We had a leisurely breakfast on Monday morning.  Gary took his camera and tripod down to the stream and waterfalls that we overlook on the lanai.  About 30 minutes was enough time to get some nice images of the waterfalls—and plenty of mosquito bites!

Joyce packed for the day’s journey to the south to the end of the road!  The town of Kalapana had been destroyed by a lava flow in 1990 and the road cut off for through traffic.  We went to the end of the road and took a few photos of the lava field.

Along the way we did some geocaching (what, no surprise?).  We stopped in the town Pahoa to photograph a Catholic church that was just begging for a photo op.  While there Joyce researched a cache that was hidden nearby in a lava wall.  Unfortunately, this was a did not find.

We had pre-planned to stop at the Star of the Sea Painted Church (Catholic) to take some photos and hopefully find a cache.  Unfortunately, this cache was a difficulty level 5 meaning that it was especially well hidden.  Another did not find!  Then we drove on down to the end of the road and turned around to complete our drive along the scenic ocean view road #137.

We stopped at Mackenzie state park and took some surf photos.  We continue our drive up the road to the tide pools recommended by our host.  After parking the car in the designated spot, we walked the 0.2 mile down to the pools.  Crossing the short lava field we parked the car keys on a nearby lava outcrop and got into the pools.  The water was warm in places and cool in others.  We had to be careful as lifting feet from the bottom cause us to float (high salinity changes the buoyancy of a body).

This was Gary’s first test of the waterproof point-and-shoot camera that he bought for this trip.  There were a variety of tropical fish in the tide pools and since we did not have snorkel gear, he just put the camera under the water and aimed in the general direction of the fish that could be seen from above the surface.  Maybe some will turn out when seen on the big screen!

We walked back to the car hoping to air dry off on the way as we failed to bring towels.  Sortof we did!  Back at the car we changed out of some of the wet swimwear and hoped we’d still dry off in the air conditioning.

Next a short drive up the road was one of the Hawaii lighthouses.  Well, more like a light on a stick than anything one would recognize as a lighthouse in the traditional sense.  Here we were on the prowl for a cache and a photo op.  We had to hike out across the lava field a short way to locate the cache.  Success!  #1 for the day.  Buried in a hole in the lava.  Took some more surf photos too.

We had an unplanned stop at the Lava Tree State Park to find out what lava trees were.  We learned that they were trees that had been covered with lava during a flow and then when the organic matter decayed there was a lava “tube” left standing.  Oh, and we found cache #2 here located near the entrance to the park.

We still needed another cache for the goal of 3/day.  We decided to revisit Rainbow Falls to find the cache that was unavailable a few days earlier because of too many people around.  It started to rain on the way.  As we pulled into the parking area, there was on spot open right next to the hiding place and we could use the car as a shield from the people who came to Rainbow Falls in the rain….  What were they expecting to see, I wonder.  Joyce jumped out of the car and grabbed the cache hidden in a light pole base, signed the log and put it back.  Gary took a photo of this out the open door.

Then we made our way to the guest house and had chicken, rice and green beans for dinner.  White and red wine, too.

Only two more full days to see stuff on the Big Island.