[Monday] We left home at 6:00 am and drove to IAH for our 9:54 am flight on UA-2294 (a B737-800) to LAX. (It took 19 minutes to get from the gate to the end of the runway for takeoff.) We left LAX at 1:25 pm PST on UA-1229 (a B737 Max-8). We left from gate 75A of terminal 7. There was no place to sit in the gate area due to so many gates in a concentrated area. We arrived at Lihue, Kauai, an hour early at about 4:08 pm HST. We picked up our Hertz rental car and drove to the Hilton Garden Inn Kauai Wailua Bay hotel and arrived a little before sunset.

[Tuesday] We ate breakfast in the hotel restaurant. The wind was blowing 30 to 40 mph and since the hotel did not have walls in the lobby and breakfast area, it was not real comfortable.

We used the Shaka Guide app that we had downloaded from the Viator.com website, to go on the Wailua Valley and Waterfalls tour. We had a lot of trouble getting the app to work correctly to start.

< Wailua Falls.

We went to Opaekaa Falls and a few other spots, then returned to the hotel for lunch.

< Opaeka'a Falls.

Of note, on this island, the chicken population is larger than the human population. Wild chickens are everywhere and they are not very wild. It is against the law to feed them or harass them. You are supposed to just look at them, I guess.

< The chickens.

Tonight we at supper at Chicken in a Barrel BBQ up the road at Coconut Marketplace. I'm not sure where they get their chickens! We dropped in to the Island Country Market and picked up some items for breakfast tomorrow. The wind was still blowing strongly and a light misty rain was falling since mid afternoon.

On the tour we stopped at the Kaua'i Coffee Company and drank samples of their coffee, and bought a bag for when we get back home. We took a walking tour of their demonstration coffee farm.

< < Kaua'i Coffee Company.

We continued the tour and stopped at the Waimea Canyon Lookout and saw the river down below. Waimea Canyon, on the west side of Kauai, is described as "The Grand Canyon of the Pacific." It is 14 miles long, 1 mile wide and more than 3,600 feet deep

< < Waimea Canyon.

As we continued on the Waimea Canyon Drive and got to what were better overlook sites, the clouds and light rain moved in and really hindered photos. Our photos are the best we could do unter the circumstances.

< < Waimea Canyon.

On the road going back to the hotel, we got a better look at the canyon. Some of the clouds lifted.

< < Waimea Canyon.

[Thursday] We woke up to the sound of rain and a little thunder. After breakfast in the hotel restaurant, we took the Shaka North Shore Kauai driving tour. Unfortunately the rain was a problem all day until about 4:00 pm, after we had completed the tour. We were not able to see some of the stops because of the rain. The tour was mostly beaches on the north side of Kauai, with large waves coming into the sandy or rugged beaches.

< < Moloa'a Beach

< < Near Kilauea Lighthouse.

We also stopped at Maniniholo Dry Cave and went inside. It was formed by thousands of years of erosion from ocean waves pounding against lava rock. The cave is considered "dry" because it doesn't have a spring or water source that fills it with water. The cave's interior was once much larger, but a tsunami in 1957 partially filled it with sand.

< < Maniniholo Dry Cave.

< Near Princeville on the north side of Kauai.

[Friday] We ate breakfast in our room and left about 10:00 am to drive the Shaka Poipu & Koloa Driving Tour. This tour took us to the southern shore of the island. This is the first day that we saw the sun shining since we arrived in Hawaii. We saw more beaches on this tour.

< < Spouting Horn beach.

We stopped at Lawa'i Beach-Poipu and watched the waves coming into the volcanic shore.

< Lawa'i Beach.

< East of Shipwreck Beach.

After we completed the southern tour, we drove north to a couple of stops on the North Shore tour that were rainy yesterday. Today was much better.

< West of Anahola on the North Shore.

< < Ninini Point Lighthouse.

We then drove to the airport and turned in our rental car and took Hawaiian Airlines HA520 to Kailua-Kona on the Big Island. We flew on a Boeing 717. In Kona, we picked up our rental car and drove to our hotel. We arrived at the OUTRIGGER Kona Resort and Spa after sunset. We had a hard time finding our room at the very complex multi-building hotel.

< Hawaiian Airlines. < < OUTRIGGER Kona Resort.

[Sunday] We ate breakfast in the hotel restaurant and then took the Shaka Guide driving tour of Kona Big Kahuna Tour. This tour covers the northwest side of the Big Island.

< Lava Beach near Keauhou. < Wild black goat.

