Fire & Ice....and a little surf in between

Gone for two weeks to the mainland, way too long.... Now I'm back and enjoying all the wonderful things that only a place like Hilo has to offer. While I was gone, Sydney had a trip to the Hilton Waikoloa with some friends and then she went up to Mauna Kea with some other friends and on neither one of those occasions was Hana invited, so this weekend I thought I'd make it up to her...

She had a friend over for a sleepover on Friday and we went to see the Lava at Kalapana which has shifted its course and it's now right next to the hiking trail. The good thing about this is that you get to see lava from really close, the bad thing is that the flow is cooling down and there is no more flow, it's more like a red glow that you can see through cracks on the ground.

The trail to the seashore where the lava was pouring into the ocean has been closed due to the last shift in the lava flow. We went there past sunset and it was fun, not too many tourists left (most of them were gone). What was annoying was the tourists trying to get a better view of the lava by aiming their flashlights at the lava!...DOH!....

Then Saturday morning I decided to go and try my new camera at Dawn Patrol. It had taken some neat pictures on a sunny day so I wanted to see what kind of pictures it would take with low light.

Turns out that it takes pretty good shots with low light as well!

And then I took Hana and her friend up to Mauna Kea to play in the snow. There wasn't nearly as much snow as there was two years ago when we went the last time, but for two 10 year old girls it was just perfect. We stayed there for a while playing and sliding in the snow....

See, there's snow skiing in Hawai'i.....

No ski lifts, so at 14,000 ft you really have to be a hard core skier....

Where else can one drive to see lava, then go surfing the next morning and drive up to the snow after that!?.....BIG ISLAND!...