Our last Hawaii day

 
At 4:40 in the morning there was a knock on our bedroom door. 

The long hoped for eruption was going off. 


And boy was it!
The sun was just coming up when we got up there and people were just trickling in. We got easy parking and free admission as it was before hours. 
The sky looked orange over the trees. 



After watching from Volcano house for a bit we hopped back in the car to see if we could get a better look. 

 

We stood by the warm steam at vents then walked over to the crater rim to watch Pele dance. 


It was cool and breezy and uncrowned. 


It started topping the rim by quite a bit meaning 800 ft plus. 


Poor Meg was very sleepy and had originally declined our invitation but then she grabbed her blanket and trundled into the car after us.I was so sleepy I turned the wrong way initially and took us down a crazy lava rutted dirt road. But I woke up enough and got reoriented.
We stayed for half an hour plus or minus and while we were there it kept getting bigger and better. 
It reached nearly record height oh 1200 ft.  


What a fantastic farewell to the island. 


We spent the rest of the morning quietly with cooking and packing, going through old family albums and watching Tour de France coverage. 
It was nice. 
Meg wanted to go to the good bubble tea place again and we stopped by the post office to drop off postcards. 



I really enjoy how things are open-air in Hawaii. It was a beautiful old post office that was mostly open columns and veranda style courtyard. Also it had this great plant. 


We went back to the house for a nap and packing and few last minute project completions ( David on bidet removal) (me on some SOPs for random espresso creation and a how-to for converting cassette tapes to digital files).

I thought I was headed down to sleep when David noticed some Jurassic park movement off in the sugar canes. 
They had decided to make last ditch guarapo for us. 
I love guarapo (This is a Cuban version of cane juice with a little lemon or lime served on ice) not the fermented version. 
Sooo good!


Peeling the cut stalks


Megan helpfully feeding the machine. 


Straining the press. 


We enjoyed our drinks and packed up the car. 


We said goodbye to the dogs and the flowers and our beloved grandma Mary. 


We took the obligatory family photo. 

Then dad drove us up and over the Saddle Road to Costco where we got pre flight pizza and sushi. 


It was good to be able to hang out with him a bit more before heading out. He talked about Hawaiian culture and the things he loves about it.  
Also Costco sushi turns out to be quite decent. 


We said goodbye to dad and marched through tsa (which was very weirdly different from how it had been in Dulles. 
They didn’t let the minors accompany David through TSA and they ndidn’t let a sealed water bottle in for me. 
So there was some shuffling around and some questioning looks to be had. 


The airport was also mostly outside and they let you buy Hawaiian plants on the concourse.  


Then we got on our first flight at 10:50pm. 


I took my pill and was super sleepy at that hour anyway. We had good weather and landed in SFO as the California sun came up. 
Then we transferred to a much larger flight in San Francisco. By then it was mid to late morning. The flight from SFO back to VA was pretty bumpy but nothing felt like an emergency. 
I watched Moana 2 and took another pill and tried to sleep
We got to the ground and found our car and MD.


This ends the How About  Hawai’i blog


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