Coming to You from Hawai'i
This week I’m coming to you fresh off the plane from Hawaii (words I’ve been dreaming of saying for years, eek!). I was there on a big dream family vacation to celebrate a big family milestone (my youngest kiddo’s high school graduation and the start to my “retired homeschool mama” days), and not only were we all blown away by the beauty of Hawai’i but we saw something while hiking in Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park so rare, so awe-inspiring, so freaking wonderful I’m struggling to find words to explain it.
So, I’m sharing a photo gallery of the very best things we saw in Hawai’i along with the words I have for now, and I’ll be back next week to chat more. Until then, here’s something beautiful from Hawai’i and gorgeous Pele to enjoy. . .
Travel with me for a moment and imagine this . . .
You’ve just spent the last three days traveling across five different time zones, navigating three different airports, and fitfully not-sleeping in two different tiny hotel beds. Your legs and back are aching from 12+ hours on planes and more time than you’d like to think about in a car, and yet somehow in your first 24 hours in Hawai’i you’ve already visited the farmer’s market, loads of shops, and toured what has to be the best coffee farm on the planet. You finally arrive at your rental house where there’s a pool and a hot tub with an ocean view waiting for you to relax and enjoy it, but everyone’s tired, jet lagged, and cranky, so you decide to head to bed and have a pool day tomorrow . . .
The morning of said pool day arrives, however. . .
You’re also tracking something that *could be* happening today at Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park and it’s so rare, so awe-inspiring, so freaking wonderful that you really can’t risk missing it. So you forego the pool, get everyone into the car again, throw water bottles and a couple of snacks in a hiking pack just in case, and you’re on the road again.
It’s 9:30 a.m. As soon as you arrive at HVNP you notice everyone around you is buzzing. When you get a glimpse of a small lava flow bubbling off and on every few minutes, you know you’re seeing something very few people in the world have seen. . .
It’s 11 a.m. The park is starting to get crowded. Cars are backing up on the road waiting for a parking spot. Buses are showing up unloading heaps of people. You realize the big eruption is coming, probably sometime today, but it’s hot and super sunny, and you don’t have enough food and water to stay in the park and watch the whole day. One of the kiddos says they’re not feeling so good all of a sudden. So, you head to the car for a family meeting “should we stay or should we go” style.
It’s 11:30 a.m. You meet a local couple in the parking lot who tell you they’ve seen loads of eruptions and there’s no way to know when it will happen. It could be in 10 minutes, in the middle of the night tonight, or even tomorrow, they say. Then this: “One thing you need to know is if you leave now and the eruption starts before dark, you won’t be able to get back in.”
You decide to hike the caldera for a couple of hours, eat and drink what you have in your bag, and go from there. . .
It’s 1:30 p.m. You stumble onto a park ranger giving a guided tour and excitedly listen in. Someone asks him why the eruption hasn’t happened yet, even though the prediction said it was due two days ago. He says these things can’t always be predicted precisely but he has a feeling it just might happen today.
You follow him for a while and ask all the things you’ve been wondering: Why are there so many rocks in the trees here? How high can the eruption reach? What’s one of your favorite experiences here? And most importantly, Is there a bathroom ahead on the trail somewhere?
He tells you you’re only a half mile from Volcano House. . .
It’s 2 p.m. You reach Volcano House and feel like the luckiest person on the planet as you grab a table for four at the restaurant and proceed to eat a big, delicious meal in hopes it will keep everyone’s bellies full for the hike back to the car and however many more hours you might decide to keep waiting.
It’s 3:30 p.m. You’re paying your lunch tab and buying a few souvenirs in the gift shop when you hear someone shout, “It’s starting! IT’S STARTING!” So you run outside, see that the lava bubblings have turned into something way more, and know it’s time to start hiking back. The show has begun. . .
It’s 5:30 p.m. You’ve spent the past two hours standing in awe on the side of an erupting volcano, watching the lava flow higher and higher and higher, reaching 600+ feet high into the air. The roaring sound is all you can hear. The only thing you can say is “wow”. The look on your face is sheer wonder. . .
You can’t stop thinking about the experience on the drive back to the house and every time you wake up in a jet lag haze that night. You’re still in awe the next morning. Finally, pool day.
The rest of the trip is filled with Hawai’i’s gorgeous botanical gardens, beaches, hiking, good food, and reading by the pool. You love it all. You know you’re extremely lucky to be here. Gratitude overflows and spills down your cheeks in tears.
🥥🌴🌺🍍🌋
I hope this was a fun, inspiring, non-old-person-slide-show way to share a bit of Hawai’i with you today, friend — To be honest, I’m still in awe. I’m still trying to process my feelings. And I’m now more passionate than ever before about the importance of national parks and wild places and the necessity of wonder and awe for us humans for the perspective shift it gives us. More on that later, I’m sure.
We arrived back home in Maine early Wednesday morning, and as I write this, we’re all trying to recover and settle back into our rhythms, but it’s slow going. (The time change, jet lag, and horrible colds we all came down with while we were away have become a difficult combo to bounce back from.)
Also, my greenhouse turned into a literal jungle while we were away (pic below), so I’m in for a weekend of garden planting with a good audiobook or two in my earbuds.
Wherever you are, whatever’s on your heart and in your mind this weekend, I hope wonder, awe, and big growth find their way to you, too — and if you have questions about the Big Island of Hawai’i that I didn’t cover here, let me know.
I’m around :)
✌🏼️💓 🪴📚
Celeste
