After a light breakfast (we knew we were headed for an early lunch), we started our day with a tour of the Kona Brewing Company, maker of a variety of beers distributed all over the islands and the mainland. (My personal favorite is called Longboard). After the tour, we enjoyed a nice lunch at their Brew Pub.
Weather today, so far, is sunny and warm, around 90. After lunch we headed over the airport where S&M picked up a rental car. We hadn't intended to do that, but it turns out it takes a lot longer to get from Kona to Volcano than we thought - and they are leaving here a day before us and heading for Maui, so it didn't make sense for us to drive them back to the Kona airport, which was the original plan.
From Kona, we headed south along Rt 11, (they say there are 138 hairpin turns along that route), to a place called "South Point" , said to be the southernmost point of the USA (Not sure how it matched up with Key West...I'll have to google that). Its a rather odd place, and not a very nice place. Lots of "locals" who were fishing, camping, etc illegally, with no services. May have been a lookout during WWII? Anyway, felt like a third world country. But it did have good surf!
As we approached Volcano National Park, the road climbed to about 4000 feet, went into a drizzly cloud and the temp dropped to 62. We found our hotel, a funny little place literally in a tropical rain forest. After dinner at a Thai place we headed over to the park, even though it was dark by then, because we'd heard that you can see a "red glow" in the crater. Skeptical, as it was foggy and drizzling, we found our way to the Jagger Museum in the park. Lo and behold! The sky cleared, the stars were spectacular and, sure enough, you can see a red glow!
We'll explore the park tomorrow - in the daylight.
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| Chateau Kilauea in the rain forest at Volcano. |
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| Final view from our room in Kona |
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| South Point |
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| Stopped for ice cream |
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| Wind turbines on the way down to South Point |
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| The crater! |
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