Luckily for us, our Hawaiian adventure was not over after the wedding, which made it just a little easier to say goodbye to everyone (although I cried anyway). When everyone else was getting on planes to head home, we hopped over to the BIG ISLAND for a few more days of fun! We met Shea (a friend of mine from Lafayette) and his girlfriend at the airport, grabbed a late dinner, then headed over to their house in Keaau, where they graciously allowed us to stay for 4 nights! Our first morning on the Big Island, Shea took us on a whirlwind tour of the southeastern portion of the island. We started off with the BEST SNORKELING EVER at Wai O'pae, lava-rock tidepools that were so clear and so shallow, it was like snorkeling in an aquarium! We saw some of the biggest fish we'd seen yet, some new species of fish, and more varieties of coral than I ever expected to see in one place. It was really amazing and I highly recommend it to anyone who will be visiting the Big Island in the future!! For reference, the nearest town is Kapoho.
Next, we moved on to watch giant waves crash over sea cliffs. Apparently, we were there on a calm day... Shea said he'd been there once when the waves were big enough to dislodge a chunk of lava rock the size of a small car and send it flying! Needless to say, we didn't get too close to the edge...
Next was the black sand beach at Kalapana, after a delicious Hawaiian plate lunch (I miss those already)!
A little further past Kalapana, we were able to walk out and see, from a distance, where the new lava flow was hitting the ocean. Earlier in the year, Shea and Amber were able to walk right out to it, but safety restrictions have since been put in place. I was impressed anyway!
Lots of people leave offerings to Pele near lava flows, steam vents, etc. Here's an example:
I thought this shot of "recent" (30 years old, I think) pahoehoe lava flow was awesome:
That afternoon, we picked Amber up from work and headed up to Mauna Kea for sunset and star-gazing. It was COLD up there, at almost 14,000 feet, somewhere in the 40's, so we bought Mauna Kea Obervatory sweatshirts to pile on under our jackets. Here are Amber and I sporting our new gear at the summit:
This is a view of the backside. The craters looked really gorgeous in the setting sun!
Of course, we needed a group photo!
This is a view across the clouds to Maui and the Haleakala crater. Cool, eh?
After sunset, we moved down to the visitor center and checked out the stars, and whatever else the volunteers had their telescopes trained on. We got to see Saturn and Omega Centauri (I took the photos through the telescope, and they actually turned out pretty good)!
The next day, we gave Shea and Amber some alone time (Shea just got a new job as a marine observer and only had a few days at home before heading out for his first 20-day stint at sea) and headed south to do some birding with one of Shea's friends that is a student at the University of Hawaii, studying plumage differences in Hawaii Amakihi. We met her at 6:00am to get up to her site in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. She has 12 sites, at different elevations and locations throughout the island. We only caught one endemic while we were there (pictures in another blog to follow, one that is dedicated to the Hawaiian birds). We left her at 11:00am so we could visit the rest of the park, drive down to South Point, and do a little more birding on our own. Here is Jay goofing off in front of Kilauea:
We sampled some of the local brew (from Hilo, HI): Mehana's Volcano Red Ale was especially refreshing in front of the volcano...
I just really liked this giant fern, which was everywhere in the park:
Here we are at Ka Lae, or South Point. We thought we had already been to the southermost point in the United States, in Key West, but we were wrong. That's just the southernmost point of the CONTINENTAL United States! So, we had to remedy that!! It was actually pretty darn cool because you could see the exact spot even out in the water... there were huge waves in the water to the east of South Point, whereas the water to the west was really calm. Interesting, eh?
After South Point, we had dinner at the southernmost restaurant (of course we did, right?), then headed back towards the national park. We had big plans to find the Nene (the Hawaiian goose - more on them in the bird post) and see Kilauea after sunset. On the way, we had to pull off the highway to get this photo of the southern portion of the island, which is mostly the national park. The weather was getting crummy, but you can still see the point where the new lava flow is hitting the ocean, way off in the distance (at the bottom right of the photo):
As promised, here is Kilauea after sunset. I had no idea we'd be able to see it so well! And you should see Jay's photos!
The next day, our last full day in Hawaii, Shea and Amber took us to Waipi'o Valley (the Valley of Kings), the oldest inhabited place on the island, and one which suffered during the tsunamis, but where nobody perished, some say because the old kings are buried in the cliffs... 
The hike down into the valley was a one-mile, 25% grade road down 1000 feet elevation. It made weird muscles hurt, like the ones on top of my feet! It was so worth it though! There were "wild" horses roaming about...
It was another mile or so back along a river to reach Hi'ilawe Falls. There was much rock-hopping, tree clinging, and river crossing (stepping, wading, and swimming). Hi'ilawe Falls is the tallest waterfall on the Big Island at 1450 feet, and emits a ferocious spray during the wet season. However, it hadn't really rained in over 2 weeks when we visited, so it was calm enough for us to go for a swim! Here are Shea and Amber dwarfed by the base of the falls:
Here's another view, looking up from the base. And no, I could not possibly get the entire falls in one photo!
The water was cold, but how could we resist a chance to swim at the base of one of the least known and even less visited waterfalls in Hawaii?
At Shea and Amber's house, we were serenaded to sleep each night by the Coqui frogs. No, they are not native. But yes, they are super cute (and their song is absolutely adorable - they sound like they're saying "ko-ki, ko-ki, ko-ki" over and over and over)! I took some video of course, attached below in separate post (since this one is already so very long).
Our last morning in Hawaii, Jay and I set out to see some more waterfalls, with more water flowing. First stop was Rainbow Falls, where we saw this awesome Banyan Tree:
Then we drove further up river to see the Boiling Pots...
...and Pe'epe'e Falls (we were impressed and it was fun hiking out to it)!
For one more hope of seeing the Nene, we went out to Coconut Island in downtown Hilo. No geese, but we learned a little history about the tsunamis that have repeatedly devastated the area. Rather than continue rebuilding, Hilo has converted much of the impacted areas into green space, making Hilo known as the City of Parks. This palm tree at Coconut Island had tsunami height markings (much like the flood markings we see here along the Mississippi River):
And finally, my last view of the island as we flew toward Honolulu. You can see Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea in the first photo, and a close-up of Mauna Kea in the second.
Aloha Hawaii, and Mahalo!
