lava brew?]
This crater was deep down in a canyon, the Kilauea Caldera. We're standing on the ledge of the caldera looking down into it that holds the crater. And all along the ledge of the caldera was Wahinekapu or steam vents. Below is a picture of steam coming from the side of the caldera.
The park had about fifty different climates. Hot. Cold. Rainy. Dry. Humid. Windy. Foggy. Clear. Seriously, each time we got out of the car, we had no idea what to expect. So as the pictures progress, you'll see we shed layers of clothes.
Just past the caldera was another open view of the crater/brewing-lava-hole and the Jagger Museum. The museum was named after the guy who came up with volcanology, and it housed a lot of information about volcanoes, lava, and seismic activity.
Kyler was really into reading every bit of information in the museum. I, being the more visual learner in the group, was drawn towards the more interactive sections of the museum. Below is a seismic meter reader [not the technical name].
It reads any movement in the earth, usually earthquakes, that could lead to a volcanic eruption around these parts. See that little blue blurb on the line to the farthest right above? That was me jumping, but once Kyler saw what I was doing, he thought he should come over and put me to shame.
Well done, my love. You are better than me.
Then we were back in the car to travel to the other side of the park.
Onto Chain of Craters Road. We took a turn to go to the Hilina Pali Overlook. Even though we had no idea what was at the end, we thought we'd try it out. After nine miles of twisting and turning, this is what we found:
...a sign. Okay, back to Chain of Craters Road. Our helpful guide at the visitor center told us to take the hike up to the overlook to check out the Pu'u Huluhulu Cinder Cone and Mauna Ulu Shield. Yeah, I'll have to study those names for another hour or so before I can say them out loud.
First, we saw this fissure in the gound.
Then we hiked up, up, up, and then a really steep up to reach the top of a mount. The view was incredible even though the photo doesn't do it justice. In the photo below, we're very high up even though we look like we're standing on the ground.
After that long walk, we decided to travel to the end of Chain of Craters Road where the lava actually crossed the road. Along the way, we saw this sign.
Does that really say what I think it says?
What exactly are they mowing!?
A quick stop at another over look. Freezing cold. We ran to the end of the viewing deck, snapped a photo, and ran back to the car.
Just a couple miles down the same road, we stopped at another overlook. This time it was a bit rainy, but the temperature was probably ten degrees higher. Much better!
Then we got to the end of the road. We were standing right on the edge of the rock, where the lava had hit the ocean.
We walked down to where the lava had crossed the road. Where do we go from here?
Good thing Kyler had already put a ring on it because with that outfit, I was definitely turning heads...just kidding. Kyler made fun of me all day once I changed out of my jeans. I had brought shorts to change into, but it never crossed my mind that I only had high socks. Oh well.
Kyler reluctantly taking a picture with me in my stylish attire. [Not that he has any room to talk...wearing black and blue?]
Kyler voyaged out beyond the beaten path to grab these awesome photos.
The sea arch.
This was our view on the drive back up the road. The dark brown streaks are the most recent lava flows (maybe 2007?).
Then we left the park to eat lunch. It was yummy, and the lady gave us free refills on our Pepsi. Score! And when we came back in, we hit up the sites we had saved for last. The Thurston Lava Tube and the Kilauea Iki Crater hike. Because in this area of the park it was very damp, we saved it for last because we knew we'd be soaked after walking through a cave and across a rainy lava lake.
Here I am going into the first cave (just a bit chilly):
And inside the
That lava tube was nice and well-lit through its entirety. The next lava tube, we had to break out the flashlights. I saw a sign on the gate that told its distance, and told Kyler it was only 344 feet. After walking and walking and walking and then walking back out, Kyler saw on the gate that it said 344 meters. Woops.
It was very damp inside that cave. Good thing I look good in yellow :)
Then we headed over to the old lava lake. The sign at the entrance said it was a four-mile round trip. Immediately on the trail, we made a steep descent. Then we got to the bottom of the lava lake. At one time, this huge expanse of "lake" was filled with lava...hence the name.
