April 12 - “Hawaiian Volcanoes National Park”

Today’s early call was to head to the Hawaiian Volcanoes National Park. That’s where the volcano Kilauea was erupting just a few weeks ago. They had just reopened the park to tourists, so we were among the lucky ones. Well, sort of. As it turned out we got separated from Larry and Diane and ended up on separate buses. 

I’m sure their driver filled them with the same bucketload of facts as ours did. Here’s a few. 

It was raining. Come to find out, this place is second only to Ketchikan in Alaska for rainfall. It rains a lot. 

We passed a baseball field put in by Babe Ruth. 

There can be no building taller than the tallest coconut tree. 

Mauna Loa is the biggest volcano in the universe except for one on Mars. 

We drove through the Hawaiian rain forest. 

Only 2 mammals are endemic to Hawaii: Monk seals, tiny little bats. 

Once at the top of the mount, we 

peered into the smoldering and smoking abyss that was the volcano Kilauea. That was mind-numbing. Good definition of the word awesome. 

Also saw a lot of steam vents all over the place. That was a good thing. It rained all night, so the water seeped into the vents and cooled the lava beneath. The steam was 180 degrees. 

Chris and KayLynn were pleased to grab another National Parks stamp. 

Letters in Hawaiian alphabet:

Hklmnpw

and the Vowels are pronounced like in Spanish: aeiou 

We spent part of the afternoon playing Nuts in the special room set aside for playing cards, or checkers, or chess, or backgammon. Very nice setup. Just across from the ship library. Yep. Full blown library. 

Supper? Dead pig. One of those full-bodied, roasted dudes with an apple in his mouth. I had pizza. Saving the pig experience for the luau. 

After supper we went to the theater. A comedian named Jeff Harms was on tap, and he was quite entertaining. All of us laughed out loud … well … more than once. And he was clean. Not a dirty joke in the batch. 

Ah, laughing. Great way to end the day.  

John‬ ‭6‬‬:‭35 says, Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”

Father, thank you for the chance to experience the awesomeness of that volcano. Amen.