Last Day in Hawaii, Safe at Home

It rained off an on all day on the day we left Hawaii, so the camera stayed in the bag most of the day.  I got up early to take one last short walk in VNP along Devastation Trail, which shows in dramatic fashion how the eruptions changed the landscape.  At the end of the trail, I reached a lookout over Kilauea Iki, the crater that S and I hiked through a few days ago:

Back at the parking lot, I saw some endangered goose creatures called Nene (chicken-like) birds pecking at the ground:

Then, back to the cottage to clean up and move out.  We said goodbye to Katherine, our host, and headed into Hilo for lunch with one of S's friends from Battleship.  M went to high school on the island, and she's been back visiting her mother. We had a nice lunch and then wandered around Hilo, popping in stores here and there. We went to a great little seafood shop to try Lomi Salmon, which was tasty, but very salty. We picked up some snacks for the plane, took M home, and then headed to Ocean Sushi for another yummy meal.  Then, onto the airport!

The flight home was uneventful.  I was asleep shortly after we took off, and we both slept until just before touchdown. Once on the ground, we collected our bags and our car and were home and back in bed by 6am. We slept late, then got up to begin a day of unpacking, cleaning, de-Christmasing, and reconnecting to socal...

Aloha, Hawaii!  Mahalo for the great times!