Day fifteen – Hilo

Up early and off the ship! Rainy and cloudy, but we’re used to that by now. We dodged the ship photographer, but Ron & Peri got caught.

Caught the shuttle to the car rental and off we went! The radio provided us with information that Kilahuea was erupting and the road to the ocean wouldn’t be open until 2:00 PM so we decided to scout for snorkeling spots. Never found any. We did, however find a beautiful black sand beach and some of the most striking coastline we’ve ever seen. We drove by the southernmost bar in the US and found a dead windmill farm and a suspiciously large tracking dish out in the middle of nowhere. There was also a lot of chatting and laughing.

Back to the volcano at 2:00 PM. The winding nineteen mile drive to the lava flow would have been do-able with our 4:45 PM deadline if you didn’t have to hike the last mile and a half! We turned around disappointed, but got some good pictures of the unearthly landscape on the way out. We got back with a little time to spare and flew up to the palm Springs Café to get something to eat. We’d been rocketing around the island all day and hadn’t stopped for food!

We finished packing and had the “Last Supper”. It was sad parting with Darma, Siwikorn and Ruby, but we just can’t afford to bring them home.

Off to bed.

Home tomorrow. (Booooooooooooooo!)