Hawaii day 2

July 25

Finally, after two Sundays in a row, we awoke to a Monday.

We spent the morning pouring over the travel pamphlets and brochures we had gotten at Hilo airport, to plot our touring strategy and course of action for the next few days. We decided to start with Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.

Before we set out we checked out the kitchen of Aaron's Cottage. Slices of a delicious home-made cake were under a glass cake dish, pieces of the ripest juiciest pineapple I'd ever tasted with whole cherries and strawberries were in a covered fruit bowl over ice. Milk was in the fridge and English muffins were in a bag on the counter. Several types of breakfast cereals in single-serving boxes were laid out and instant oatmeal packets were next to them. The list goes on, but you get the idea. Breakfast could be whatever you chose to take or make for yourself in whatever quantity you wanted. Very nice! You could also take what you liked back to the refrigerator in your room to eat later.

The drive to the National Park was interesting. Even though we were on a tropical island in the Pacific Ocean, the vegetation was entirely different from what grew in Fiji. We saw one species of plant in particular with large yellow flower stalks that may have been either a type of orchid or ginger. I still had much to learn about these tropical plant families. Dense stands of bamboo also lined the road. We climbed steadily in elevation without really perceiving this, other than feeling our ears pop every once in a while. Every 500 feet higher in elevation we saw a sign announcing the fact. The road was wide and smooth and had paved shoulders on either side. It was so much like driving in America (because it was) and so different from the roads in Australia (where leaving the pavement required waiting for turnoffs for that purpose) and Fiji (where the road was not smooth or wide or safe to leave the pavement).

At the park entrance we were instructed to pay a $10 entrance fee, go into the visitor's center and show proof of Razelle's permanent disability and US citizenship or residency, so we could get a card for free admission for the disabled to all the parks in the system (including this one), then to drive back and go through the gate a second time with this card to be given back the $10 we just paid. Inside the visitors center I found a group of three "greeters" in ranger's getup behind a desk who were explaining the points of interest of this park to visitors. When I asked the first one available about acquiring this card she had no idea what I was talking about (it wasn't part of her training course, apparently). She sent me to the gift shop where I was sent back to the trio of greeters in ranger's getup. My temper was rising, but I held it in check. A more veteran ranger was sent for, who was more than happy to produce the clipboard with the form Razelle signed. The card was handed to us, and since the distance back to the entrance gate was so inconsequential I walked back. The reception there was a rude one. I was told not to approach on foot. I had to go back to my car and drive through. I started to walk back than wondered whether this required me to go through with Razelle in the car or not. Before I could ask that question I received redoubled rudeness and a refusal to even hear the question. I got the question out, nonetheless. Razelle didn't have to be in the car. I walked back to the car drove through, received the refund and said nary a word when the woman said cheerily, just as she was trained, "welcome to the park, enjoy your visit, have a nice day..." or something to that effect, as if the incident had never happened. I filed a signed complaint in the visitor's center.

Inauspicious as this introduction to the park system was, we enjoyed the rest of our stay. We hardly had time to cruise around the information center when the same helpful ranger who produced the clipboard announced that in five minutes she would be leading a guided walk to the rim of the crater. I persuaded Razelle to join this walk. It was very educational.

Nicole introduced herself to the group. She is in college student studying botany. Nicole tailored her delivery to suit her mixed audience of children and adults who didn't necessarily have any background. She had a collection of colorful cards for illustration, and many interesting anecdotal stories and facts to share with us at each station along the way.

There is something "Sesame-Street-ish" about how Americans provide other Americans with information, in a way that is meant to avoid offending anyone's intelligence, just in case they are ignorant of the facts. This is my observation after being away from America for so many years. Nicole employed this technique in a disarmingly sweet way. I wonder if I could ever learn to talk that way (or ever should).

We arrived at the edge of a volcanic crater after a short distance and several stops, so Razelle had no trouble coping. It was an overcast day so the light for photographing it poor. After everyone returned to the visitors' center, Nicole, Razelle and I chatted about lots of things. Nicole found our advice helpful and she got some books for me to look at that had answers to questions she herself didn't know. I filed a written commendation on Nicole's behalf and wish her luck in this career. It was a bucket list item I fulfilled long ago when I worked for the Nature Protection Society in Israel with young women just like Nicole. I a part of me misses that career, but life unfolds as it should (Desiderata), doesn't it?

We then drove down the Chain of Craters Road to the edge of the ocean and beyond a sign that let us know we were in a tsunami risk zone (just in case we wanted to turn back!), in time for sunset. Razelle and I posed at a natural arch in the sea cliff while someone took our picture.

Razelle actually crossed an expanse of hardened lava flow just to reach the edge. The actual "end of the road" is close to a mile beyond a traffic barrier.


Many people were walking out there so I followed their cue. It's the end of the road because a lava flow crossed the pavement during an eruption in the 1980s. It took longer than I had expected to reach the end and return, by which time it was very dark outside.

  
When I reached Razelle she was standing in the road with her arms akimbo. She had been crying. She was afraid something had happened to me. She thought I was in a dangerous place, called a "bench" (an unstable section of hardened lava at the water's edge that could have slid into the sea at any moment without warning). We had been warned about these at the visitors' center and Razelle had this message in her head when I was slow to return. I wasn't in such a place, but in the dark she couldn't tell where I'd gone. She hissed, "Supermarket!" several times. It hadn't occurred to me that setting up both phones so we could call each other would not work everywhere we went. There was no phone reception down there. I told her I'd gotten some great shots of the scenery out there, but she just answered, "Supermarket" again. (You may recall this is a reference to an earlier incident in Alice Springs.)

Back up to the top of the road and around the crater's rim, we reached the best feature of the park, which we'd saved for last: the glow-in-the-dark caldera of a living volcano. Different visitors to this park at different times have told us how exciting it is to see this. For us, it was not exciting, but more of a contemplative Zen moment. There was no spewing lava nor were there flames dancing in the air; just a warm blood-red glow reflected off the walls of the crater and onto the steam emanating from deep below.

The glowing heart of the earth we live upon, and that Razelle and I are circling on this trip, is down there. It is vital and well, and we could sense that, as we watched the cloud of steam throb with the pulse of mother earth. If only the other visitors up there that night could have appreciated this moment properly and not have spoiled it with their flashlights, camera lights and headlights. It was cold up there. I stayed as long as the cold was bearable, then walked back to find Razelle sitting on her crutch-seat inside a phone booth to stay out of the wind. Very cleaver, Razelle!

We returned to Hilo in time to find a fast food place. It was nearly closing time but they let us in. The French fries and onion rings had been prepared in oil that had fried too many potatoes and onions by the end of that day. They weren't appetizing, but we were hungry. We are on a steep learning curve in the USA, but we are making notes for future reference on what not to eat when.

Back at Aaron's Cottage we turned off our lights and the glow of the day's activities stayed with us until we fell asleep, which didn't take long.