Hawaii Vaca, Post 15 - Hawai'i Volcanoes Ntnl Park, Pt. 1

So after the Painted Church visit, we piled back into the rental car for our next LONG drive to Volcanoes National Park for what hopefully involves some hiking.  We like hiking and should do more of it.

The boys were nearly fed up with this part of vacation due to the length of the drive.  Robby came in to see me when I had started working on this post, and he said, "Man, I need to realize where I am when we're on vacations like this and to enjoy EVERY moment of them, because they go by fast.  I admit that I didn't enjoy this little adventure as much as I should have just because of the drive...".   He's growing up!

So lets take the first look at what the boy didn't enjoy all that much.

This was merely the parking lot!  It's already beautiful!  We're up on an very mildly active volcano and can see lovely forests and the ocean from our vantage point.  What's not to like about this!?

Another view with similar scenery with the ocean as the distant back-drop.

This was a little visitor center that had a 3d model of the park and also let us know which roads were closed due to volcanic warnings and such.

YES!!!   Have I mentioned that I love volcanoes???   What could possibly make this better?

Ahhhh...  there they are!

Caleb jacking around with Robby's glasses.

This visitors center displays that show various methods of creating the different lava flows that we'll see.

More of the same, only uh...  different.

Scenes like this were amazing from the air on our helicopter tour where you would have two vastly different lava formations side by side.

This stuff is creepy looking!

So that's it for part one.  That was only the visitor center stuff and we have a WHOLE lot more to see!

 

Hawaii Vaca, Post 14 - The Painted Church in South Kona

So, day 6 of our vacation has begun. We were watching tv and it was one of those channels that advertises various stuffs to do while you're in that area.  One of the things that was in the looping advertisements was the painted church.  The church is St. Benedicts Roman Catholic Church and was built in the mid-to-late 1800's.  It had some history to it and a cool back story and best of all, wasn't too far off of the road that we would be on to get to Volcanoes National Park, which was our primary destination for the day.

We decided that we would attempt to find it on our morning drive and by golly, we did.  It's in a very non-touristy area where we were on narrow, curvy roads in which the mature vegetation was so different from anything else that we had seen (or would see!) in Hawaii.  Locals were out in their yards and sometimes on the road, picking fresh fruit that was growing all over the place.  By the time we got back to the church, it was SOOOOO quiet and peaceful, it almost felt like we were doing a bad thing by just being there.  

There was another car or two in the parking lot but there wasn't a person to be seen anywhere.  We looked around for a bit and discovered that the church was open, so we went inside to look at the paintings that the original priest, Father Jean Berchmans Velghe, had done to help teach the Bible at a time when many people couldn't read or write.

I did not take any pictures inside of the church as I didn't feel right about that.  There are a few pics in the links that I provided above to give you an idea of what it looked like.

We did take some pictures outside of the place though, and once again, they simply do not capture the natural beauty of the area!  But hopefully you'll enjoy them anyway.

Not sure what or where this road leads too, but there were some gardens and other things, like crosses, along the path. 

This appeared to be the newer part of the cemetery on the grounds.

The back of the church (the previous two pics were immediately behind where I'm standing for this picture) and a little bit of the garage where a car and lawn mower were stored.

A bit of the garden area and older cemetery (I'm only guessing because of how full it was!) in the front of the church.  Not the loan telephone pole which was along the road we drove in on.  It's hard to tell in this picture, but you can see the ocean from here too!

Another garden/cemetery shot.

And the front of the church with doors open wide to help welcome the Schmitz Mobile Chaos Unit!  You can just barely see the garage on the very right of the photo where the first pictures were taken.

That was it.  A nice little stop in an area that's so beautiful that I can't describe it properly here!

Off to the volcano!

Rain/schmain! It's Tailgaitin' Time!

Robby and his life-long buddy Noah, on the right of the picture with Noah's dad, Bill in the center showing off his Iowa State Cyclones wear.  They usually take Robby to at least one game per season and this years just happened to be on a cool, damp Saturday morning after weeks of wonderful Fall weather.  Robby didn't care!!  He had another great time.

Mr. Happy Eater

Why does this boy look so crazy-happy in his restaurant shots!? He's cute and I won't take no for an answer...

Hawaii Vaca, Post 13 - Big Island Helicopter Tour, Pt 3

I ended the previous Hawaii post with the comment on the last picture that said, "The last of the valleys before we ascended over one of these ridges and entered what appeared to be flat grasslands for ranching. Who knew?!?", and so, that is where we pick up on the part III of the helicopter tour.

Once over the ridge of the valley (and past a bit of forest, but not much!)  we come to these open pastures.  How do I know they're pastures, you ask?

Because those little, teeny-tiny black speckles you can see milling around that hill in the center of the photo are cows and goats, that's how!  It was crazy how fast the landscape changed.

That same hill from the above photo is the hill in the middle-right of this photo and you can still sort of see the livestock in the center of the picture.

More of the same, but a little more hilly as the landscape is getting rougher.

We're getting closer to the ocean again and you can see the ravines where the water runs down off of the Mauna Kea.

Palihae Gulch running down into Kawaihae.

