Hawaii - Day 2

Disclaimer - This is in *no way* the official commentary on PJ and Christy's wedding. That's their purview, and with the 500 or so photos we all took, I'm quire sure that there are many, many stories to be told. It's just a view of the trip from my perspective. Anyone and everyone is welcome to comment or correct any statements about this trip that they like. :)

I sit here on the patio on day 2 at about 11:30 in the evening, trade winds blowing like crazy, and I'm barely able to move. It has been an extraordinarily long day, but really a lot of fun. Ever the social director, PJ planned a day that started about 9 this morning, and ended about an hour ago. We packed more into one day than I have done in the last few vacations.

About 20 people are on this trip, and that will be all that will be coming to the wedding itself. Spending the day together not only provided sight-seeing opportunities, but gave everyone a chance to relax and get to know each other. The group gets along really well, and caravanning the way we did allows everyone to participate as little or as much as they liked.

After an evening of windy weather, the clouds were gone and we woke to see the sun rise (because to us, it was about 9am) on an absolutely gorgeous day.

This was the view from the lobby of the Marriott:

Everyone met at the Marriott at 9am to figure out who was going with whom. There is really only one main route to take since it's all on one big circle, but we still had to make sure everyone was going the right direction. PJ demonstrated on a map the route we were to take:

Heather and Kristin listened intently:

And then we piled into 5 different cars and headed down around the bottom end of the island on our adventure. Our first stop was an early lunch at the Hawaiian Sweet Bread Factory, the southernmost bakery in the United States (yes, even further south than Key West). This took about 2 hours on some beautiful but winding roads. We got take-out meals and ate in this little gazebo. While the weather was no longer clear, it was still warm enough to be comfortable in light clothes.
We all took lots of pictures there:

Christy, the bride-to-be:

Vince, PJ's best man:

Aaron, another of PJ's buddies:

Conrad, another buddy:

PJ and his Dad:

From there we continued on up the eastern coast to a black sand beach:

Giant sea turtles were coming up on the beach:

From there we continued on to the Volcano National Park, and hiked down into the lava tube....a long deep cave that while neat to be in, was a little tense for those of us who have issues with closed off cramped spaces. I should also point out that a section of the park was closed off because of "seismic activity" which naturally meant that going down into a cave was a great idea. :)

From there it was on to the volcanic craters themselves. Walking up the volcanoes was like being on the moon. Lots of gray and black earth, with steam vents coming up all over. The smell of sulphur was really strong.

Our hope was to get someplace where we could see actual lava flowing, but the only places that could be seen were by helicopter, something that few of us had the desire to do. We did get to look over the edge of one of the currently dormant craters, and the experience was just awesome

From there it was on to the Volcano National Park Visitors Center for more volcano information, and then on to a hike to the Akaka Falls National Park.

I should point out that it's been far too long since I have spent any quality time with my exercise regime. Nowhere is this more evident than on a steep hike through the rain forest to the waterfalls. It was well worth the trip, but no one was more surprised than I that I survived the climb. :)

The bigger of the two falls, probably 10 stories (?):

By this time, it was about 6pm, and one would think that our day was complete. There was one more stop at a cove at the top of the island to watch the sunset, and then it was on to dinner at a local Italian Restaurant. The restaurant was really small, so our party of 16 needed to be broken up into 2 tables. For reasons we still have not understood, there was a "Boys Table" and a "Girls Table." At first this seemed strange, but as the evening wore on, keeping the boys at their own table causing their own trouble worked well for everyone. ;)

Boys Table - Nothing but Trouble - (from left: Aaron, Conrad, PJ and Vince)

Girls Table - Much More Civilized - (Up the left side of the table and down the right: Angela - Maid of Honor, Christy - Bride, Tabitha - Wife of Best Man Vince, Me, Michelle - Bridesmaid, Kristin, Heather and Katie)

After dinner the original plan had been to celebrate PJ's last night as a single dude with drinks and debauchery on the beach, but most of us were so exhausted from the day that we wound up calling it a night after dinner. PJ did enjoy a drink and a cigar on the beach with the boys, but the rest of us just crashed in our rooms in anticipation of the big day.



Too tired to write any more...fingers are close to falling off. Must be well rested for tomorrow's festivities.



Will write again soon,



K