Entering the lava lake:
There were no signs pointing which way we should go, but someone had ever-so-nicely stacked rocks to mark the roundabout path we should take. Sometimes the rock stacks were very clear, but when you're hiking through a land of a gazillion rocks, sometimes we just had to guess. And when we got to a point where we didn't see any rocks, we had to turn around and look for different piles of rocks. Very technical directions, I know.
Eventually, we made our way back out and back up the mountain. And we could see other people walking where we'd just been. Here is a photo from our view at the top, completely zoomed out, and you can see those teeny tiny little people down there to get an idea of how much climbing we did.
Then we left to eat
And that was our final night in Hawaii.
Friday, June 17, 2011
Honeymoon Day 4
On Wednesday, we were greeted by our wonderful cabin-owner. We spent probably the first hour of our time at the cabin listening to him tell of all the things we should see. Um, we were going to need an early start if we were going to fit everything in
So on Thursday, on our first full day on the Big Island, we left early in the morning for site seeing and a day at the beach (and a surprise ending).
First stop: black sand beach [Hawaii's state bird is the Nene Goose. Maybe because it's such a funny name, the whole trip Kyler and I called every goose-resembling bird a Nene. We really thought these were the real thing though...until we saw a real picture of one and realized these were just ducks. Bummer]
There's the black sand though!
And whaddya know, a sea turtle taking a nap. We could see at least two others swimming in the shallow water just off the beach so we stuck around for a little while. No such luck of them coming onto shore as well. But this 'ol guy and the real black sand made the trip totally worth it.
And on our way out, I spotted our neighbor's car. To me, that car is the epitome of Hawaiians' vehicles!
Our next stop: green sand beach. According to our cabin-owner, once the lava hit the ocean, there was a chemical reaction with all sorts of explosions that left the beach with green sand. I pictured a beach exactly like the black sand beach but with emerald green sand. I couldn't wait! And after winding down to the southernmost tip in the U.S. we found a cliff...and trails leading to the green sand beach.
Here is me perched on said cliff.
Blowhole
We walked and walked and walked and finally found what we assumed to be the green sand beach.
On the way back, we missed the trail that would take us back to our car. Yeah...neither one of us were very happy about that mistake.
Until we stumbled upon this scene. No that is not our car [ours is still about 2 miles away], but doesn't this look like a car commercial?
Well, once we did get back to our car, we headed off to the beach! We wound through a community near Kona...
[we l.o.v.e.d. this sign]
...to the beach. Oh wait. Did I say beach? We definitely made it to the coast, but there was no beach. Just huge rocks.
Off to beach number two: Magic Sands Beach. I really have no idea why, but we have no pictures of this beach. I don't think its sands were magical, but Kyler did go into the ocean for a little bit. The water was really rough, and he even got yelled at by the life guard for entering too close to the rocks.
After some lunch at BIG: Big Island Grille, we were off to beach number three: Hapuna Beach!
Success! Until we tried to lay down and got a facefull of sand. Man that beach was windy!
So after absorbing a ton of sand, we moved up the beach a bit...to the grass.
Much better. No more sand blowing in my ears. I can still see the beach and ocean. And the sun! Oh the glorious sun!
After we'd had enough beaching/grassing it, we decided to head home. At this point, we were directly on the other side of the island of our cabin. Our whole day of adventures had taken us about 3ish hours away from home. So Kyler whipped out his iPhone and saw that the quickest route home was through the middle of the island, between the two mountains that cover the island. Oh, and this is the road that our cabin-owner said that most rental car companies advised against, but he said we should be just fine. So with the sun setting, Kyler said that's the route we were going to take. Needless to say, we were both a bit nervous. So we filled up on gas, bought some snacks and drinks, and were on our way.
At first, we were just surrounded by the gorgeous scenery we had become accustomed to, all the while heading climbing the foot of mountains.
Then we hit some fog. Ok, a lot of fog. Ok, that's not fog. We're in the clouds!
It got much foggier/cloudier after this, but I decided to put the camera down and help Kyler navigate.
I had asked the guy at the gas station about taking this specific road home. He said we should be fine as long as it was daylight. Oh, good thing it was right about sundown and the clouds were blocking what little light was left...
