Photos from our Hawaii trip. All the commentary is by Ted (age 9). You should be able to "View Image" on any picture to see it full-sized.



Ted in the front seat of the helicopter


Our first day at our resort, this is what the outside looks like.


Kilauea Caldera from the helicopter window. Notice the Sulfur Dioxide [SO2] coming out of the crater.


Another picture of our resort. This is what the west part of the island looks like.


Another picture of Kilauea caldera from the Helicopter. Another name for the crater is Halemaumau (that's what the natives call it). Look and you see lava inside of the caldera.


We were at Black Sand Beach near south point. We saw some little urchins near a little stream of sand.


One of the old eruption sites. it may have been in any of the Kilauea eruptions between 1983 and 2012, but it is also likely that it was from Mauna Loa's eruption in 1984.


Sulfur Dioxide coming out of Kilauea's caldera (Kilauea is the second of the active volcanoes in the state of Hawai'i. The other is Mauna Loa, also on the big island.) No one would want to go in there, also because Kilauea erupts more than any other volcano on earth!


Along the chain of craters road, there was an isolated forest in the middle of an active lava field. Now, we were on a helicopter at this time, so it is only one out of the hundreds of unique things on our tour. Another thing strange is there is a drop (mini-crater) in the isolated forest. It is an old [VERY] eruption site from about 1000 to 960000 years ago!


Rainbow falls from a distance. We didn't get lucky and see the rainbow, though.


Welcome to the Lava field of Kilauea and Mauna Loa volcanoes! There are many little holes like these in the lava field. A lava field is special beacause the lava holes are only a few feet deep, and they go to all the way through the mantle layer of the earth! The mantle is regularly 30 miles deep, but in this lava field, the mantle is 10 meters deep!.



More of the Lava holes in the field. Notice the rubbery stuff on the outside. 1000-20000 years ago, that might have been active lava flows!



One of the small lava flows in the field. One this small is not common or rare.


Sunset at our luau (in hawai'ian language means festival). Some of the locals say that the west side of the island (Kona) will promise you two things 99% of the time: A sunny day, and A beautiful sunset. Well, this is both of them!


Ted's friend Josh with Ted. They are loking at sea urchins inside of their mini-beach fort.


Another picture of the lava field except that you see trees with green and gray leaves. Also there are some trees that got cut down by the lava in the field.


You may be thinking: why are you taking a picture of rocks? Well, if you look closley, you see a red thing. It is Josh's pet, Big Mama!


If this is Hilo, be very surprised, because: #1: It always rains in Hilo. There are two sides of the island, The West is the Kona side, and the East is the Hilo side. The Kona side is considered the Plains/Dry side of the island, while the Hilo side is considered the swamp side. #2: Once it rains in Hilo, be excpected to wait a couple months before it stops. Also, it is not raining in this picture.


We took a little hike to the 'ai'opio fishtrap and saw this. You may be thinking: what the heck is that?! Look more, and you see a square-like fishtrap.


One of the valleys on the northeast side of the island (I forgot its name). This is the small one. If you are staying in Hilo (under the condition that there are only 3 resorts in Hilo) it is not too far away from Hilo airport.



Now, this may seem a little weird, BUT! these are turkeys. in HAWAI'I! They are coming beacause people are feeding them, so that is proabably why Ted calls them invasive in Hawai'i.


Cliffs just north of the small valley near Hilo. Look a little closer and you will see a waterfall flowing into the ocean.




Ted in the Co-Pilot seat of the helicopter. Behind the window you see a bunch of waterfalls in a valley.



More of the waterfalls, except this is on the north side of the northernmost big valley. Look down, and you see the side of a black sand beach. It's not as popular as the one near south point, though.



View of Mauna Kea from a helicopter. On maps Mauna Kea is 13,796 feet above ground, but from the bottom of the ocean, it is 34,895 feet above ground. Mount everest is only 29,035 feet above ground! The only exception is Mauna Loa, It's considered height is 13,679 feet, but from the bottom of the ocean, it's 55,976 above the bottom of the sea. Mount Everest would proabably be considered puny to both of them! Look very close into the picture, and you see silver dots around the top of Mauna Kea. Those are Observatories. They only have them on Mauna Kea for two reasons. #1: It is 14,000 feet above the height of costal level of Hawai'i. #2: it hasn't erupted for a VERY long time. Mauna Loa just erupted in 1984, so no one wants to build there. This fact is for all of the people who like snow: In the morning, it always snows on Mauna Kea. if you visit the top between 10AM to 7PM, you are too late.