Hawaii Report #1

We're back!!! What a fabulous experience for all of us! It was great to see in person so many of the things we had been studying for the past month.

Our first full day in Hawaii was spent at Hilo on the Big Island. Our excursion that day was a trip to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. We drove up to the Jaggar Museum on the edge of the Kilauea Caldera. It was amazing to see....
In addition to learning about the volcano, we also learned a Hawaiian myth. There was lots of stuff about Pele in the museum, but Alex asked a park ranger specifically about that tree you see in the middle of the photo above. He told us the legend of Ohi'a tree and the Lehua flowers. I couldn't find the exact version that he told, but here is the closest one. The park ranger was happy to tell us this legend as it was a special one to him... he had Lehua flowers on his wedding ring.
After we left the museum, we stopped at the volcanic steam vents...
It was actually a cool day so the kids enjoyed warming up in the steam.

One of my favorite stops was at the Thurston Lava Tube....It was dark in there... but really cool. It was amazing to walk through a tunnel that lava used to flow through.

But I think my favorite part of this stop was walking through the rain forest on our way down to and back from the lava tube. It was so lush and green and you could hear birds everywhere. Here's a pic of the kids in the rain forest after coming out of the lava tube...
I think that pretty much sums up our volcano day. My plan is to post the majority of my trip report on my other blog, but I'll post more detailed reports about our outings that were a little more educational here on this blog.

Okay... I'm fading fast... we just got home at 5:15 this morning and I'm sleepy!