People, we have been to the big island! It was not as I imagined! I thought it would be like Oahu, just bigger and with, of course, the volcano. First a little lesson, as school started at NES today, and I didn't get to teach. Here's how the big island is shaped: make a fist with your right hand and turn it in slightly to the left and stick your pointer finger out. That's the basic shape, then right in the middle toward the top third and bottom third are two vast mountains called Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa...( L for lower), so it's at the bottom. Kilauea is to the right of Mauna Loa. The rim was closed due to the sulfer dixoide known as "vog"--smog and volcanic smoke... (they said stay in your car with the windows rolled up, but there were people out frolicking and making pictures...) We got to look into the caldera from the area near the famous "Volcano House." How this hotel has survived all these years of eruptions is beyond me. It is really a small inn or hotel with a fireplace that has been burning for over a hundred years. (I think it's probably gone out at some point, surely, and they didn't tell anyone.) The caldera is a huge crater with a smaller crater inside that is smoking. The lava is not coming out there at this time, but out vents in the sides that spray into the sea creating a huge plume. I have always wanted to see a black sand beach, and we got to see one...(actually two, one from a great distance though). It was the coolest thing. No one is actually laying out on it because it's near the lava flows plumes and lava fields. The ocean is churning too. Actually, most of the whole coast of the big island is craigy cliffs and a boiling, churning sea. There is something unsettling about seeing and being so near that upheaval of the earth. The most amazing things to me were the lava fields. I had always invisioned a few sections of black, cooled lava... but there are acres and acres and unending acres with the road silently, desolately running through them. The whole island pretty much seemed quiet with some tourists, but not what you'd expect for such major sites. The second most amazing thing was the drive to the top of Mauna Kea with sheer drop-offs for thousands of feet near the sides of the car. It goes up and up and up and is mostly smooth and devoid of vegetation and reddish sand like I picture the moon or Mars. Half way up is the the ranger station where they give you so many warnings about the thin atmosphere that you don't want to go any farther, but Ray made us. They warn of dizziness, nausea, losing your thinking process, becoming disoriented... Ray said I already have most of those so he wasn't really worried. At the top it's lonely and quiet with all the observatories sitting quietly with a few land rovers parked around. I thought there were only a couple observatories, but there's about 15! I so wanted to look through one of those telescopes! We spent every day touring with Bruce and Vanessa who were such great tour guides. Vanessa did a wonderful job planning and making all our arrangements. We got to visit with and meet some of their friends. One of their friends had the most unusual chicken as a pet. It is called a "silky." I'm going to upload a picture. We said it should be called a "chickapoo" because it was a chicken with poodle hair! Here come the pictures!! First a happy birthday to our friends Pat, Michelle, and Richard! Love you guys! Happy starting of the new school year to all my NES friends! I am really thinking about you.