Slice of Life and a Night Hike

 

We went to the Sunday Maku’u farmers market in the morning. It’s a fairly sizable (up to 200 vendors) market with a ton of great food trucks and live music.

We split up and pursued our various interests. 

We got some delicious mangos.

           Megan got a new jade ring.

She also got a gorgeous wrap dress. It used to be a sari and it’s silken and reversible and this side has a reddish tint to match her sun burn from the hike. 

We looked at lots of plants but couldn’t justify getting anything for dad because he has everything. 

We thought about it a lot though. 

Then we got to the serious business of food. 

This is the famous green papaya salad lady. Her stuff is so  popular that the farmers market had to move her to the edge to keep her line from blocking the rest of the booths. She makes each order one at a time and once she’s out of ingredients that’s it. She has a sign that she hands to the person in line who she thinks will be last and they are the luckiest souls at the market. 

We got two good sized containers. Heavenly. 

I went off and got a falafel sandwich and fries with an unsweetened mint ginger tea. 

Sooo refreshing. 

There’s a lot of Thai food on the big island and my dad said that this one was the best. 

IT IS THE BEST!

Every single thing we got was superlative. 

We got a little downpour in the midst of all our food hopping so we scuttled under a tent and enjoyed our bounty standing by the ukulele playing guy on the stage. 

Other important acquisition include a strawberry mochi doughnut and some world class coffee. 

When we left my dad took us down along the southern coastline to see the jungle and shore and the devastation from the 2018 lava. 

On this coast we noticed many alternate Hawaiian flags and some Hawaiian independence graffiti. 

I want to tell you about the problems in Hawaii. I want to point out how statehood was not optional and about the bad schools and medical care, the poverty and the bizarre contrast of resort Hawaii to some of the working communities. 

I am not qualified. 

It’s a thing. 

This area has been majorly taken advantage of. 

Something I thought was good was this John Oliver piece after the Lahina Fires in Maui. 

It’s semi long but good. 

On the volcano we had seen where the caldera collapsed and now we got to see where that lava went. 

This was a community and town 7 years ago. 

We made a stop off at Lava Tree State park for a short visit then headed back to the house. 

Lava trees are cool!

Then we headed home for some rest and food. 

We also needed to get poor sunburnt Meg out of the sun. 

We spent the afternoon playing video games and resting up for our evening adventure. 

We went on a night hike up on Devistation trail on Kilauea. 

Pardon the image quality, my phone can only do so much. 

We had headlamps on the way out but on the way back the light of the moon was more than enough. 

We walked along a now closed section of the rim road about mile out to the trail then off road to the rim to see the lava sparks. 

There were several dozen people out there. 

It wasn’t super late. Probably only around 9 but that was the outer limit of my jet lag and I was heavy with the sleepies. 

Shortly after we got in the car to head down it started raining. 

The sound of the rain plus the lateness of the hour and all the exertions meant I slept like the dead.