A day with Pele

Today was a day of lots of firsts for me: first time standing on lava, first time walking through a lava tube and the first time seeing a road covered in lava.  The destruction and birth of land are both on display at Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park.  The park is located about 30 minutes from Hilo and just outside the tiny town of Volcano.  There is an entrance fee of $10 and your pass is good for 7 days.  You will get your moneys worth even if you only spend one day.  The whole day was a mix of mist and sun, with more mist than sun, and plenty of wind.  The weather did nothing to stop my visit or the visit of lots of other people, most of whom seemed to be Japanese.  In fact a nice Japanese man took my picture at the park sign after I offered to take one of him and his wife.  Anyway, the best place to start is the visitor center, which is open every day from 7:45 to 5:00 (the park itself is open 24 hours a day), where you can find lots of information on the current volcanic activity, maps of the park and suggestions for what to do depending on how long you are planning to stay.  I had all day at the park so I followed the suggestions for the 1-3 hours and the add ons for 4-5 hours.  The first ranger talk wasn't until 9:30 so I headed out to see the steam vents and view the Kilauea Caldera.  The views were a bit shrouded in mist, but I was just in awe of the beauty of Kilauea.  The Caldera is a harsh grey landscape, which may not sound beautiful but it is.  Kilauea is the youngest area of Hawai'i so it does not have the rising mountain top of Mauna Loa or Mauna Kea, but it is active and always changing.  I went back for the ranger talk, which was a good 20-30 minutes about the history of the Hawaiian Islands, the history of the Big Island and what is going on currently.  Lucky for us, there has been a lot of activity lately in the Halema'uma'u Crater.  The crater suddenly had a giant hole and now a lava lake is slowly rising towards the surface.  The level changes slightly each day and is currently about 100 feet below the surface.  At night, you can see the glow of the lava reflected in the steam.  During the day it is an impressive site with a huge cloud of steam billowing out of one side and smaller trickles from other sides. The crater is easily viewed from the Jagger Museum.  The road around Kilauea is closed due to this new activity.

After lunch I took the Chain of Craters road.  This road is about 30 miles round trip and dead ends into a lava flow.  I spent a good 3 hours making the trip as there are lots of places to stop and view craters, lava flows from different years, a lava tube, the Devastation Trail and the current coast line.  The mist was out in full force until you drive out of the rainforest.  Then it was really windy (I had trouble getting the car door to open at a few of the stops) and then warm and sunny down by the ocean.  The views of the lava flows were just amazing.  There are jagged edges and smooth rounded edges, giant boulders and tiny rocks, dead trees uprooted when the lava came flowing through and new green growth.  I finally had to stop stopping at all the pull outs because I wanted to get to the bottom.  The road ends where the lava flowed right over it.  There is parking and those always nice natural toilets where the wind rushes up at you when you sit down.  I hate those!  You can walk out to the edge of the coastal cliffs and view the water meeting the land.  The waves are huge and it's very easy to get sprayed, or soaked, by the surging water.  You cannot see lava actually flowing unless you take a 15 mile hike over the hardened lava field and that's way more work than I wanted to do.  You can also hike into the Kilauea Iki Crater, which is an easier 2ish mile hike that I also did not attempt on my own.

 

I headed back into the park after dinner to view the glow of the lava lake.  There was a steady stream of traffic heading down from the Jagger Museum so I took that as a good sign.  The parking lot at the museum was packed and very dark so I carefully found a spot without running anyone over.  It was so cold and windy!  I quickly walked to the lookout point and was rewarded with the sight of a bright orange glow in the crater.  So amazing!  I would have liked to stay and watch the shifting of the plume and the change in orange tones, but I was just too cold.  Took my few pictures that are pretty terrible and called it a night.  I'm sure spewing lava would be way more exciting to watch, but this was better than nothing. 

And so my day with Pele comes to an end.  I am ready for bed and hope to be all caught up on my sleep by tomorrow! 

Traveling to Paradise is not always paradise!

