More Volcanoes And More Hula

...Continued from yesterday:

     After Kenneth Makuakāne's wonderful concert on the lanai of the Kilauea Visitor Center,  (see yesterday's post),

​...I bought a couple of his CD's,

...then Tom and I  continued our exploration of  the  Kilauea Caldera, the miles-wide crater of a collapsed but still active volcano.

     After we finished our hike we headed back,

...to the Visitor Center where the Merrie Monarch Festival crafts classes were taking place.

     But rather than staying for the crafts, we went off in search of another Volcano:  the town of Volcano, located a few miles from the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park,  where we found a cute little place for lunch called,

...what else? - The Lava Rock Cafe, ...where the staff was friendly,

...and the food delish.

     After lunch we returned to  Volcanoes Park to hike around some more,

...and see, among other things, a lava tube, which is a tunnel formed by the passage of lava,

...and the Devastation Trail,

...where one can see the site of what was once a rain forest, destroyed by the 1959 eruption of the Kilauea Iki crater.

​ The plume of the Halema'um'au Crater is visible in the distance from the trail,

...along parts of which the vegetation is slowly growing back.

     Late in the afternoon we headed back to the Kilauea Military Camp (see post from 4/29/2017) for dinner at the Crater Rim Cafe,

...then back to our quarters to watch the Merrie Monarch hula competitions. which were awesome. (These photos I found on the 'net are better than the ones I took from the TV screen).

     Then at 9 pm, when it was good and dark outside and the black sky was filled with more stars than I've ever seen in any sky, we climbed back into the Mustang and headed back to see the Halema'um'au Crater.

     The flames and glow of the bubbling lava were visible and in the darkness reflected upwards,

​...coloring the rocks and the smoke,

...showing off the inner crater in all its breath-taking night-time glory.