Aloha! Grant's and Bill's 2012 Hawaii Scrapbook This page is best viewed with screen at least 1200 wide. This picture at right is of Laupahoehoe Point Beach Park.

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"The Big Island"   of Hawai'i The Big Island is larger than all the other Hawaiian Islands combined.

I created this map from a lansat photo to show the important locations we visited, but also to show the amazing terrain of the island with the two 13,000+ volcanoes and the lava flows in the southeast. (See bluish-purple areas on the map below.)

We stayed in the Kona area on the west side of Hawai'i, but the volcanic activity and the waterfalls are on the east side. We put almost 800 miles on our car in the 3 days we were there. But our two long drives around the island (one clockwise and one counter-clockwise) were worth it. We saw beautiful waterfalls, a black sand beach, the volcano, and spectacular coastlines. We also took a helicopter tour over the erupting lava! Our flight took us from Hilo south along the coast to the flank eruption, the most active area for lava flowing over the surface.

	Grant and I flew into Kailua-Kona on the west side of Hawai'i. Our hotel was about 25 minutes south of the airport, away from the crowded town of Kailua-Kona. The Sheraton Keauhou is a 1960s style resort with beautifully manicured grounds and two beautiful pools, one with a waterfall and one with a waterslide which Grant and I put to good use.  The weather on this side of the island, the westem dry side, was very good all 3 days. At right is the courtyard pool with waterfall
	The outer, larger pool. Love that spiraling waterslide!!! I wonder if they get many 63-year-olds who slide multiple times.

		The hotel's oceanfront side is totally lava, like much of the west side of the island. Manta rays can usually be seen at night in the water here, but they managed to be elsewhere when we wanted to see them. One night the waves were as high as a during a major winter storm and crashing higher than the deck.
		The pool looks out onto the lava coast and sunsets.

		Grant finally had a warm day in Hawaii.| The first time we came to Hawaii, also in April, it was cool every day.
		The hotel's property continues to the south along the lava coast. Beautiful property!
		This panorama shot was taken from our lanai at dusk. The torches are all around the property. Very Hawaiian!

	Something I have always wanted to do was fly over lava. (I have no fear of death.) I was so happy that Grant, despite his fear of heights, wanted to do this with me, and he even went along with my choice of tour, the "Doors Off - Feel the Heat" option. With no doors, that means unobstructed views, and we could look straight down whenever the helicopter banked. Very cool, very exciting. At right is the type of helicopter we took, but they took our doors off. As you can see it was very rainy at the Hilo Airport, but that is not unusual or too much worry because the area where the lava is gets much less rain.
	This shows the lush, green area the south of Hilo. We flew right along the coastline after this.
	We reached the area where the lava overran a neighborhood. Interesting, after it cooled, the people came back to their land and rebuilt their homes... ON THE LAVA! There's no guarantee the volcano won't send more this way.

		This was a huge thrill, the first view of active lava from the air. And we knew we were about to see this lava up close and personal. The flow is overtaking the last remaining wooded area and last stretch of road. Kilauea Caldera is much higher up the volcano. This part of the volcano is called a rift or flank eruption, which has been actively spilling out lava since 1983! Our pilot is about to take us down closer. Remember those two smoking vents nearest to the bottom left of the photo where there is a steep ridge.
		Here is a closer view of the lava flow building up and spilling over the trees at the top of green patch in the previous picture. The trees here don't flame and burn, they just singe and then get covered, which causes some of the steam (not most of it).
		This was a thrill... our first sight of lava spilling out over the surface as the massive lava flow spills over this steep ridge. The previous flight didn't see a surface flow like this. The next photo is a close-up of the lava finger at right, because we flew in quite close to the flow and circled the area for a good amount of time.
		This is looking straight down at the lava flow. This photo shows the lava coming up and spilling over the surface of the older flows. At upper right,notice the two brown trees thatjust won't give up.
		Another exciting view of volcanic activity. Here we can see molten lava coming up and flowing out onto the surface. This lava is clearly more viscous than the lava in the "finger" above. Besides the main flow point at the top, can you spot the little tongue of orange lava? The grey color doesn't look hot, but when you see the little lava tongue (it's the little triangle at the bottom left), you realize how hot it would be here.
		Are you ready for a little flight?	Click here for a very short video giving you an idea of what it was like to be flying over molten lava.

After we got back on the ground, we did a little detour south of Hilo to see an old friend who used to live in Seattle, the guy who got me into square dancing, which led to my line dancing career. Art has a big property on which he grows every sort of tropical fruit tree and many exotic tropical plants, including some amazing specimens. The plant pictured at right sometimes grows human-looking parts! More photos from his garden below.

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