Eventually we made it home. We only had to spend half of the two-and-a-half-hour drive going down a mountain, pitch-black outside, and the road being reconstructed (i.e. we were driving on a one lane gravel road lined by cones). After we made it back to our side of the island, we laughed about the whole experience and picked up a pizza from Kiawe Kitchen on our way home. Another eventful day in Hawaii!
So on Thursday, on our first full day on the Big Island, we left early in the morning for site seeing and a day at the beach (and a surprise ending).
First stop: black sand beach [Hawaii's state bird is the Nene Goose. Maybe because it's such a funny name, the whole trip Kyler and I called every goose-resembling bird a Nene. We really thought these were the real thing though...until we saw a real picture of one and realized these were just ducks. Bummer]
There's the black sand though!
And whaddya know, a sea turtle taking a nap. We could see at least two others swimming in the shallow water just off the beach so we stuck around for a little while. No such luck of them coming onto shore as well. But this 'ol guy and the real black sand made the trip totally worth it.
And on our way out, I spotted our neighbor's car. To me, that car is the epitome of Hawaiians' vehicles!
Our next stop: green sand beach. According to our cabin-owner, once the lava hit the ocean, there was a chemical reaction with all sorts of explosions that left the beach with green sand. I pictured a beach exactly like the black sand beach but with emerald green sand. I couldn't wait! And after winding down to the southernmost tip in the U.S. we found a cliff...and trails leading to the green sand beach.
Here is me perched on said cliff.
Blowhole
We walked and walked and walked and finally found what we assumed to be the green sand beach.
On the way back, we missed the trail that would take us back to our car. Yeah...neither one of us were very happy about that mistake.
Until we stumbled upon this scene. No that is not our car [ours is still about 2 miles away], but doesn't this look like a car commercial?
Well, once we did get back to our car, we headed off to the beach! We wound through a community near Kona...
[we l.o.v.e.d. this sign]
...to the beach. Oh wait. Did I say beach? We definitely made it to the coast, but there was no beach. Just huge rocks.
Off to beach number two: Magic Sands Beach. I really have no idea why, but we have no pictures of this beach. I don't think its sands were magical, but Kyler did go into the ocean for a little bit. The water was really rough, and he even got yelled at by the life guard for entering too close to the rocks.
After some lunch at BIG: Big Island Grille, we were off to beach number three: Hapuna Beach!
Success! Until we tried to lay down and got a facefull of sand. Man that beach was windy!
So after absorbing a ton of sand, we moved up the beach a bit...to the grass.
Much better. No more sand blowing in my ears. I can still see the beach and ocean. And the sun! Oh the glorious sun!
After we'd had enough beaching/grassing it, we decided to head home. At this point, we were directly on the other side of the island of our cabin. Our whole day of adventures had taken us about 3ish hours away from home. So Kyler whipped out his iPhone and saw that the quickest route home was through the middle of the island, between the two mountains that cover the island. Oh, and this is the road that our cabin-owner said that most rental car companies advised against, but he said we should be just fine. So with the sun setting, Kyler said that's the route we were going to take. Needless to say, we were both a bit nervous. So we filled up on gas, bought some snacks and drinks, and were on our way.
At first, we were just surrounded by the gorgeous scenery we had become accustomed to, all the while heading climbing the foot of mountains.
Then we hit some fog. Ok, a lot of fog. Ok, that's not fog. We're in the clouds!
It got much foggier/cloudier after this, but I decided to put the camera down and help Kyler navigate.
I had asked the guy at the gas station about taking this specific road home. He said we should be fine as long as it was daylight. Oh, good thing it was right about sundown and the clouds were blocking what little light was left...
Eventually we made it home. We only had to spend half of the two-and-a-half-hour drive going down a mountain, pitch-black outside, and the road being reconstructed (i.e. we were driving on a one lane gravel road lined by cones). After we made it back to our side of the island, we laughed about the whole experience and picked up a pizza from Kiawe Kitchen on our way home. Another eventful day in Hawaii!
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