Day 5 - The green beach!

Hi everyone! a great day on the BIG Isle! We're up pretty early, and have breakie here & hit the road toward the green sand beach. It's located on the extreme south end of the island, and the southern most part of the USA..yes, farther south than the Forida Keys. We have to get some fuel & it's 3.05 here! A quick stop at a local swap meet, and I purchase a cool handmade necklace, (wait 'till ya see this one Terry!) with urging from KK. Back on the highway & finally we find the turn to South Point, and it's still 12 miles down to the ocean, and the road gets narrower & rougher. We park with everyone else, maybe 20 cars & head out & man, is it windy! It's supposed to be just over 2.2 miles each way and it's pretty tough hiking, but not over lava flows! Actually there is a lot of lava along the shore, but some dirt as well. We finally get there and it's a massive and steep climb down to the green sand..nope, not for KK. It was cool looking, but we didn't see any reason to go down there..very high surf & lots of people. A short rest and then we head back, but the surf all the way back is wonderful as it crashes into the old lava flows along the coast. Reminds us of the first trip to the Hilo side. Yea! Our car is still there! We get a shaved ice from a local vendor, eat our sandwiches & head down toward Volcanoes National Park. We are so dirty from our hike that we stop at a local state park to clean up & it's the black sand beach! Way cool! Then on to the park & once again, our senior pass gets us in! The only bad news is that the "Chain of Craters Road" is closed due to dangerous sulfur dioxide being released by the current eruptions & volcanic gas coming from the Halema'uma'u Crater-damn! So we check out the view of the Kilauea Ki caldera & the Thurston Lava Tube-yes, KK makes it all the way thru the tube! And who do we see here? The Arnott's Crowd in one of their vans full of people. We chat with Mike for a while and he's excited to see us. Around to the visitor center & the Jagger Museum & a great view of the plume of steam rising from the crater! So far , no earthquakes. We're out of here and down to Hilo for dinner at Kens, a great local place & all you can eat spaghetti for me & mahi-mahi for KK. Now for the long drive back to Kona. It's an easier drive back thru Waimea & around the mountain on 190. Back into Kona about 10:15 and a long day but a great one!