Hawaii: Day 5

Sunday morning, we decided to try our luck with the (free) Hilo Zoo once more, so we stopped by on the way to church.  

 Kelly was happy.

The zoo was pretty.

The animals were....animaly.

There were lots of monkeys.

Lots of birds.

Lots of pigs.

Some deer.

Squirrels?

And Mr. & Mrs. Pickles.

You had to be careful though, because every other sign warned you that animals bite.  I didn't know that animals bit, weird.

And if you ever wondered how pineapples grew, they had those too.

But if you were wondering what butterflies looked like, you were out of luck because there were no butterflies in the butterfly house.

*Soapbox Sidenote:  Why does everyone love butterflies?  They are just as gross as all the other insects. Loving only insects that have pretty wings is like loving only people that have pretty faces.  I'm thinking about starting and an equal rights group on behalf of all ugly insects.

The zoo also had a bit of a British flare.

And the peacocks were in full bloom!!!  There were about four or five peacocks walking around showing their stuff off.  I think it was also mating season because a few of them charged each other in a duel.  Unfortunately, I was too afraid for my life as they charged five feet away from me that I forgot to use the camera to document it.

I think it was mating season the whole zoo over.

Since Warner had said the zoo was a waste of his time, we took Dalan as our native tour guide.  And thank goodness we did!  Dalan was an animal whisperer.  He got the parrots to talk, he got the birds to do a synchronized dance, he got animals to bite his tie, he got an unknown blind animal to wake up from his nap and try and attack him through the cage, and finally, he got the tiger to growl and swat at the fence.

Two seconds after I stopped recording, Dal Pal growled and the tiger let out a huge roar and jumped at the fence!

Overall, it was one of the most exciting zoo trips I've ever participated in (and with Kelly, I've participated in quite a few).  It was the furthest thing from a waste of our time (ahem, Warner).

After church, we explored Volcanoes National Park, something that was on the top of all our lists to see before we died (or before we left Hawaii).

First stop, visitor's center so that Jen could get a stamp in her national parks passport.  She has a goal to get all the stamps!

While Jen stamped, we found things to take  pictures of, like Pele, the volcano goddess, standing in front of her portrait.

We also found some natives who didn't mind having their picture taken.

And we read intellectual things, like how the volcano eruption was higher than the Empire State Building!

At the visitor's center, we parked right next to Jeep 2's twin!  We continued to find ourselves parked by Jeep 2's twin wherever we went throughout the park.  It's like they couldn't be separated.

We drove around and looked at some pretty views.

Until we got to the lava tube trailhead.

The lava tube was pretty cool.  It was a tunnel/cave created by an extinct lava flow after the volcano erupted.

When we got to the end of the tunnel, we found this sign.  Which said we could not go any further unless we had our own light.

Lucky for us, we did.

And even if we didn't have our headlights, we had our blinding camera flashes to guide our way.

At the entrance to the unexplored tunnel, we found some good-looking strangers who wanted to borrow our light and come with us.

It was nice to have them around to look at...and to take pictures.

We were best friends by the end.

After the lava tube, we had a little scare with Jeep 2 who was leaking.

Just when we thought we'd broken another jeep and the rental car place would never trust us again, Kelly sniffed it out and discovered it was only water.

So we kept going, and kept soaking in the views.

They had these pretty red flowers all along the viewpoint lookouts.  Check out these ants, they were huge!

This is Adrienne, feeling the power of the volcano.

There was lots of action going on in the far distance.

We looked at the crater for awhile and then noticed tiny tiny people walking across it.

We figured if tiny people could do it, we could too.

But first, we attempted to take the same picture with three cameras.

By the time that feat was accomplished, we started the long disent into the jungle.

The jungle was breathtaking and we found a lot of interesting things there.

Like curly fern fronds as big as our hands!

And little jungle girls carrying their water on their heads.

And gorillas.

Scary gorillas.

And Jurassic Park dinosaurs.

We walked a lot.  And every once in awhile we came to a break in the trees and caught a view of the crater.

We finally came to the edge of the crater.

And we were scared.

And not necessarily because we had hair that could rival any cave woman's.

And not because we had rocks and rocks to climb over.


And not because those rocks were a sharp, black, and certain death.

But because we were all wearing flip-flops (or slippers, as you say in Hawaiian).

And not just any flip-flops, we were all wearing our favorite flips.  In my case, I was wearing my second-chance flip-flops that took me two years and a return trip to California just to purchase. 

Luckily, our shoes made it through okay.  Adrienne's flip-flop in the picture below probably suffered the worse.

I want everyone to think about the picture of the sharp rocks and the picture of the flip-flop as the look through the next several pictures.

We walked.

And walked.

And walked.

And walked.

We walked so much, we almost turned into pioneer children.  But every once in awhile we stopped and took pictures.

And made ninja videos.

And waved to the people who used to be us at the top who still had such a long ways to go.

And we took some K-mart model pictures.

And tried to guard ourselves from oncoming lava.

Sometimes we weren't fast enough, and the lava fell upon us.

Sometimes we accidentally sat on steam vents.

All the rocks by the steam vents changed colors from red to grey as the steam continuously waved over them.  I tried to take video of it, but well, it was steamy.

We finally made it back up to the top, completing one giant loop.

We were tired.

But happy.

Before we leave the volcano section of this photo tour, I will leave you with one more delightful video.

The rest of day five was spent hanging out with the fam, playing games and painting steps.

At the end of this video is when Warner freaks out because he thinks Dalan has just given up, when really he just made it through to the end.  Haha.

The Lawsons have some back steps that they let guests and family paint when they visit, to leave a little behind a little bit of love.

Warner was kind enough to serenade us while we painted.

Those are koki frogs in the background, accompanying Warner.

Here's Jen and her step that she wasn't able to finish - convenient excuse for a return trip!

Here's Adrienne and her lovely DC to Hawaii themed step.

(The Jack Pollack step is Dalan's)

Here's Kelly and her Aloha graffiti which beyond impressed the boys.

Here's my step.  Kelly and I unfortunately chose steps to paint that were right next to each other, which led to some creative ways to try and get the job done.  I must say, Kelly and I have never worked so well together in such a tight space.

My step had a jungle ninja theme.

There were ninjas hiding everywhere.

Can you tell I'm proud of my step?  It just looked so good from every angle!

I miss my step.

Day 5 concludes our stay on the Big Island.  Next up, Day 6 and 7 on Oahu!