Rainy days and Mondays...

On Monday, Feb. 18th, we decided that we would go to Volcano National Park since that's the main tourist attraction on the Big Island.  It was a long drive from "our side" of the island, about 100+ miles on roads that average 40 mph.

Well, long story short - we picked the wrong day!  It was overcast and by the time we got to the other side of the island, it was raining pretty good.  We kept thinking... "It looks a little brighter - doesn't it?"  Here was our first view of the crater...

Well, it never really did clear up, although while we were in the museum that overlooks the Kilauea crater, the weather briefly cleared long enough for us to snap a couple quick pictures of the steam rising out of the crater - and Tim trying not to get blown off the rock wall.  It was quite windy that day as well as rainy.

Had we been able to see, here's what it might have looked like....

part of the new lava flow- which we
also couldn't see!

 Miscellaneous information about the viewing spots if the weather had cooperated.

After the museum, Tim wanted to go inside the Thurston Lava Tube so... thinking it would be dry inside a tube of lava, off we went.  Well, it was raining both inside and outside the tube, so we were thoroughly soaked by the time we got back in the car!

Needless to say, we also did not try to find any of the waterfalls that were in the area.  However, we did take a "scenic" drive on the way back and went through... you guessed it!  A rain forest!

 

               

Along the drive, the rain did stop long enough for us to check out one of the many lookouts.

We were becoming very thankful that our resort was on the leeward side of the island!  We don't know for sure, but we think that it was sunny, albeit windy, all day at the resort.

Since the outside activities were not looking too promising, we had stopped at the Orchid Farm on the way to the park and took the pictures in the previous post.  The place was quite large and the flowers were really pretty - every color imaginable.

The high point of that day, aside from getting back to the dry side of the island, was a late lunch at Ken's House of Pancakes in Hilo.  We tried macadamia nut and coconut pancakes, scallops and coconut shrimp.  It was all delicious. (no pictures, sorry!)  We brought home two slices of different macadamia nut pies for later and they were quite tasty as well.