Home»Hawaii: The Big Island

In March my friend, Janet and I traveled to the Big Island to visit and hike the Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park and Kilauea volcano. We stayed in the park and the hiking trails started across the road from our cottage. In addition to hiking the volcanoes and lava flows during the day, we hiked down to the oceans edge to watch the night time eruptions as the lava flows into the ocean. We also visited an area where the ancient Hawaiin's had etched over 23,000 diverse petroglyphs into the lava flows. One of the highlights of the trip was a visit and overnight stay with Leslie Kissner and her husband George. They live and work near Waimea, on the dry side of the island. Leslie worked on the Johnston Atoll for 3 years as the Employee Assistance Representative. We spent part of the day on their boat where we had a whale and calf near the boat and spotted several others. George had caught a yellow fin tuna ( ahi ) prior to us getting on the boat, so that night we had shishimi and tuna on the grill. On my flight back to MN, I had a layover in Maui and was able to visit with Pat Fukumoto and Kazu Fukuoka, both who worked on the atoll for several years.