Adventures...in Pahoa

Now that Steve and I have talked about going out and adventuring as much as we can, I can't help but get excited when I have a day off from school. This last Tuesday was Veteran's Day (Thank you to those of you who have served or are serving), and I had the day off. Tuesday for Steve became "Take your girlfriend to work day". And by that I mean, ride along in the van while he goes into offices and works. Because we were on the other side of the island, I thought, Light Bulb! Perfect time to go and check out Pahoa. Due to the lava flow in the Puna area, I wanted to make sure that I visited the area before things started getting crazy. So our journey to Pahoa began around noon!

Our first stop on our adventure was Kaleo's in Puna. Puna is a cute little town. Luckily, in this cute little town is Kaleo's. I feel like no matter what I say, it won't do it justice, the food was great. We had Kalua Pork wontons, I had a Mahi BLT and we had Lilikoi cheesecake for dessert! AMAZING! 

After lunch, we decided to walk through town. Again, it is very small and walking through did not take much time. Due to the lava flow, some of the streets were shut down. 

From there, we started towards our destination of the adventures: the Hot Ponds!!! When we decided this was what we were doing, I couldn't stop thinking about it. I had never been to a hot pond before and the idea of it was exciting! 

Before we went to the hot ponds we stopped at a gorgeous beach! They call it Dead Trees because of all the dead trees on the beach. The view down here seems amazing compared to Kona, it seems like the ocean is so much bigger! 

So we made our way to Ahalanui Park, through the canopy of trees. What makes the pond hot? It's warmed by the magma of our island! 

View of the ocean from inside the hot pond. 

After our time in the hot ponds, we made our way down red road. Miles down the road we reached a destination and made our way onto a beach that had been destroyed from a lava flow decades ago. The contrast between red dirt and lava rock was so pretty. 

We hiked through the red dirt and lava field and made our way to a black sand beach. I love our beaches in Kona, but this one was breathtaking. 

Our day trip to the other side was a lot of fun. The drive to and from, not so much but it was worth it. It was crazy to think that we were in the same area the lava is affecting our island. Until next time...(hopefully this weekend).