volcano

Spider web

Daily Photo Instead of being asleep at 17:08 on 6 May 2015, kitt created this:

"Oh, look at that spider web!"

"That's cool."

"Going to take a picture of it?"

"No. I'd need to get close to take a good picture of it, and I'm not sure I want to lean down that far. I don't know where the spider is, I don't want to disturb it or break it or ..."

"Okay."

"..."

"Stand here, I'll use you as my counter."

Sensations

Blog Posted by kitt at 12:06 on 2 May 2015

When we were walking around in the Volcano national park, we stopped in the restrooms at some part of the park. YES, I KNOW. SHOCK.

After using the toilets (what? everybody does, we're not special there), I went to wash my hands. I turned on the water, wetted my hands, squeezed out soap, lathered up my hands, the went to rinse.

I happened to have turned on the water at the precise flow necessary for the water to come out of the faucet as a tube. The temperature was close enough to skin temperature and the water flow so smooth that, hands in the water, I couldn't feel the water. I could feel the pressure of the water, but could not discern by touch that I had water flowing over my hands. It was a fascinating sensation, almost like a glass rod pressing on my hands. After toying in the water for a bit and rinsing my hands, I called Mom over and suggested she do the same.

View down into the extinct part.

Blog kitt decided around 08:02 on 2 May 2015 to publish this:

Turns out, when you're at the top of the crater looking out towards the active caldera, you can see the trail that exists at the bottom of the extinct caldera. And there's a path. That you can walk.

That's right, there are people at the bottom of that hill.

We had parked at the Lava Tubes overflow parking, so saw this view on the hike over to the Lava Tubes entrance and main parking lot. The path down to the bottom of the crater was near that entrance, we think, across from the Lava Tubes entrance sign. Unsure about that.

What we are sure about is that the hike down, across, and back up was not the journey we wanted to make so underprepared. Or maybe not at all, given the hike back up for Mom.

So, we just looked at it. Maybe next time.

Lava Tubes

Blog Written with a loving hand by kitt some time around 06:13 on 2 May 2015

Right, the Lava Tubes from yesterday. Whee!

So, after Mom and I hiked from the overflow parking lot for the Lava Tubes, parking there in error, to the main parking lot and the Lava Tube entrance (an easy 1km hike), we walked up a short distance, then down the paved switchbacks to the tube entrance. Which, by the way, totally looks like a cave you'd see in an Indiana Jones movie if said movies had handrails surrounding said caves. Oh, and signs pointing you where to go for the treasure:

There was a nice bit of stairs waiting for someone to wait at them, maybe hear a lecture on the lava tube formation (which, incidentally, was from a flow of lava having a slower flow cool on top of it and harden, as the now-buried flow kept moving), or record jungle bird sounds (which is what Mom and I did).

Pave the paths

Blog Posted by kitt at 21:11 on 1 May 2015

Okay, here's something I don't understand:

If everyone is going to go around the gates, why not put the barrier where people are actually going?

Yes, yes, I completely understand that it is more likely the view was developed AFTER the barrier went in, and know that. It was, however, an opportunity to tell my mom about the "pave the paths" story, though I told it pretty-much tech-universe centered. Something like the stories collected on this page:

Momma at Volcano

Blog kitt decided around 20:57 on 1 May 2015 to publish this:

I really want to put a "the" in that title....

Volcano

Blog Instead of being asleep at 19:47 on 1 May 2015, kitt created this:

Mom and I went to the volcano today. For the first time since 1982, the volcano has been spewing and sloshing hot lava (a term which cracks me up and makes me think of the Hot Lava ultimate frisbee team) in the caldera. Because of this appearance and subsequent sloshing, the volcano is quite popular as a tourist destination. Where previously you could just drive around a big hole at the top of the hill, now you can see smoke rising from the hill and red lava sloshing. Win!

Of note, it's not called THE volcano. You go to Volcano. Turns out, there's a town just outside of the volcano named, unsurprisingly, Volcano. This is where you go. The volcano itself is in the national park outside of the city. You say, "We are going to Volcano," not "We are going to the volcano."

And people think Los Angelenos are weird with their freeways. :eyeroll: