During her annual physical in 2024, Linda’s physician decided that she should see a heart specialist. After a series of tests, Linda had an operation in January of 2025 to repair a heart valve. By late March, she had recovered enough that we gladly accepted Allen’s invitation to fly with them to the Big Island of Hawaii to help celebrate Janet’s 60th birthday.
The first day, we drove to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and walked through a lava tube.
While a volcano is active, lava flows downhill in large channels. The outer edge starts to cool and solidify while the interior continues to flow until it empties, leaving a hollow tunnel.
There had been a major eruption the day before we arrived and we were hopeful we could see some activity, something more exciting than steam rising out of the ground.
A couple of days later, Allen got a notification on his phone of a lava flow. It was 7:00 in the evening, but we had to take a look.
The next day we were rewarded with a 600-foot lava tower. The previous eruption reached over 1000 feet, but what we saw was impressive.
Everything else was anti-climatic but very enjoyable, including flowers, waterfalls, the rugged coastline, a coffee plantation, a macadamia farm, and food markets. We managed to avoid the cow cuddling.
