Way too many pictures all in one post

The Big Island of Hawaii is a very different experience from Kauai! The terrain is dominated by black lava rocks because of how much newer the island is. The last volcanic eruption on Kauai was something like 5 million years ago (okay, I'm making that number up), but there is an eruption occurring on the Big Island right now. It is actually kind of crazy; the vog is so thick in the air that as the sun is setting, you can look directly at it. The last time I remember being able to do that was in Riyadh on the dustiest days.

I took this picture from the restaurant at our hotel, where we ate dinner outside and watched the sun set. The patio was built over the water, so that we could watch turtles and eels in the water as we ate, and we even saw a whale in the distance for just a few moments. The sand on this beach was completely black; it was beautiful.
We couldn't get too close to the live craters or lava flows, partly because much of the state park was closed due to bad air quality, and partly because we didn't do the long hikes that take you into those areas. We did take a short walk through some cool lava tubes. Russell made this scary face because it was kind of spooky in there, and then the double exposure made the picture even freakier. This looks out over a big crater, and you can see a smoking crater in the distance.. Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa's participation in a very long timeshare sales presentation, we got tickets to a great luau. Dorian got to sit at the head of the table. Russell was looking tan. Grandpa doesn't look that excited, but he really was enjoying himself. They cooked this pig underground and then we ate it. Dorian was enthralled by the performers. The firedancer was especially good. This is the last picture I took in Hawaii. The airport in Kona is completely open to the air. So there you go. We had a great trip. We are grateful to Russell's grandparents for making it possible and for showing us around. We will definitely go back again.