BOXES 187-188: Big Island and O'ahu.

The Chain of Craters Road winds down from the Kilauea caldera to the Puna coast, within Volcanoes National Park on the Big Island of Hawai'i. There used to be a lower entrance to the park until the road was cut off in the late 1980s, as it still was when Anne and I--you can see her at the right of the photo--visited the Big Island for the first time in 1992. Our visit was part of a bigger trip focused on the wedding of Bob (Anne's youngest brother) and Tripit on O'ahu.

We had flown from Kawa'i (see previous BOX) directly to the Big Island, landing on the Kona Coast. I don't have any slides from the first days of our visit; I do have snapshots that were probably taken with a disposable camera, but digitizing them would be a whole new project. I can tell you that we first stayed at the Manago Hotel in the little town of Captain Cook, while spending time in the town of Kona and snorkeling at a cove Anne's parents had recommended; then we started a drive around the island counterclockwise, stopping at Punalu'u Black Sand Beach in the south before driving up to Volcanoes National Park, where I switched back to my camera containing a slide roll. Here's a view of the Chain of Craters Road--and patches of former lava flows--as it curves down toward the sea:

The ropy, shiny lava rock is called pahoehoe. (The sharp darker kind is called a'a.)

In the next two shots you can see where lava has been flowing downhill (the dark streaks) and the newly formed coast where lava recently flowed into the ocean:

Here are a couple of closeups of very recently "frozen" lava:

We didn't take the hike suggested by the sign you see on the right, but instead returned to Kilauea Crater for views of its steaming caldera floor:

My telephoto lens provides a closer look at the Halema'uma'u Crater inside the Kilauea caldera:

From the park we continued our drive around the island, not stopping in Hilo but continuing up the Hamakua Coast, then to the upland "cattle country" town of Waimea and back down the Kohala Coast to Kona. Somewhere or other, maybe back in Kona, I took this photo of a Kona coffee dispenser and a cat--sampling the local product?

One day we crashed the Wyatt Regency Waikaloa (now a Hilton) on the Kohala Coast: a mega-resort with a whole network of lagoons and swimming pools:

Back on O'ahu we had time to relax with Bob and Tripit in their Waikiki highrise apartment while getting ready for visitors from the Mainland. I like this photo of Tripit enjoying a morning coffee:

Soon we were gathering plumeria blossoms to make leis to greet the next visitors:

Some of the best trees were to be found near the Honolulu Zoo at the base of Diamond Head:

The following photos of those arrivals--of Anne and Bob's parents, of their brother Jim and his then-wife Lisa, and of a friend or family member of Tripit's, all from a plane from Sacramento--are not very "professional" but at least they give a sense of the occasion:

Anne and I continued to explore O'ahu in the days that followe. One day we visited the Manoa campus of the University of Hawai'i, though the only photo I took was of the nearby art-deco-ish exterior of the Varsity Theatre (opened 1939):

We drove up the coast beyond Diamond Head:

Here we're overlooking Hanauma Bay:

More overlooks: the cove leading to the so-called From Here to Eternity Beach and then Sandy Beach:

We spent time at the beach belonging to Bellows Air Force Field, Sandy being a retired officer in the Air Force:

The next airport arrival was of Aron, Becky and Michelle:

My next photos are of a family picnic at Kapiolani Park at the eastern end of Waikiki. I won't try to identify everybody in the photos, but that's Michelle enjoying the nearby water:

For the main event of our trip, Bob and Tripit's wedding, outdoors at Kualoa Ranch on the Windward Side of the island, we switched to snapshots, so I don't have photos to show you of the wedding itself, or the days of preparation leading up to it. (I'll gladly show you an album of snapshots if you like!) But I did take slide photos after the wedding, after some folks had changed into more informal clothes and continued to enjoy the ongoing celebration at the Ranch, which is just uphill from a beach park in front of the islet of Mokoli'i (aka Chinaman's Hat). Here the kids went swimming:

Looking up from the beach you see part of the Ko'olau mountain range:

Back at the Ranch music was playing and people were dancing on the lawn near the reception pavilion:

I took some photos of plant life on the grounds, including one of Anne posing with a blossom:

Two more photos: of Anne with her brother Jim, and of a guest near some bottles of bubbly:

Those are all the presentable slides I have from the wedding reception; but I have a few more of our activities during the last days of our trip. We continued to go to beaches:

And we got to spend more time with Anne's parents. On one enjoyable occasion (no slide photos) Sandy took us to see the Wai'anae (Leeward) side of the island.. On another we went to a popular restaurant called the Pagoda, an atractive building surrounded by a koi-pond moat:

We explored more of the city of Honolulu, where I photographed a banyan tree in a small park; the historic Kawaiaha'o Church built with blocks of coral; and the 'Iolani Palace:

We took a tour of the Dole pineapple factory (no longer operating as far as I know):

. . . and visited the upland pineapple fields:

Probably on this same day we went to Waimea Falls Park, just inland from the famous surfing beach on the North Shore. For an admission fee you could swim in a pool below a waterfall, walk through a botanical garden/arboretum, and visit replicas of pre-Cook Hawaiian dwellings, as the kids are doing here:

Here are the falls and part of the arboretum:

We had rented a car for the day, a red convertible: here are the kids posing while I sat behind the wheel:

Finally, on that day, we stopped along the beach near Hale'iwa, where one of the kids took these pictures:

My last slide photos of this first trip to Hawai'i are of an excursion to Diamond Head, where you can walk across the crater floor, climb the ridge and see Waikiki, with the rest of Honolulu and even the Wai'anae Mountains in the distance:

My next post won't have anything as spectacular as Hawai'i, but it will include visits to the San Francisco Bay Area and Chicago as well as scenes back in Sheboygan.