Hawaii Friday

We were very good conference attendees for the main part of the conference. On Thursday night, we did head out to swim in the dark with the manta rays in the bay just outside our hotel. We didn't take photos, though, so you'll just have to trust us that it was really cool.

On Friday, I had to give a talk the very first thing in the morning, but after 9:30, we were free. So we headed out in the car to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. We spent the day seeing molten rock, dried lava, sweeping vistas, and many other things. We started (based on the ranger's recommendation) by heading into see the active part of the volcano. After being awed by this for a while, we drove around the bend to see some sulphur deposits left by volcanic activity. Throughout the day, we were thrown off by steam simply coming out of the ground. We finally decided it was disconcerting because it really looks like the grass or trees are on fire. Next we headed out on the Chain of Craters Drive, which is basically a highway that goes down to the coast, passing several massive craters on the way. We also got out to take a look at some ancient petraglyphs: carvings from humans of long ago in the lava rock. We reached the coast, where we could see a place where the lava empties into the see in the distance; it was a five-mile walk one-way, though, so we headed back up the hill in the car. We stopped off at the Thurston Lava Tube to walk through a channel where lava once ran underground. We walked to the Iki overlook to see people the size of ants traversing the bottom of a crater. We did a bit more walking around while waiting for it to get darker so that we could check out the active volcano glow. Definitely worth hanging out for.