After leaving Philly on August 20, at 6:15am we arrived at the Kona Airport located on the western side of the island around 1:30pm. We met Josie, John Kell’s sister at the airport, rented a car and headed to the Mauna Lani resort where we had a townhouse rented. We made this trip because Bowman and John’s son Julian was marrying Natalie on August 23. Our first day was a full day of travel so we grabbed some food from the market, found some appetizers and a drink at Tommy Bahamas, checked in, unpacked, and acquainting ourselves with our new surroundings. Being awake for 24 hours took its toll on us.

Our official first day was August 21. The real question is, what do you do on the first day you’re here, when you spent the first day traveling. Do you lounge around the pool or the beach or do you invest the time in driving across the island to the Kilauea volcano? Since December 2024, the volcano erupted 30 times, the most recent one being on August 6. I started watching the live cams vcam1, vcam2, vcam3 to see if anything was happening. We saw steam but no erupting or lava flowing. I read an article that an eruption was imminent and could occur between Aug 20-24. Do we wait or go?

We made the decision to go. We took the northern route, since it was the shorter route of the two. The terrain was very different along the way from lava fields with chunks of blonde grass here and there, with goats on the side of the road, to fields where nothing was growing. As we headed towards Hawaii Volcano National Park, knowing it would take about two hours to get there.

About an hour into the drive, we decided to make a stop at the Rainbow Falls near Hilo. The falls cascade 80 ft over a lava cave that, according to legends, is home to the ancient Hawaiian goddess Hina, the goddess of the moon. Rainbow Falls derives its name from the fact that, on sunny mornings around 10 am, rainbows can be seen in the mist thrown up by the waterfall. Unfortunately we didn’t see any rainbows.

We hit the road and headed towards the park. Mom and Bowman had their National Park passes, so what could have cost us $109, to get in, cost us nothing. Our first stop was Kilauea Overlook, where we could see the whole crater.

There are a few things in the photo above that you don’t see. One of them is the steam coming from the Uēkahuna portion of the crater. On the left side of this photo, there’s some small steam vents where we can see steam escaping.

The main summit crater (caldera) at Kīlauea is approximately 2.5 miles long and 2 miles wide with a total area of about 4.1 square miles. Within this large caldera is the active pit crater Halemaʻumaʻu, which is located near the southwestern edge of the caldera and has undergone significant changes due to volcanic activity, especially the collapses of 2018. Halemaʻumaʻu is a distinct pit crater within the Kīlauea caldera, near the southwestern edge. It serves as the focus for Kīlauea’s eruptive activity and has historically contained lava lakes.

Our next stop was Uēkahuna Observation deck, the highest point of Kilauea. From there, we could see the steam vents. A Ranger was giving a talk so we sat and listened to him for a bit and learned some interesting facts about the volcano, history, vegetation as well as lava tubes. Pele is the goddess of fire and volcanoes. One story tells of why her home at the summit of Kīlauea is called Halemaʻumaʻu, house of the ‘ama u’ fern.

The legends say that Kamapua’a traveled to Maui and Tahiti, exploring and causing mischief along the way. Finally, he returns to the Big Island, Hawaii, where he falls in love with Pele, the Hawaiian Goddess of Fire. Pele initially turns him away calling him the “child of a pig”. With time, Kamapua’a finds his way into Pele’s heart and they fall deeply in love.  It is said that their romance was short lived.   Soon, their battles far outweighed their love for each other. Leading to a massive battle in which Kamapua’a tried to extinguish Pele’s flame. Eventually the two gods agree to split this island between them, Pele taking the regions of Puna, Ka’u and Kona (current location of Hawaii’s lava fields), and Kamapua’a taking the districts of Kohala, Hamakua and Hilo where the moisture prevails. Even today, there are many formations around the islands that the Hawaiian people see as evidence of past battles between Kamapua’a and Pele.

We were very disappointed to only see steam at the volcano. We asked the Ranger to please ensure that it doesn’t erupt until Sunday, after the wedding, but more to come shortly on that.

We headed to lunch and took a pitstop at a black sand beach called Punaluʻu Beach. When we walked onto the beach, it was a little warm, but most of us had our shoes on. Dany and Patrick were the only ones that walked into the water. We noticed, to the right of us, there was caution tape, and cones. It was protecting a green turtle, who was waiting for the right wave to carry it back into the ocean. Don’t know how long he was trying to do it but we watched for about 10 to 15 minutes when it took him away. That’s when we noticed he had friends awaiting him. We needed to give him a name so we decided on Honu Nalu which means green turtle of the waves. The whole new part of the name is significant because in Hawaiian culture it is a symbol of good luck longevity and a guardian spirit. Pssssss, Bowman helped me steal some sand to take home.

The drive to our next destination was beautiful seeing the Hawaiian coastline was breathtaking.

We found a cute place for lunch that was located at the southernmost part of the United States. Key West is not the southern part, but it is the most southern part of the contiguous states. The restaurant was called Hana Hou, and was supposed to be Hawaiian menu. We had a fun waitress, Terri, and we learned a lot about the girls at the restaurant who are also in the local rodeo and Terri’s husband who is a mechanic and has done a really good job at refurbishing old cars. The menu felt more Japanese than Hawaiian, but everybody enjoyed their meal.

The next stop of our trip was a little more controversial. Patrick considered jumping off a cliff, and there was a place not far from where we were. We talked about it on our car ride. I read the dangers involved, it was 40 feet high and you had to be careful with the currents and wind. He went to check it out, watched some guys jump and talked to them about it. Next thing you know he’s walking back to the car and Dany was still sitting at the edge of the cliff. We knew this meant he was doing it. Bowman was not very happy about that. She did not want to have to deal with her son’s death before her other son’s wedding. None of us actually saw him jump. Fortunately, one of the guys videotaped it – see below.

After he did it, Bowman was pissed. Some of us were clapping because we were proud of him, overcoming one of his height fears. After watching the video, I kind of thought I would be able to do it. The hard part would be getting out of the water and finding my way back up the cliff.

One of the reason Bowman was pissed was it took us another 2 hours and 15 minutes to drive home. We were tired, the windy roads were making some of the people in the car feel nauseous. The side trip took us much longer than we anticipated. The rest of the way was filled with windy roads, very lush greenery, and we only made one stop to pick up some fruit for Patrick and Dany. $30 worth of fruit, but they walked away with a lot.

I forgot to mention one of the fun parts. Andrew, Bowman’s nephew, arrived on the island and was heading for national park. We learned we were both on the same road just heading an opposite directions. He gave us some clues so we would know who’s in front of him. We finally crossed paths, there was light flashing waving, and I can’t remember if there was honking. It’s hard to see him, but he’s in the white Mustang heading towards us.

Bowman, John and Josie went over to the Temples house for dinner, but Mom and I stayed at the townhouse cause we were beat. And I had no energy to socialize with people I don’t know. Yes that’s true. The hope was to have a good night sleep, and the good part is I did.

I waited for them to get home, mom went to bed. And then Andrew, who had gone to the park in the dark sent us this photo. We were jealous.