Hilo, Hawaii

From Hononlulu, we flew to Paradise, also known as the Big Island of Hawaii.

After spending a day enjoying Hilo, from the farmers' market to Rainbow Falls to the very informative Tsunami Museum of the Pacific and Mokupapapa Discovery Center, we then ate as many free samples as Mauna Loa Macadamias would give us (and managed to actually buy plenty, too).  We then set out for Volcanoes National Park. The volcano is active, and besides all the smoke we did catch a few glimpses of fire -- this is so exciting that strangers grab each other by the arm and yell "There!  Did you see it?" every few minutes as a little bit of red jumps into sight.

We picked up the park information from the visitors' center and then found our lodging, a few miles outside the park.  We have a gorgeous little house with a loft bedroom for the kids and a full kitchen, all set in the cool rain forest near Volcano, Hawaii.  The rain taps on the tin roof and the birds sing and frogs croak, and lots of other things make noise, too, and there has been lots of mentions on how "we could live here", or at least use the general floor plan to build our next house (although it was agreed that the roof should be higher to allow more head room in the loft).  Alii Kane Cottages, another place we recommend!