This is Kawaihae and is only about 5 or 6 miles from Waimea where we had supper at the Big Island Brewhaus on our inaugural evening on the island.  If you go there and you like Belgium style brews, I HIGHLY recommend the Golden Sabbath.  I tried that one, Overboard IPA, Red Giant, Hoptopias IPA, Tall Dark and Mandarin, Starshine Ginger Bier, Monk's Brunch pale ale, The Black Whole stout, Coconut Creme Ale and Mele Maibock.  Oh, and Red Dwarf, a red IPA. But that's it.  We both had flights so there was plenty of sampling going on.  No need to get locked up on your first night...

The coral was beautiful from the air.

Hapuna Beach.

The narrow little town of Puako.

This is the Mauna Lani Bay Hotel and Bungalows.  It seems like we've hit a major resort-type area with piles of golf courses and hotels and yadda, yadda, yadda...

That little cul-de-sac jutting into the water is made up of about 6 or 7 huge mansions including the Toyota Mansion, which is a real thing, it turns out.

That funky circle'ish type building is Ocean Tower at Waikoloa Resort, and the one behind it is Palace Tower Resort.  There are many others as well.

I think that's Kawai Point, but I'm not sure.  It was neat, so it got a picture.

This is a new housing development and the big gray slabs are the plots of land in the old lava flow.  I forget what the pilot said the plots were selling for, but it was astronomical!!!

More of the same but this development was...  uh, further developed.  Note the beautiful green grass (in an old lava flow???) and the swimming pool in that same yard!  I wonder what it cost to have someone come in an excavate a pool in terrain like that?!?

I believe this is Makalawena Beach and I'm sad because this means we are dangerously close to the airport and have to be finished.

That big spread is Cellana, a biotechnology company but that's all I can tell you. There's also Kanaloa Octopus Farm, Kona Cold Lobsters, Natural Energy Laboratory, Ocean Rider Seahorse Farm and Shrimp Improvement Systems Hawaii in that mess.  The stupid airport is just to the left of the pic. 

All good things must end and so it was.

Off we went to get lunch at the Kona Brewing Company and had another sampler of a bunch of beers that aren't available stateside, that I know of anyway.  

Our day wasn't over yet, but one of my favorite parts of the vacation was.

Hawaii Vaca, Post 12 - Big Island Helicopter Tour, Pt 2

So kids, we find ourselves in part II of our most excellent helicopter adventure.  This is the post where some of the folks aboard the lovely aircraft started to feel, uh...  not so lovely.  That's a few pics away though yet, and we have some other terrain to look at that is, in my humble opinion, quite fantastic!

I love this shot as it's quite indicative of the dichotomy of the terrain you see while flying/slash driving around the Big Island.

More "puzzle piece" edges of the same!

A lot of the nearest dark spots in this pic are due to the spacious clouds above our 'copter.  I took the picture though because I was fascinated again on where we humans will choose to build a road on which to live.

This shot and the next are nearly the same, with the next one taken on a minute or so after the first.

The top of the volcano (Mauna Kea, I believe) in the background with lots of "seas of broccoli" in the foreground.  I found myself spacing off at one point looking out the window, and said to my same self, "I didn't know that they grew so much broccoli here in Hawaii!",  before realizing that I'm a dork and I'm looking at the tops of trees.   Yes, I just revealed that about myself...

That is some type of animal down there...   I not see nor smell them so lets just assume that they're cows.

Here, we're looking at the town of Paauilo.

This is Pu'u'ala farms, which still doesn't explain this, but it looks like natural fencing.

Ooooh boy!  Here's where the vomiting starts!  We got to the area that, I believe is called, "7 Gorges".  I think it's because there are more than 6 gorges and less than 8, but it was nearly impossible to count at the time.  No matter, it was absolutely beautiful!!!

The pilot did a few twists and turns around the opening to this lovely valley.   And after that, we flew into the valley!

A nice look back from where we came from as we're entering the valley.

A REALLY, REALLY tight little canyon.  Even tho there are no snakes in Hawaii, I still would NOT want to be caught in this canyon!

These were cool.  I'm not sure what they were called but the double waterfalls where the water has created a pooling up about halfway down the ridge, then overflows that into another waterfall.  Stunning!

Our pilot flew us right in to the edge of his favorite double waterfall, so close that we inexperienced peeps were afraid that the rotors atop the helicopter were going to hit the foliage on the side of the mountain, get tangled up and send us down the side of the mountain in a flaming heap.  That didn't happen.

This was one of the pilots favorite areas on the island.  So what did he do?  He flew up to the edge of the ridge, so close that I thought our rotor would hit the vegetation.  Then he "floated" backwards, down and sideways a bit to turn around to begin our trip back out of the valley.  That little turnaround move proved too much for the female newlywed on our trip.  This is where she reached for the first vomit bag...

Pic of a stream on our way back out...  if that wasn't fairly obvious.

This was in the second valley we entered.

Amazing!

Beautiful!

We're beginning to leave the gorges at this point.

I could spend ALL DAY here!

Or here!

This is the point that I snapped the picture when the male newlywed radioed the pilot to tell of the distress that the female newlywed was in...  it started to smell bad here too.

The last of the valleys before we ascended over one of these ridges and entered what appeared to be flat grasslands for ranching.  Who knew?!?

That does it for part II of the helio tour.