Long flights are not something I would call fun, but they are even less fun when there are delays, missed connections and wayward baggage!  My flight from Chicago to Honolulu was delayed by almost 2 hours due to the incoming flight being delayed.  And then flights to Honolulu and Tokyo were boarding at the same time from neighboring gates, which was apparently too confusing for the Tokyo passengers as they kept coming through our boarding lines and had to be redirected.  The nice lady who was announcing the boarding groups repeatedly said “Honolulu is now boarding group 1.  Tokyo is gate 16, not 17” but some failed to listen so that also slowed down our departure.  Once on board, I had a nice aisle seat in the row that backs up to the bathroom.  Actually kind of nice because there are no little kids sitting behind kicking your seat!  But some elderly couple took the seats in front where some other lady was supposed to be sitting because the old lady’s knee bothered her.  So I nicely moved in one so she could sit across from her husband and daughter.  No aisle for me.  And I think this was honestly the smallest amount of legroom I have ever had on a long flight.  United provides no free meals, the movies were on the big screens scattered throughout the cabin so if you wanted to watch Step Up Revolution then you were so lucky!  The 9 hour flight was very smooth with only a few bumpy spots.  Read 2-1/2 books, watched the TV shows when they came on and closed my eyes for a bit.  Finally landed in Honolulu around 5.  The Honolulu airport is small so it was really easy to figure out where to go next.  Flights to the other islands leave from the Interisland Terminal, which you can walk to or take the Wiki Wiki shuttle.  I took the shuttle!  Then found the Hawaiian Airlines ticket counter and got on a flight that was just boarding so no waiting time there.  There was lots of legroom on this flight, but I think it only lasted 30 minutes at the most.  We went up, got a complimentary juice and then were landing in Hilo.  Unfortunately, my bags wanted to spend more time in Honolulu then I did.  So I picked up my rental car (a white HHR, which is nice with all power options, cruise control etc, but the headroom seems low and I’m short!) and went to get something to eat at Jack n the Box.  Then back to the airport where luckily my bags did make it to the last flight!  The drive to Volcano was easy.  Dark, rainy and not much traffic.  You do need to pay attention to the mile markers and signs for street crossings as you get to Volcano.  My hotel must be on the outskirts as you were still driving 55 and had to turn off onto a cross street.  I found my hotel easily enough and my key and directions to my room were waiting in the after hours box.  Carried my stuff up the stairs and into my room, put on my PJs and went to bed.  I believe it was a little before 9 local time when I finally arrived.  When traveling, you have to learn to go with the flow and I am grateful for Hawaiian Airlines for re-booking me so quickly and for the baggage lady for being so helpful when figuring out where my bag might be.  Aloha!  

Hawaii 2012

Heading to the Big Island in November.  Here's the itinerary:

November 14 – Depart O’Hare @ 10:04 AM

                         Arrive Honolulu @ 3:08 PM

                         Depart Honolulu @ 5:03 PM

                         Arrive Hilo @ 5:54 PM                                               

November 14 - 17       Chalet Kilauea

                                    19-4178 Wright Rd

                                    Volcano, HI 96785

            800-967-7786

                                   Chalet Kilauea              
                    

November 17 - 20     Royal Kona Resort
                                  75-5852 Alii Drive

                                  Kailua-Kona, HI 96740
                                  Royal Kona
                     

November 21 – Depart Kona @ 3:49 PM                                                                                                                     Arrive Honolulu @ 4:32 PM

                         Depart Honolulu @ 8:03 PM

                         Arrive O’Hare @ 8:05 AM (Nov 22 - Thanksgiving Day)

