Day 13: Landscapes

Nephi and I were severely running out of clothes, so I woke up at 5:50, so that I could be at the Laundromat when they opened. We had stopped by the evening before and it was a zoo, so I wanted to beat everyone. I got down there at 6, and started 2 loads (they only had 2 machines). Those were finished in a jiffy, and I put them in the dryer and put one more load in the washer. One of the dryers stopped after about 45 minutes. Those clothes weren’t dry so I paid for another 45 minutes. The other dryer kept going forever. A little after an hour I stopped the dryer that kept going, pulled out the clothes (which were dry), and threw in the clothes that were in the washer. Once the other dryer was finished, Nephi had finally joined me. I had him fold the clothes while I ran up to the room to get ready for the day. When I came back down the final load was done. It was 10 by this point, and we had missed breakfast.

We grabbed Wendy’s really quick and watched some really cool lizards. They were green with red spots on them and they were sooo quick. They would chase each other. It was fun to watch. After that, we stopped by Blockbuster. The employees were lame and ignored me, but I bought The Price is Right for the Nintendo DS.

Finally, we headed north. We had plans to go to Hilo to get my mom her favorite cookies. Along the drive, we saw every landscape imaginable. We saw grasslands (yellow ones), we saw green rolling hills, we saw rocky fields, we saw cacti, and finally we saw rainforest. It was a really cool drive, especially since we had upgraded to a Ford Mustang and had the top down. We got to Hilo, and went to Big Island Candies. We arrived at the same time that a whole tour bus of Asian women arrived. From the store you can see the women working in the factory. We watched some cookies get hand dipped in chocolate and then we proceeded to make our selections. The only problem, there were people everywhere (namely Asian women). Now, I hope I don’t offend anyone…I have nothing against any group of people…and I totally get that it is a cultural thing about space, but these women drove me crazy. They were pushy and loud and yapping away. I couldn’t get anywhere. They were a swarm of frantic shoppers and it was impossible to escape. Finally they started to trickle out and I got the stuff I wanted. Nephi decided to try these pineapple filled shortbread things and caramel/chocolate dipped shortbread cookies. Both were really good. I just got the normal and we bought some gifts for family back home.

After the cookie place, we looked for a fast food restaurant so that Nephi and I could go potty. There was none to be found. Anywhere. Finally we settled on a Borders. We continued our drive, this time down the east side of the island. After a while we made it to Volcanoes National Park. First stop was the steam vents. This is where steam comes out of the ground because rainwater touches the hot rocks underground and turns into steam. Then we went to the Thurston Lava Tube. It was pretty cool. It was essentially a cave that had been created by lava. It had been paved and lit for tourists, but at the end there was this portion that they hadn’t touched that you could explore. Nephi and I didn’t have flashlights, but some nice people offered to take us with them. It was pretty cool. At the end some teenage girls jumped out and tried to scare us. We had seen them so it was pretty lame (they weren’t fully committed either).

Then we drove down Chain of Crater’s Road. Nephi loved it. There are some really cool landscapes and the whole drive is you pretty much driving over dried lava. When we got to the end of the road, we walked about a mile to check out the place where a more recent eruption took out the road. We also checked out this sea arch thing that was pretty cool. The waves were HUGE.

Finally it was time to go. We made our way back to Kailua-Kona in the dark. It was a pretty scary road. When we got back we both wanted something yummy and easy so we went to Kona Brewing Company again. It was just as good a second time. We were completely exhausted so we went home and went to bed.