Our lodging for the next couple of nights was at the Volcano Teapot Cottage.
After unloading our junk, we drove into the Volcano National Park and hiked out onto the lava while the sun was setting. The road dead-ends into lava (volcanoes do not respect city planning). Even though we didn't hike out too far onto the lava, it was still a pretty nuts experience. The lava (the old lava) is like some liquid-looking inky black lunar surface. Off in the distance (about a mile) we could see the orangey/red light which was the lava pouring into the sea and the steam clouds going out to sea.
We toodled up the coast on the east side of the Big Island and then cut across the top of the island back to the airport. It was an amazing landscape the whole way. Saw waterfalls in the middle section and then in the northern part of the Big Island it's just rolling hills and tall grass. Not developed at all.
