Volcanoes and Waterfalls

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After 4 hours of sleep, I made my way to the gym on the ship.  Shortly after I had some breakfast at the buffet and met my fellow bandmates in the dining area.  We decided that it would be fun to rent a car, split it 4 ways, and go exploring!  What else would we do?  Sit on the boat and wait for our show that night -I don't think so...

Our first quest was the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.  It was a scenic drive (of course, every drive we made in Hawaii was scenic) that led us down into what seem to be a tropical rain forest.  The admission was $10 per vehicle (nice) and there was a information center with maps and educating films about the volcanic activity.  We skipped all the education and went cruising down the road towards the good stuff.  Deeper into the park, we found awesome views and heavily wooded trails.  We walked through a lava tube which is basically a tunnel that was cut through a mountain by flowing lava.  Eventually we drove down the Chain of Craters road to the Southeast shore of the island.  From here we could see miles of lava rock (looked like burnt brownies).  In the distance, we could also see lava creating this huge geyser of steam as it poured into the ocean.

...looked like burnt brownies.

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Heading back towards Hilo, our mission was to find Rainbow Falls.  A killer waterfall and some nice trails were rumored, but we had to find out for ourselves.  Well, the waterfall was killer; the trails were nice; but also there were these Banyan trees!  Pretty wild looking trees with long tentacles coming down from the branches and extending into the earth.  A very unique root system, I suppose.  There was path worn through the brush that led to the summit of the waterfall.  Literally, you could stand next to the flowing water on a rock that stuck out over the pool of water down below.  There didn't seem to be that many people there either (maybe because it was Tuesday??).

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We returned to the ship, relaxed and had some food before heading to the Spinnaker lounge for our show that evening.  The dance floor was packed as we cranked out the best of the disco era.  Oh yes it was 70's night...  Again another great show (no wardrobe malfunctions or the like) to end a very productive day.