Saturday, January 7, 2023.

We drove past massive lava fields, most of the sharp A’a type. You can remember this because if you walked on this type of lava you would be screaming Ah, Ah. The other less common type of lava is Pahoehoe lava which is smooth and glassy.

Jim loves a good bakery, so we stopped at the Southernmost bakery in the US, the Punalu’u Bake Shop for Malasadas, a type of Portuguese donut.

We arrived at Volcano National Park around lunch time. Our room at Volcano House was not ready, so we had lunch in the hotel’s restaurant overlooking the crater’s rim. We also went for a short hike to an overlook to see the erupting crater a little better. Later we drove to the lava tube.

Dinner was great at the Volcano House restaurant as the sun was setting. We had a room with a view of the crater, but we spent very little time in our room.