Dave & Meredith’s Travel Blog

We’re back in Boston again and looking forward to catching up with friends and family!

- Meredith and Dave

We spent two nights on Oahu so that we could see some of the local sights before flying out of Honolulu. At the top of our list was Pearl Harbor.

It’s hard for me to write about my experience at Pearl Harbor. I could write a factual account of what we saw, but that would fail to capture the meaning and emotion of the visit. I’m sure each visitor experiences something different at a place like this. I will try to tell you some of my thoughts without sounding overly sappy or sentimental.

One of the first things that struck me was the sheer multitude of visitors of every age, race and nationality. The National Park Service says that the USS Arizona Memorial gets about 4,500 visitors per day. I was very happy to see lots of families there, and though the youngest kids may not have fully understood what they were seeing, I generally got the sense that they knew they were someplace where they needed to be respectful, and needed to pay attention. The older kids certainly seemed to be interested in the exhibits in the visitor center, which I was pleasantly surprised at.

The visitor center and the USS Arizona Memorial visit was very well done, so perhaps I shouldn’t have been surprised that the kids were so engaged - I was too. One of the things that really made this a special visit was that they conveyed a significant amount of information through personal stories (not unlike Ken Burns’ “The War”, which was an amazing TV series on WWII and if you haven’t put the time investment into seeing it, I highly recommend it).

We heard stories from Pearl Harbor survivors on the audio tour (which was nicely done), and we read some other stories of both survivors as well as others who died during the attack. The park also has five Pearl Harbor survivor volunteers who work there at various times during the week. We met and chatted with one of the survivors named Everett Hyland. He has a fascinating story, and he was a delightful man to talk to as well. I am so glad to have met him and learned about his story. Click here to see a picture and read a short article about him - I thought it captured his story and personality well.

I am happy we spent extra time on Oahu to see the memorial. I expected that the visit would be moving, but I did not expect to be as engaged by the exhibits as I was. While we were there, we learned that there are plans to expand the visitor center and museum to include more personal stories and artifacts from the many families that have reached out to the park service after having been to visit the memorial themselves. It’s great to see people interested in preserving and sharing family memories so that others may learn about — and learn from — the past.

- Meredith

A family looks at the list of names of the nearly 1200 people who died on the USS Arizona during the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Here is the view from our window at our last hotel in Hawaii across the street from Waikiki Beach on Oahu:

We stayed here for 2 nights.

- Meredith

Everyone says you roll the dice when you go to Hawaii to see volcanic activity. Sometimes there’s no action going on, and other times, people get lucky.

We were lucky. Kilauea and its major vent, Pu’u O’o, have been quite active lately. We started our volcano-packed day with a helicopter ride over the vent and the place where lava is currently flowing into the ocean. Here are some pics Dave took from the helicopter:

Above, our view of the Pu’u O’o crater vent from the helicopter ride.

Above, more vents in a line in the Kilauea lava field. The large plume in the background is where a lava tube makes contact with the ocean.

Next, we spent some time cruising around Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. Half of Crater Rim Drive (the road that encircles Kilauea Volcano’s caldera) was closed because of toxic sulphur dioxide gas spewing out of the crater in the center of the caldera (sweet!). Despite this closure, park officials and Rangers had plenty of activities going on, and the Rangers were very eager to share information about how to get to the area where the lava is flowing into the ocean, even though it is outside the park itself.

We drove to that point in the afternoon. If we didn’t get info beforehand, I’m not sure we would have found it. We had to pass several signs that said, “KEEP OUT” or “ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK” as well as cross three stretches of road where older lava flows had wiped out the road (it was re-paved). We weren’t exactly sure what to expect except 1) there would be an area to park our car, 2) there would be other people there, 3) we had to bring flashlights if we wanted to stay after dark, 4) we had to be in by 8:00 pm and 5) we had to be out by 10:00 pm.

When we arrived, there were county workers helping to park cars, some enterprising locals selling water, coffee, flashlights and artwork, there was an EMT team waiting in case anyone got hurt, and there was a 3/4 mile path across a lava field marked with reflective posts guiding the way to the viewing area.

Being at the viewing area was a little like going to see fireworks on the Fourth of July. There were about 100 - 200 people there, tourists and locals alike, with cameras and their loved ones. And like a great fireworks show, it did not disappoint. In fact, it was better, because the producer of the show was Mother Nature (or Madame Pele, the Hawaiian goddess of the volcano).

While the sun was out, we saw rocks being thrown into the air against a giant steam plume. But as the sun set, the “rocks” began to glow red - they were actually lava bombs. What an incredible sight! Here are a couple pics:

Above, the viewing area with the crowd waiting for the sun to set.

Above, the plume created by the lava flow hitting the ocean.

Above, there were frequent mini-twisters that would drop from the plume down to the ocean surface. This picture shows two at once.

Above, once it became dark, the same lava bombs we saw earlier appeared redder and redder.

Above, a close-up of a lava bomb explosion.

Above, a long exposure shows the trails of the lava bombs.

Above, that purple splotch above the lava bomb explosion is a lightning flash which occurred frequently within the plume. You’ll see one of these near the end of the video if you watch closely.

We also got some video - it’s about 2 minutes long and goes from day time to night. To see the video in QuickTime format, click here for a small version (faster download) and click here for a larger version (bigger picture). Likewise for Windows Media format: click here for a small version and click here for a larger version. Enjoy!

- Meredith