{"id":1830,"date":"2011-10-25T21:04:34","date_gmt":"2011-10-26T04:04:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.streamdoubletrouble.com\/?p=1830"},"modified":"2011-10-25T21:04:34","modified_gmt":"2011-10-26T04:04:34","slug":"two-tickets-to-paradise-%e2%80%93-wednesday-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/streamoftheconscious.com\/two-tickets-to-paradise-%e2%80%93-wednesday-fire\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Tickets to Paradise \u2013 Wednesday: Fire"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Hawaii is amazing. The Big Island has every terrain thinkable \u2013 tropical paradise, Jurassic Park, Mars, desert chic, permafrost\u2026and the list goes on and on. Today, we decided to step it up a notch and head beneath the surface.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>It was a two and a half hour drive across a bumpy road. Everything is so far apart there. (I guess that\u2019s why it\u2019s called the \u201cBig\u201d island.) For the first hour, everything to our right and our left was lava. Shrubs dotted the landscape, while washed up white coral had been neatly arranged to spell things like \u201cJ <heart> T\u201d along the two-lane highway. Suddenly, as though we\u2019d crossed an imaginary demarcation line \u2013 the scenery became jungle.<\/p>\n

But you know what? Spelunking rocks. (Haha \u2013 see what I did there?)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Stalagmite shadow puppets!<\/p><\/div>\n

We crossed the Big Island to spend our day climbing within the interwebs of lava tubes that honeycomb the island (with its still very active volcanoes). These hollowed, hallowed tubes fill you with awe and mystery as you wind your way through the mazes. It\u2019s pitch black, cannot see your hand in front of your face, dark. The floor is hardened into ripples beneath your feet as you clamor over fallen piles of rough, ragged, rubble rock.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou ready for your three-hour tour?\u201d inquired our guide? (Well THAT sounded ominous\u2026)<\/p>\n

Each entrance to the 55-mile length of the cave is called a \u201cskylight,\u201d a result of a cave in. (Bet you never thought about measuring the depth of ground beneath you before building your house did you?)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Sacrificial virgins sold separately.<\/p><\/div>\n

Our guide shared that several of the trees at each entrance lack moss growth. \u201cThe Hawaiian Kahuna (priest) blessed each entrance. Asking safety and security for all visitors,\u201d shared our likely stoned tour guide. \u201cAnd in my experience through all these years down in the peaceful calm of the cave\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

He paused, as I skittered down a pile of rubble on my cute little behind. (Don\u2019t worry, I was fine \u2013 not even a scrape.)<\/p>\n

\u201cSo far, the blessing has worked,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n

After we returned to Earth\u2019s surface, Jon and I headed to Kilauea National Park. A park ranger shared that no molten lava had been seen that day, so Jon and I decided not to trek the additional two hour drive to the potential viewing point (which would have resulted in a 4+ hour drive home \u2013 everything on the Big Island is really far apart. I guess that\u2019s why it\u2019s the Big island.)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Instead we hiked along the Sulfer springs, the scenery a dead-ringer for the Jurassic Park sound stage, with holey recesses in the ground shooting steam. It was very weird to realize I was strolling along a very very live volcano \u2013 on some of the newest land on Earth. I kept my eyes widely peeled for a rogue goat or the rippling effects of a water bottle, which may give me precious moments to avoid an angry T-Rex on the run.<\/p>\n

I noted that if I was not going to be able to see flowing molten lava, I would happily be satiated by a poolside lava flow fruity beverage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hawaii is amazing. The Big Island has every terrain thinkable \u2013 tropical paradise, Jurassic Park, Mars, desert chic, permafrost\u2026and the list goes on and on. Today, we decided to step it up a notch and head beneath the surface.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[34],"tags":[513,520,519,518],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3Sbzi-tw","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":580,"url":"https:\/\/streamoftheconscious.com\/580\/","url_meta":{"origin":1830,"position":0},"title":"Forever in Paradise","date":"August 30, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Uncle Paul and Aunt Stephanie are currently vacationing in paradise \u2013 also known as Hawaii. For those of you wondering about my word selection, yes, I did indeed say Aunt Stephanie. You see, Paul and Stephanie are now engaged. [We momentarily interrupt this blog post to do a happy dance\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Family Stories"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/streamdoubletrouble.files.wordpress.com\/2010\/08\/nightbefore_steph-and-paul_8-11-07.jpg?w=350&h=200&crop=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1817,"url":"https:\/\/streamoftheconscious.com\/two-tickets-to-paradise-monday-air\/","url_meta":{"origin":1830,"position":1},"title":"Two Tickets to Paradise – Monday: Air","date":"October 23, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Did you miss me? Thanks to an act of God, Jon and I were able to escape for a week. After a very long weekend spent celebrating the weekend of my brother and sister (heehee! I have a sister!) the four of us trooped down to the newlyweds house on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Vacation"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.streamdoubletrouble.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/Hawaii_09-17-11_01-300x224.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1845,"url":"https:\/\/streamoftheconscious.com\/two-tickets-to-paradise-%e2%80%93-friday-turtles\/","url_meta":{"origin":1830,"position":2},"title":"Two Tickets to Paradise \u2013 Friday: TURTLES","date":"October 27, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Either much to your dismay or relief \u2013 depending on you feel about these adventures, we have reached the final day in paradise. Tomorrow we will return you to your regularly scheduled muppet adventures. Conversation that occurred Friday afternoon: Jon: I just looked at the camera. There are only pictures\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Home"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.streamdoubletrouble.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/Hawaii_09-20-11_101-300x224.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1823,"url":"https:\/\/streamoftheconscious.com\/two-tickets-to-paradise-%e2%80%93-tuesday-earth\/","url_meta":{"origin":1830,"position":3},"title":"Two Tickets to Paradise \u2013 Tuesday: Earth","date":"October 24, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"I grew up in an equestrian center community. Many of our neighbors had stables in their backyards and you could walk to the arena where people housed and ran their stallions. When I was about 6 years old, my family went on vacation to Phoenix, Ariz. My mom and I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Vacation"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.streamdoubletrouble.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/Hawaii_09-18-11_14-300x224.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3969,"url":"https:\/\/streamoftheconscious.com\/paradise-point-and-the-jet-ski\/","url_meta":{"origin":1830,"position":4},"title":"Paradise Point and the Jet Ski","date":"August 4, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Let me immediately disabuse you of the notion that we spent the past week in actual paradise: everyone knows that\u2019s in Hawaii. We were in San Diego. A week of fun in the California sun \u2013 complete with muppets and grandparents. (So I totally stole away to the spa.) Paradise\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Vacation"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/streamoftheconscious.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/San-Diego-Vacation_101_Paradise-Point_07-30-14-copy-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1836,"url":"https:\/\/streamoftheconscious.com\/two-tickets-to-paradise-%e2%80%93-thursday-water\/","url_meta":{"origin":1830,"position":5},"title":"Two Tickets to Paradise \u2013 Thursday: Water","date":"October 26, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"So far we\u2019ve tackled air, earth and fire. So today \u2013 we took on the water. After applying copious amounts of sunscreen, we set off toward the harbor for a morning snorkel cruise. The boat traveled out to the Kealakekua Bay - home of the Captain Cook monument. (Did you\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Vacation"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.streamdoubletrouble.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/Hawaii_09-20-11_04-300x224.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/streamoftheconscious.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1830"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/streamoftheconscious.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/streamoftheconscious.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/streamoftheconscious.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/streamoftheconscious.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1830"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/streamoftheconscious.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1830\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/streamoftheconscious.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/streamoftheconscious.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/streamoftheconscious.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}