Guns, Chases and the rest of our last day

Memorial Day was spent driving from Charleston to Raleigh, NC (so Renee could cross both Carolinas off her state list) for our flight back to O'Hare.  We drove north up the coast of South Carolina along Highway 17 and then got on I-40 in Wilmington NC.  We were only a little ways into our drive when we saw a nice Escalade pulled over on a side street with about 4 police cars and the officers standing with their guns pointed at the occupants.  Such excitement for 9 AM!  The rest of South Carolina was pretty boring compared to that.  I was hoping to see the ocean on our drive, but we were mostly surrounded by trees.  We did drive through Myrtle Beach, which was not that exciting.  Lots of traffic and lots of mini-golf courses.  The water was again too far away to really see.  We crossed the NC border and stopped for lunch at a Wendys.  The real excitement happened shortly after we were back on the road.  A motorcycle when flying by the car and was closely followed by a police car.  Well, not far behind were several more police cars.  Other drivers did not seem to care that sirens were blaring and lights were flashing as they weren't quick to get into the right lane.  The motorcycle just went straight down the middle of the two lanes.  So Renee and I were speculating about what the guy had done and if we would see him stopped.  She commented that at least he was wearing a helmet!  Farther along, the traffic came to a crawl.  I spotted an ambulance coming down the ramp, followed by a firetruck and police car.  Everyone pulled over for the ambulance and promptly moved back into line, apparently not noticing the fire truck.  Finally, the vehicles got through and we could see them stopped.  I was hoping to not see a squished motorcycle rider in the middle of the street.  Eventually, we pulled by and saw the motorcycle in the ditch and the guy on a stretcher.  Renee says his face was uncovered so maybe he wasn't dead.  There was a Jeep pulled over that we assume must have hit him or he hit her.  We counted and there were 11 police cars at the scene!  Guess the guy wasn't being pulled over for a simple speeding ticket!  The rest of the ride was uneventful.  We circled around Wilmington and were able to see the Battleship North Carolina that is docked there and some views of the harbor.  Once on I-40, it was trees and more trees.  We could not see Raleigh from the interstate.

The Raleigh-Durham airport is really nice.  The Hertz bus lady was super friendly, there were no lines to check in or go through security.  We got to experience the full body scanner, which I thought was really simple and no big deal.  The airport was clean, quiet and spacious.  Now it may not be that way all the time, but at 4:00 on Memorial Day it was.  Our plane left on-time and even arrived early to O'Hare.  We were able to check our bags at the gate for free due to the flight being full and they were already coming around the belt by the time we got down to baggage claim.

I would like to mention that Sunday night we at a place called Hubee Ds and it was delicious.  We each got the junior chicken tender basket.  For $5.50 you got 2 chicken tenders, a bunch of fries, coleslaw and cornbread.  The tenders were just delicious and the cornbread was so sweet and moist.  They had lots of dipping sauces to choose from and free boiled peanuts to sample.  Renee and I sampled and we did not like.  For dessert, we got the fried banana pudding and that was just heaven.  3 pieces of fried banana, creamy pudding and chocolate drizzle.  A great way to end our last night.

Charleston in late May is hot, humid and still charming.  A little too hot and humid for us, but that's ok.  Next time, I would like to experience it in cooler weather when walking around the various historical spots isn't unbearable.  The people are friendly, the city accessible and the scenery beautiful.  A must visit city!

Ships, Forts, Beaches and Charles Towne

Yesterday, Renee and I went to Patriots Point.  This is one of the world's largest military maritime museums.  We again managed to arrive early enough to be the first ones in line to buy tickets.  Got onto the 10:45 Fort Sumter tour, which gave us plenty of time to tour the USS Yorktown and USS Laffey.  We were glad to be there in the morning as it was already warm in the ships.  We toured the living quarters on the Yorktown as well as the flight deck and engine room.  The flight deck was a great place to cool off and get some good views of Charleston and the harbor.  The Yorktown serves a Navy style lunch in the CPO Galley.  We could not get the lunch because of our Fort Sumter tour, but it looked like they were serving meatballs with gravy and some other stuff.  Probably delicious.  After the Yorktown, we toured the USS Laffey, a destroyer that was part of the D-Day invasion at Normandy.  The submarine that is part of Patriots Point is closed for repairs through mid-summer. 

We were second in line to get on the boat to Fort Sumter and found great seats right at the back of the boat by the railing.  We saw several dolphins on our way out and back from the fort.  A park ranger greets you at Fort Sumter and offers a short history talk.  The original fort was much taller than the remains and was supposed to hold a garrison of over 600 men.  The 85 Union troops who occupied her for the beginning of the Civil War managed to hold off for 4 or 5 days before surrendering.  NO casualties were reported, but 2 men died in the 100 gun salute that the Confederate Army allowed after the surrender.  So the first two casualties of the Civil War weren't even during a battle.  You have 1 hour on the fort after the boat arrives and that is plenty of time to walk around and explore.  The entire trip is 2-1/4 hours.  I think it's well worth it.

