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Today was the day for hot lava! We slept in a little this morning and made it to breakfast by about 9:30am. By 11am we were on the road to Volcano National Park on the other side of the island. This time we decided to take the south route through Na'alehu. On the way, we ventured down South Point road, which was expressly forbidden by our car rental contract. After about 8 miles we figured out why. Up until that point the road was paved, but after that it became this gravely mess that I did not want to try in the Alero (aka "Shady").

Sidenote: Originally, we wanted to travel to the end of the road and then hike three miles to a green sand beach on the southernmost tip of the island. We wound up skipping it because we couldn't get as far as we wanted in the car and we still had to see the volcano that afternoon.
The green sand beach is actually green because of olivine. Eric knew that the green sand beach was olivine but didn't mention it to me. And I knew that olivine is also called peridot - which is my birthstone (August). I think if we had figured all that out at the time we may have tried to hike it anyway. Alas, it will have to wait for our next trip back.

 

After taking some pictures of the windmills on South Point Road we headed back to the main road (Highway 11). Our next stop was at our second black sand beach of the trip at Honuapo Bay.

Next we split a malasada, a Portuguese filled doughnut, at the Punalu'u Bakeshop (which is famous for being the southern most bakery in the U.S.) and then we were on the road again to Volcano. On the way, we stopped at the Volcano Winery to sample a few of their wines. Though not impressed with the quality, we gave them credit for trying the fruit and honey wine avenue. Before we entered the park, Shady needed gas, so we stopped at this primitive gas station.
We had to back up to the one pump and go inside to pay before the pump was even turned on. (We found out later there was a Shell "pay at the pump" station about 2/10 of a mile further down the road!)
In the Volcano National Park we got up close and personal with some sulfur and steam vents - whew. We also walked through a lava tube that a truck could have easily fit through and viewed the Kilauea Caldera from all sides. While trying to get a good photo of a rainbow, we got fairly damp from the cool misting rain. The best part was at sunset when we arrived ahead of the nighttime crowd to where a lava flow had blocked the road back in 1995. Three miles away the active volcanic flow was entering the ocean creating an easily seen steam plume.
One of the park rangers had a telescope set up to view the mountain side where you could see some of the lava breaking out of the tubes (normally it flows just underground). The lava became clearly visible with the naked eye once the sun had set. We were both exited and tired after seeing the lava so we wound up eating locally. The Thai Thai Restaurant was open this time and the food was great!
I had red curry shrimp with rice and Eric had sweet & sour chicken with rice. Both dishes were ordered "medium" and we were thanking our lucky stars we didn't try "hot" by the end of the meal. The drive home was a bit tough as it had started to rain in Volcano and the rain didn't stop until we got to Kona (almost two hours later). By the way, the temperature in Volcano was in the upper-fifties that evening!