Guy's steamy Hawaii birthday

We tried to breakfast today at Kaya's Kawanui café; it sucked. They couldn't get a simple bagel with egg right. They had a bunch of bath products for sale but we didn't know how we'd safely get bath bombs back home.

We continued down the roat to Caffe Florian [sic], which was good. We got a lox bagel for Guy, a passion fruit bar for Leia, and an almond cake slice to have later. This cafe has a nice view of the ocean, and colorful lizards looking for crumbs on the patio.

We spent most of Guy's birthday driving, even drove back 20 minutes to our room so Guy could get his headlamp. Leia drove around the island towards Volcanoes National Park while Guy answered happy birthday texts. We pulled over at the southern tip of the big island to take in the views and stretch our legs.

We arrived at the visitor center and decided on things to see: Lookouts over the craters, steam vents, and a short lava tube. Without time for real hikes, this wasn't as impressive as other national parks we visited, but we still got to see a few things even without fresh lava flowing. The lava lake had steam or smoke coming off of it. The ground around it vents odorless steam from when water encounters hot rocks underground.

Unlike others we visited, Nāhuku, the lava tube in the park was lit up during the day, and had two openings so you could pass through it.

We tried to have late lunch at nearby Volcano village but both Thai food trucks we stopped at had a long wait, so we bought some premade shrimp rolls and ate them at a picnic table along with our almond cake. Leia sang Guy happy birthday.

Continuing up to Hilo we saw Rainbow Falls, a waterfall in a suburban park, which in the morning would have had a rainbow.

In Hilo we found some Thai food: a mountain of fruit salad on a plate, and three fish stacked atop a pineapple filled with curry and carrots.

We went to another lava tube, Kaumana caves. This was pitch dark inside and outside, with loud insects and birds filling the black night, possibly bats. Our headlamps came in handy, and we had to duck under some low or collapsed sections to get to the deeper caves.

Guy drove home from there and we arrived about 10pm.