Fixsen Family: Day 4- Sunday

Random little lizards. I wanted to take this one home.

We had heard Friday that they were having Stake Conference at church on Sunday. We decided to walk up the hill to listen anyway.

Elesa got up early and headed down to the lobby and brought up breakfast to eat in bed. It was nice to take our time before heading out for the day.

We were quite distracted at church, and only stayed for an hour before heading back to the hotel to grab our car. We thought a little drive was an appropriate activity so we headed across the island to the Hilo side. It is the rainy side of the island, and it was beautiful! The city itself was quite run down looking, and way less touristy. Kind of disappointing!

We drove this "belt" road because it cuts right across the island. The first half from Kona was all dry and exposed rock, and about half way it turned to this amazing lush rainforest.

We drove up to this trail head for a waterfall (can't remember the name) we were hoping for a substantial hike and over heard someone say it would take about 45 mins. Well about 15 minutes later WITH stops for photos we were back at the car. Still beautiful. I had never before considered taking small clips of video with my phone, but it was nice to play them back and remember the sounds of the forest and waterfalls.

We ate lunch at the pineapple cafe in Hilo, and then headed to the volcano national park. We were freezing, but we waited in the visitors centre until it was nice and dark and we could see the glow of the active volcano. The Big Island is actually formed from a handful of volcanos. Most are extinct, but there are a few active. I heard someone say that there is one that is constantly pouring into the ocean. Very cool!

As you drive into the park you see all this steam coming up from the side of the road, and random spots in the horizon. They are volcano steam vents. This one was set up for tourists to check up close. It was very cool to stand in the steam.