Tuesday in Hilo

We started Tuesday morning doing something that is on my life's to-do list...riding in a helicopter.
It was a tour of the volcano from the air and was very interesting. The pilot flew us above the Pu'u'O'o Vent were the current lava flow is coming from. We didn't see any hot lava but did see a very active vent letting off quite a bit of steam.
We also flew over the area where the lava was supposed to be flowing into the ocean. We were just a few days too late or too early...the pilot mentioned that it will likely start flowing again sometime in the coming weeks. In the photo below you can see the steam coming up from the rocks right near the water where the lava is still hot.

We also flew over the Royal Gardens subdivision and saw the only house that survived the lava flow. It stopped just prior to reaching his house and went on either side past his house. Apparently it is now a bed and breakfast you can stay it provided you have a helicopter that can fly you out to it. The last area we flew over were some amazing waterfalls. There are quite a few in this area of Hawaii since they get so much rain throughout the year.
After having a fun ride in the helicopter, we headed back into the National Park. We did a bit more hiking and wandering around. The most interesting hike was through a lava tube. A lava tube is basically a tunnel that was made from magma flowing underground. (We learned that lava is what flows above ground and that magma is essentially lava flowing below ground. We both think magma is more fun to say...) The lava tube we walked through was relatively short but at the end of it there was a section you could go through if you had your own flashlight with you. Of course, we had flashlights so were able to go in. Shortly after going into the extended section the tube takes a turn and there is no light in the tube...I have never experienced total darkness before so we turned off our flashlights and stood there in complete darkness...cool...but scary too. A few photos from the lava tube:

We ended the day at another great local restaurant. The food in Hilo is actually pretty amazing. We both had tasty seafood in a funky little place. Oh...have to step back to Monday afternoon...we went to another local place called Cafe 100 to have the local speciality called the loco moco. A loco moco is rice topped with a hamburger patty, fried egg and gravy. We both tried it (although mine was a gardenburger instead of a hamburger) and agreed we thought it was fun to try but will likely not have it again. There were a ton of locals there so it is clearly something that is appreciated in Hilo, maybe it is an acquired taste.