Renee and I wanted to go back to the beach for the hot afternoon so we got lunch, got our swimsuits and headed back to Folly Beach.  Well, the traffic for the last few miles was at a crawl and then there were no parking spots that we could find so we just turned around and sat at the pool at the motel instead.

Today, there was no evidence of subtropical storm Beryl, so we put our suits on again and headed out to Folly Beach first thing.  It was a great plan as we found a perfect parking spot on the street (free!) that was right by public beach access.  When we got to the beach, we could see that Beryl was helping to generate some giant waves and a lot of wind.  We plopped our towels down in the sand, sat down and promptly had sand all over.  The wind was just whipping that dry sand and it was pretty painful.  Finally, we just walked along the water and watched the kids playing close to the edge of the waves and the surfers trying to stand up and the dogs enjoying the beach.  We got our clothes, changed and walked out on the pier.  Lots of people fishing, but no one caught anything while we were up there.  The sign mentioned shark fishing and that would have been neat to see! 

After the beach, we headed to Charles Towne Landing.  This is a state park that replicates the original village of Charles Towne.  It was quite warm so we only walked as far as the Animal Forest.  There are shore birds, otters, puma, bear, deer, bobcat, bison and turkeys.  The air was cool walking in the Forest, but not so much when you got back out into the sun.  We skipped doing anything else for the day and spent the afternoon sitting by the pool.  But that's what vacation is for!

Plantations!

My most favorite place in Charleston is Drayton Hall.  This old stately home is the best to visit because it hasn't been modernized and is not full of "period" furniture.  I recommend arriving right when they open the gates at 9.  That gets you on the first house tour at 9:30 and it is likely to be a much smaller group than later tours.  When I went a few years ago, I was the only person on the first tour and right after I was done, a tour bus showed up.  Renee and I arrived before they even opened the gates and were the first car through.  We were able to walk around the lawn and take pictures without other people in the way.  Spotted 3 small alligators sunning themselves by the reflecting pond!  The tour is great.  Our guide, Deena, was wonderful.  She explained about the portico problem they are currently spending all their efforts on.  The porch is slowly settling at a rate faster than the rest of the house.  A lady is excavating the columns and has discovered that one side of the house has 6 rows of bricks and the other has only 5.  We were able to watch her digging and also another lady adding new mortar in the back of the home.  The home has no running water or electricity, other than a few safety boxes added in the narrow interior stairwell and fans for summer.  This morning there was such a lovely breeze coming off the Ashley River and the house was very comfortable.  We walked down to the Ashley River after the tour was over and then around to the reflecting pond.  The air was a bit muggier as we headed away from the river.  We were able to get close to a little alligator and take his picture while he was sitting in the water.  Drayton Hall is such a quiet and peaceful place.  Be sure to stop at the African-American Cemetery on your way out.

Renee and I had a delicious lunch at Middleton Place.  They serve you 3 courses for a fixed price of $18.95, which is a pretty great deal with the options they have.  Renee had Charleston She Crab Soup, Shrimp and Grits and Huguenot Torte.  I had the Field Greens Salad with fruit, Pulled Pork and Key Lime Pie.  Renee said all her food was delicious.  My salad came with strawberries, pineapple and grapes with a Champagne Vinaigrette.  The Pulled Pork came with collard greens and Hoppn' John, neither of which I care for, but the pork was delicious and I did try the Hoppn' John.  The Key Lime Pie was delicious.

After lunch we walked around the grounds.  Saw a few more alligators and lots of gardens.  We checked out the farm animals, which are all from the period when the plantation was in operation.  The home that is still standing was used as the guest quarters.  The main home was destroyed in 1865 by Union troops.  Drayton Hall was spared because it was apparently labeled as a place with smallpox.  Middleton Place has more buildings to visit and large gardens to tour.  The admission cost is also higher.


The Charleston Tea Plantation was our next stop.  They have remodeled the gift shop since my last visit and have lots more varieties of tea to sample.  You can have as many samples as you want.  They were currently offering a sample of their First Flush Tea as a hot tea, but it was out when we got there.  The First Flush is made from the very first harvest of the season.  The taste of the tea changes each year depending on the type of winter.  It is called the First Flush due to the new, young leaves being flushed up from inside the existing plant.  Plants can be harvested every 18-20 days and are harvested from mid-April through October.  The Tea Plantation offers a free tour of the production room and also a $10 trolley ride around the property.  Recently added to the tour is their brand-new greenhouse where they are better able to grow new tea plants.

