Now we've been back home for a few days, plowed through the inevitable laundry, and caught up on our friends doings, it feels like home again.
We went to view Volcanoes National Park in Hawaii, but the giant caldera is pretty colorless, mainly a dull grey at the moment, with a bit of steam coming up in places, no bright red runs of lava visible although it is currently quite active.
We didn't hang around til evening as it was a 2.5 hour drive to get there, so we just kind of explored around through the park, even at one time taking a side road out to a viewpoint that turned out to be a bit of a time waster, 10 miles one way, just to view a large expanse of coastline in the mist.
We went to view the Thurston lava tube, the island of Hawaii has many lava tubes, but this one is big enough to walk right through, and is illuminated. They are formed when the outer layer of lava cools and hardens, but the inner core is still hot and flowing.
We might have been better instead of turning off the main road to the viewpoint, by staying on the main road down to the sea to see the current effects that the newer lava flow is having. It is quite fascinating to think of the land mass still increasing and actively changing due to all the flowing lava. Oh well, next time.....
You can't currently drive all around the caldera, part of it is now blocked off due to an eruption in 2011. It is challenging to wrap your head around the idea that the land mass is still in the never ending process of growth and change. Working there must be very interesting indeed. Change is constant there.
The naturalist aboard our ship last year said that the land masses of Hawaii are shifting off the exact tops of volcanic activity as the tectonic plates shift around worldwide.
I bought lots of lovely pieces of fabric from Hawaii, not sure exactly what I will do with it, aside from a few bright tablecloths that I can make, but it is so lovely and bright, so evocative of Hawaii.
When we got home from Hawaii to Desert Hot Springs we found all 4 parcels that we had sent ourselves had arrived ahead of us. There is a flat rate box that you can use to send things from Hawaii to continental US for a flat fee of $15, which makes it pretty easy to buy, buy, buy. Things are so pretty there, I love the silk leis and silk flowery hat bands, one for every outfit.....hey, why not.
Lary bought koa wood hoping that a flute maker friend of ours might make him a new flute. And he sent home some clothing too. We both bought splashy aloha shirts, often for good prices. We were very surprised that Walmart in Kona carries quite a bit of very reasonably priced merchandise, including lovely fabric.
This past weekend our park was very busy holding a massive garage type sale, clothing, shoes, electronics, china, baked goods, furniture, working TVs, bedding etc, etc. so that kept us both busy on Friday and Saturday. Friday was organizing and pricing the material donated, and Saturday the doors opened for the general public at 7:30 AM. They finished the sale at 1:00 PM, and then everybody pitched in to help clean up. It is a big fundraiser for the park, it will be interesting to see exactly how much we raised in all.
Lary played his flute a wee bit as entertainment to spell off the main entertainers, a trumpet player and a keyboard player, and I was selling merchandise inside our clubhouse. We also sold burgers outside, around 11:30 or so, so there was lots going on everywhere. Just near the end of the sale they changed the rules and sold brown paper bags for a dollar, big grocery bags with handles on them, and people could fill them up with anything at all, jam them full in fact, so that part is very popular of course, even though the stuff has been pretty well picked over by then. It thins down the volume even more as the rest of the leftovers go to a local thrift store.
Sunday we went over to Indio about 3/4 hour from us here, and attended a lovely Southwest Art Festival, with about 250 merchant artists selling things. From high end clothing to metal work sculptures, lots and lots of paintings, jewelry, Moyo drums made out of propane bottles, didgeridoos, music being played by a man playing a Chapman stick, another North American flute player like us, wood work, very beautiful basket weaving, it was held on the Empire Polo Grounds which is a huge venue, the booths are all organized in a huge grassy area, it's lovely and a real barrage to the senses. Beautiful sculptures, it is fascinating and stimulating to see what all is being sold there. It was a 3 day event, and our friend Annie and her friends Rick and Linda were selling their moyo drums. Annie just wrote a book about how to play the moyo, so that is very neat.
Sadly there has been an outbreak down here of equine herpes, one polo horse had to be put down, and the polo horses have all been put in quarantine. There is no vaccine against it, it sounds very severe and tragic for horse folk, and is the second outbreak of it that I have heard of.
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