A trip to an active volcano!

Today we slept in until about 8:00 and I did my research for the project we're working on about the Hawaiian islands. I finished all of my reasearch (about 6 pages) and I'm ready to do my 4 page report. Dad was up and when breakfast was ready we had overeasy eggs and french toast. We also had a delicious orange juice and it actually tasted freshly squeezed (like they always advertise but it never really tastes like it). When I was done eating I took a shower and we headed out for Kilauea, the active volcano that's only a couple miles away from our house. Before we went up we picked up some snacks and drinks (nuts, sunflower seed, beef jerkey, and flavor waters) and went another 5 minutes to the National Park. Our first stop was at the visitor center where we learned facts about the volcano and watched a 10 minute video in a miniature theatre. It was really cool, it showed eruptions and lava flows. I had always thought about putting my finger in lava. That's about the stupidest idea ever because you wouldn't even be able to get anywhere near the lava because it can reach a temperature of 2,200 degrees farenheit. When we were done watching the movie we went to a lookout point that showed us a lookout of the whole volcano. It was incredible. It had steam vents everywhere. Our next stop was the steam vents. Steam vents are holes that have steam coming out of them which is really hot. What happens is rainwater falls into the holes and reaches a bed of hard rock at the bottom where magma heats the rock which boils the water. As you know from boiling water on a stove, it creates steam. It was amazing because this all happens about 2 miles below the surface! After that we headed for another lookout with a museum on it. You could see the crater close-up and there was steam coming out of it and sulfur on the edges. We were planning on hiking through the crater but the trail was closed due to sulfuric acid in the air. When we were done admiring the view, we went to the museum where we learned how the whole volcano used to be a lake of lava. Mark Twane had visited the volcano and said something along the lines of "The sulfur here smells terrible to most people but not so bad to a sinner." He was obviouly comparing it to what hell might look like and it was probably fairly accurate. In the museum it also showed the types of instuments that geologists use to measure different things in the volcano such as temperature of the lava and when the volcanos about to erupt. The temperature insturment worked almost like a thermometer except it had a long nozzle to they didn't have to get too close to the lava. The other machine measured when a volcano's about to erupt. I can't believe I can't remember what it's called but it's the one where the little line goes up and down. It also measures when there's and earthquake about to happen. It's so sensitive that even though it was in a glass box, if you jumped, it would move the line a lot. When we were done with the museum we headed for our next destination, a 2.4 mile hike through the crater. It was voted one of the best hikes on the islands and it was incredible. First it brought you through a tropical rainforrest and then it went on to the harddened lava where there was steam vents everywhere. We stood over them, in them, and I even put my finger in one! It hurt a lot. I pulled it back right away and I yelled ouch as my dad and sisters laughed their heads off. I guess that's about as close as I'm going to get to touching lava. When we were done with this hike we headed for the lava tube. This was easily the highlight of my day. Lava tubes are formed when there's a lava flow and rock forms on top of the lava but the lava keeps on going making a cave of hardened rock. The first one we went through was lit by lanterns and we could see fine. The second one we went to (which is about 3 football fields) was pitch black and we needed flashlights to get through it. When we got to the dead end, we turned off our flashlight to see how dark it would be. It was perfect darkness. I mean you couldn't see a fraction of a millimeter in front of you. If it weren't for everyone talking, you'd feel like you were sleeping. When we got out we went out of the park and ate dinner. This is a great start to our Big Island trip.