Our honeymoon adventure began as we landed in the glorious Hawaiian islands- quite a break from the ice and snow of the Midwest! One of the days on our 10 day stay, we traveled to Volcanoes National Park on the big island of Hawaii. While stopping at a certain point in our drive, we noticed herds of people walking across dark, dried lava that were remnants of Kilauea’s huge eruption in March 1990 (a year earlier,) that destroyed 100 homes, a church and a store and covered it all in 50-80 feet of lava.
We could see people in the distance gathering around an area that had huge billowing smoke trails. This is what it looked like that day…
The combination of the crowd and smoke piqued our curiosity. As others were returning to the parking lot, we asked them about the situation. They informed us that it was an hour hike out to see where lava was spilling into the ocean and then an hour back to the parking lot. We decided that if we had come all the way to Hawaii doggone it, we were going to see some lava up close!
We hiked out with our camera and video camera because we were going to capture the moment!! It was quite a an experience- the heat, the glowing lava, the sizzle of the lava spilling out into the ocean and the smell of the steam made for an unforgettable moment that we shared with many others that were there.
What we DIDN’T know at the time, was that as we had walked between the volcano and where it was exiting into the ocean, we could have fallen into molten lava beneath the surface- at any point if it was close to the surface. The innocence or youth or dumb and in love- not sure which! We were invincible back then!
TMI for your Mother……Thank you, Jesus! So glad that you had that experience, but so glad that you made it home safely….Thanks for your story!