We stopped at the Angel Oak on our way back.  This is a huge tree that legend says is 1500 years old.  The sign says actual age may be 300-400 years old.  I like the legend better.  This tree is huge and the limbs mostly drape along the ground.  It's very impressive and free!

Renee has been talking about this fast food place Bojangles ever since we first went past one.  So we stopped and got food for later.  It's a chicken and biscuit place.  We each got a 2 piece chicken meal with sides and a sweet potato pie.  The skin is a bit spicy and luckily I took mine off because Renee's eyes were watering!  So now we can say we ate at a Bojangles.

Again, for anyone visiting Charleston do not miss Drayton Hall and be sure to get there early to take advantage of the smaller groups and easier access to the plantation.  This is my must see place.

Historic Charleston

Revisiting one of my favorite cities, Charleston SC.  I just love this history and charm of this place.  Renee and I arrived late Wednesday night into steamy Charleston Airport.  We had no trouble finding the rental car counter or our car.  Then we headed out to Hwy 17 to our hotel, the Creekside Lands Inn.  The hotel is charming with it's southern plants and creekside location.  There is a pool and breakfast is included.  The rooms aren't fancy and probably need some work, but the beds are comfy and the a/c works so who can complain!

This morning we headed for the Visitors Center to get a parking spot.  I was pleased to find out the trolley system is free.  In the guidebook I have, it showed $5 for an all day pass.  There are 3 different routes and we had no longer than about a 15 minute wait at any stop.  We started out walking as the morning was not overly steamy.  Walked all the way down to the Battery from the Visitor Center.  Explored a few of the cemetery's and checked out all the beautiful homes.  We started to walk back up towards the Waterfront Park.  We were pretty warm by the time we got there so hopped on a trolley to eventually get over to the aquarium area.  A lady pointed us to the East Bay Deli for lunch.  The food was good and the drinks were cold!  We decided to take a carriage ride after lunch and hopped on the various trolleys to get back to the City Market area.  The carriage rides are interesting in that you never know what route you will get.  There are 3 areas of the city and only 20 carriages can be out at a time.  One mule team cannot go out more than 8 times in a day.  Once you are on the carriage, it pulls up to a little hut where a bingo machine decides which area your carriage will head for.  The drivers have to tell the people how many riders and the names of the mules.  Then you are on your way.  We had zone 3, which goes through the western side of the historical district.  We past many beautiful homes and learned that homes downtown can be bought from a price range of $500,000 to $13,000,000.  Guess that explained all the fancy cars parked along the streets!  We had two tour guides and they were both wonderful.  They give a lot of history and answer any of your questions.  They explain why the houses were built in a certain layout and why the porch ceilings are "haint" blue (that color confuses the haunts and they either think it's the sky and fly up or think it's the water and drown) and what it means when the privacy door is closed (the ladies have their hoop skirts hiked 4 inches above the ground and that would cause the men to pass out or something like that).  A carriage ride is a nice way to see the city and a good way to cool off for a bit.

By this time, we were ready to get out of the city and headed for Folly Beach.  There was a bit of traffic getting there, but the beach itself was not too crowded.  I was able to find a place to park on the street, which is free, and right by the public access.  We did not have our suits, but the warm Atlantic water was so soothing to stand in.  The backdrop of the crashing waves and the Folly Pier was just perfect.  Wandering up the beach we found a small jelly fish.  That was exciting!  There are chairs and umbrellas for rent and we will do that if we make it back.  It was a perfect beach!

On our way back to the hotel we stopped for frozen yogurt.  The place had different kinds and you put whatever you want in your dish with whatever toppings you would like and pay by the ounce.  The honeydew and chocolate were a perfect combination!

I love walking around downtown Charleston.  It is so easy to picture what it would have looked like in the seventeen and eighteen hundreds because the homes are that old and all you have to do is add horses in the streets.  Down by the Battery it was so quiet and peaceful.  The stately homes line the park and provide the perfect backdrop to the Holy City.  I think this is a must visit place, but avoid anytime after mid-May if you don't like humidity or heat!  Tomorrow we check out the plantations!