We stopped at St. Benedict's Painted Church and went inside. This historic church was built in 1899.

< < St. Benedict's Painted Church.

We stopped in mid afternoon for lunch at a Waikoloa restaurant. We drove back to the hotel, stopping on the way at one of the Historic Park stops.

[Monday] This morning we got up early at 6:30 am and after breakfast in the hotel restaurant, we drove 1-1/2 hours to the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park on the southeast side of the island. We used the Shaka Guide App and spent the day in the park stopping at the various west rim Kaluapele (Kilauea caldera) viewing sites. The volcano was not erupting, but was steaming in many locations in the caldera. A park ranger in the visitor center said that Kilauea might start erupting in a few days.

Before we left the park area, we stopped at the Thurston Lava Tube and went inside. It was locate in a dense tropical forest that had completely recovered from the volcanic event that created the lava tube. We arrived back at the hotel at sunset.

< < <

< < Kilauea volcano.

< < < Thurston Lava Tube.

[Tuesday] Today, after breakfast in the hotel, we drove north to do a portion of the North Island Jungle Adventure Loop tour, using the Shaka Guide App. We stopped at many beautiful overlooks. We enjoyed the visit to Umauma Falls and Park, even though we had to rush under a shelter from a rain downpour.

We ended up the day in Hilo, Hawaii, at The Grand Naniloa Hotel Hilo. We changed hotels for Tuesday and Wednesday nights, so that we could be on the East side of the island. We had to keep our hotel on the west side because we weren't allowed to cancel it for two nights during the high occupancy winter season. We ate a very good supper in the hotel restaurant.

< Overlook at Keauhou. < Waipi'o Lookout.

< Eucalyptus forest on northeast of island.

< Laupahoehoe Point.

< < Umauma Falls and Gardens.

[Wednesday] We ate breakfast in the hotel restaurant and afterwards we walked down to the impressive Babe Ruth Banyan tree.

< Babe Ruth Banyon tree.

We drove south to the End of Road spot where lava flowed over the road in the 2018 eruption. This road was abandoned and replaced with a new road on a different path.

< End of Road.

We stopped at Lava Tree State Park and saw the trees that were created in a 17th or 18th Century eruption that flowed through the forest and cooled around the large trees and made lava statues.

< Lava Tree State Park.

We drove north through many of the fresh 2018 lava flows on both sides of the road.

< Lava flow on roadside.

We drove north to Akaka Falls Park on the east side of the island and took the trail to see the falls, which were said to be twice as high as Niagara Falls.

< < Akaka Falls Park.

We came back to the hotel after stopping at the tourist shops along the street in downtown Hilo.

[Thursday] Today was a big day! After breakfast in the hotel, we drove to Boiling Pots State Park and saw some more interesting waterfalls. Boiling Pots refers to a series of pot-shaped holes eroded into the Mauna Loa lava flow that filled the Wailuku River channel more than 10,000 years ago. The Wailuku River is the second longest river in Hawaii at about 18 miles in length. The river eroded a gorge into the lavas from Mauna Kea and the gorge was then filled twice by younger lavas from Mauna Loa.

< Boiling Pots State Park.

We then drove to Mauna Kea Volcano Visitors Center (9,200 ft. altitude), which is as far as we were allowed to go. We were not in a 4-wheel drive vehicle, which is required to go on up to 13,800 feet, where the international observatories are at the top.

< Mauna Kea Volcano.

At the Mauna Kea Visitor's Center, we learned that the Kilauea Volcano was erupting at the Hawaii Volcano National Park. We decided to drive a little over an hour to see it. We arrived at the park and the eruption was under way. Lots of people were there at the various viewing points that were available. We were fortunate to find spots to park and see the impressive spectacle.

< Smoke from Kilauea as we left Mauna Kea.

< < < < Kilauea

After we left Kilauea, on our way back to Kona, we drove about an hour to South Point, the southern most point in the United States.

< < South Point.

We then drove the hour and a half back to Kona and our hotel. We ate supper in the hotel restaurant.

< Leaving Hawaii.

This draws to a close our brief trip to Kauai and Hawaii (the Big Island). We hope you enjoyed the photos and brief descriptions of our activities. God willing, join us again soon for another travel adventure.

Ciao,

Lawson & Kay

Let the sea resound, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it. Let the rivers clap their hands, let the mountains sing together for joy; let them sing before the Lord, for He comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples with equity. (Psalm 98:7-9 NKJV)