My life is a little bit crazy right now, so I was unable to devote my normal amount of attention to planning my two-day trip to the Big Island. I knew I wanted to swim with the turtles, go to the Green Beach and see the Volcano. Susan and Andre’s place seemed geographically close to those three activities, so I grabbed it. When I arrived in Hilo, the Hertz employee said the volcano had just erupted. Roads were starting to close during the drive to the house. The next morning, plumes of gas started to plume up from the volcano as we arrived at Volcano National Park and the first 4.5 earthquake happened. We were in the Jagger Museum for the 6.9 earthquake. As we arrived at the turtle beach, the lifeguard got the call that all the beaches were closed due to tsunami warnings. On our second day, different roads were closed, but I made it in the water for ten minutes to swim with one turtle!
All in all, I think Susan and Andre’s place was the most exciting place to be last weekend. We didn’t have to evacuate, there were clouds of sulfur dioxide but they didn’t accumulate at the house (farther down the road), there were constant earthquakes and the peeper frogs would get quiet for a few minutes after each one. Seeing the response of the National Guard and having pretty regular contact with Andre made us feel secure.
As for the house, very nice windows that allowed a breeze. I ate breakfast on the porch with a gecko every morning. We were lucky that we had bought food for the entire trip as we left the airport because the closer grocery stores were crowded with evacuees. There isn’t a microwave or stove in the house due to regulations, and I had injured my ankle seriously right before the trip, so going down stairs to microwave a meal wasn’t very convenient. For able bodied folk, it should be no problem.
Anyway, I don’t think ours was a normal trip, but it was epic. Thanks Susan and Andre and best wishes!