As you know, we went to Hawai'i for our first vacation in 10 years.  We had a wonderful time.  Here are some pictures and comments.

On our first day, we went to see the Arizona Memorial.  We went by public bus.  When we got on, I noticed that Helen had picked up a passenger on her backside.








Here is Helen at the Memorial's entrance.







  The Arizona Memorial sits astride the sunken ship.  You reach it by motor launch.









 At the far end of the Memorial is a wall with the names of all the fallen from the ship.










Some of the wreckage is visible above the surface.










  I managed to make it into a couple of photos also.







  Helen really liked the Bird of Paradise plants.










On our second day, we took a bus tour of O'ahu.  One of the stops we made was at this Buddhist Temple.  It was visually spectacular and very peaceful.





 The fish ponds are a delight at the Pagoda.  The goldfish (called Koi) are very large and colorful.



















 We were really impressed  with the ban yon trees.  They  are most unusual.  We were  told that one tree on Maui has a trunk a city-block wide!  They are also called strangling figs because they crowd out other trees.






  On our third day, we went to the Polynesian Cultural Center.  It is divided up into sections representing the different island cultures found in the Pacific.




On our last full day, we flew to the Big Island.  We landed at the Kona Airport.  Here is a statue of hula dancers at the airport.  We rented a car and proceeded to drive around Hawai'i.







Our first stop was at a coffee plantation located at Captain Cook, HI.  The beans on the plants won't be ripe until late autumn.  I bought a few pounds of beans that I am roasting every morning.






















At the coffee farm, there is a spectacular tree house.











Near the southernmost part of the Island, is a site that was visited by Mark Twain.  It used to have a restaurant that served the best hamburgers I ever had, but, under new ownership, the old recipes were abandoned -- one of my few disappointments.











We then drove to Volcano National Park.  We drove completely around Kilauea.  We walked up to the Halema'uma'u overlook.  Halema'uma'u is a huge pit located inside Kilauea's crater.  It is said to be the home of Pele, the goddess of the volcano.  It is a site considered to be sacred to native Hawai'ians.  In the 1920's it was completely filled with lava.

 

 






Just before we arrived, there was a light rain on the top of the volcano.  The water seeped into the hot rocks just below the surface.  You can see the steam coming from the bottom of the crater.




When volcanic gasses come up to the surface, they often deposit minerals.  Here, you can see flowers of sulfur (the yellow deposits around the rocks).

 

 

This is the end of the road!  We took the 20 mile trip down Chain of Craters Road.  The eruption of 1995 closed the road.  In the background over my shoulder, you can see steam rising from the ocean where the current eruption is depositing lava.  One can hike to see it up close, but we had no desire to try -- it was running late and we had to complete our circle of the Island and return the rental car before our return flight.