The Big Island: Volcanos National Park and stuff

On Tuesday I had my first stop on the Big Island in Hilo. We rented a car from Hertz and drove to Volcano's National Park. I rented a convertible for the day, which seemed like a good idea at the time, but it turned out to be a bit of a waste. We drove to the park with the top down and while it was a little chilly out it was fun. Once we got there though the air quality was low so we had to close the top. Then when it was time to leave it started to rain. I had a Mustang and I have to say I wasn't impressed with the thing, I wouldn't buy one for myself. I now know that Hilo is the rainy side of the island so it's not the best place to have a convertible in.

But the park was nice and I'm glad I did it. We got great views of the steam/smoke coming up from the volcano and saw a lava tube, overall it was a nice place and the staff there was very helpful in deciding what to do and how to do it. It's a pretty place, too bad the weather wasn't a little better. If you want to see lava though it's a 6 mile hike each way over hard and sharp volcanic rock, not for the casual visitor.

On the way back we had extra time so we took a drive on Banyan Drive, which offered great views of our ship. After we found out we should have seen Rainbow falls, but I didn't realize it, I guess I have a reason to return one day.

Overall Hilo is a nice spot, but I'm not sure it's the best destination in Hawaii.

That night our ship sailed by flowing lava which was really cool even though it was really cloudy and a bit rainy out. But you'll need a good camera with a good zoom lens if you want pictures of this.

Hawaii by cruise

My trip to Hawaii is barely a month away so I thought I would give an update on my plans there. Tara and I will be sailing with NCL America on the Pride of America on May 16.

We're flying out on May 15 to Honolulu and will be spending the night on Waikiki Beach. The following day we will try to spend a little time at Waikiki and then head back over to Honolulu to drop our luggage off at the ship and take a little time to explore downtown Honolulu. If we can we would both like to do a tour of the only palace on US Soil, Iolanai Palace. Then we'll go back and board the ship, hopefully our luggage will have made it to our room by then.

May 17th and May 18th we'll be in Maui where we'll be doing excursions for the Road to Hana and to Haleakala Crater for sunrise. If we're still awake after that then we'll probably go to a beach for a while, or maybe some shopping. You can sleep when you get home, right?

May 19th we'll be in Hilo and are renting a convertible to go see Volcano's National Park.

May 20th is Kona where we plan on taking a glass bottom boat and hitting the beach.

May 21st and 22nd we'll be in Kauai. Here we'll do an excursion to Wailua River and Fern Grotto and also a helicopter tour of the island - Tara refers to that as the day she is going to die. She's very excited she just has trouble expressing herself.

May 23rd they kick us off the ship. Since our flight isn't until 8pm we will go see Pearl Harbor on this day.