Hawaii - Big Island, Kauai

Big Island

The first 3 days were spent on the Big Island, where Laura swam, biked, and ran for her Lavaman Triathlon . I cheered her on and took lots of photos. During Laura's training I had one day to myself to have a little adventure exploring the Big Island's volcanoes.

Hilo

I drove to Hilo and had lunch at the Farmer's Market, where they sold many interesting foods including Spam sushi. (Spam is really big in Hawaii.)

Halemaumau

Then I visited the low-altitude Halemaumau volcano, a rocky moonscape with cracks, steam vents, and tunnels. Building rock piles was kapu.

Mauna Kea

I wrapped up the day with a climb (in my rental car) to the top of Mauna Kea, where at 13,800 ft., there's lots of snow! I gave a ride to some snowboarders who were spending the day boarding down and hitching rides back to the top. Besides boarding and sledding, the other local pastime seems to be shoveling ones pickup truck full of snow and bringing it back home! I even took a sizeable snowball home with me as a temporary souvenir.

Kauai

After Laura's triathlon, we had 3 days to relax together in Kauai. We spent our days on the north (rainier) shore, wandering the beach, and hiking to the Hanakapiai Falls.

Shave ice is very popular. There were some curious flavors:

This road wash-out from recent heavy rains had (luckily) been repaired:

Kalalau Trail

Some geeky maps of my GPS log using Google Earth: