We woke up the next morning early, since Hawaii is 3 hours ahead of Seattle, getting up at 6am was like sleeping in until 9. I discovered a couple of large welts on my legs, which I assumed were bug bites, even though we weren't really outside the day before. I made scrambled eggs for breakfast and was icing the worst of the welts at the same time (which is what I'm doing above).
We drove to the volcano, not far from where we were staying, but at around 4000 or so foot elevation so it was kind of cold. I was glad for my sweats, though they did not protect me from the misting rain. We hiked down into a crater, which was completely fascinating. There were plants there that had funny spikes on them, and huge piles of rubble where the lava had bubbled up and then broken as it cooled. We got caught in the rain there and were soaking wet, which actually felt pretty good on the hike back up out of the crater. We also explored a couple caves-- officially called spelunking. We stuck to the already lit ones since we had only a tiny flashlight and it was pitch dark in there. I felt kind of loopy from the motion sickness medication and found it hard to stay awake whenever I was holding still in the car for long periods of time.
Back in the car I realized what I thought were bug bites were spreading. I had several welts on my scalp that were so itchy it hurt and I was climbing the walls in agony. (What kind of mosquito bites through hair when there is bare leg available?) We stopped at a gas station where I bought some over priced aloe vera gel and a cup of ice (since ice usually helps with bug bites). In the bathroom I caught sight of more welts appearing near my elbows that I could actually watch spreading. These were no mosquito bites-- I was breaking out in hives. I ripped off the motion sickness patch, certain that's what was causing the reaction, but the medication stayed in my blood stream for a good 24 hours.
We drove through a beautiful rain forest down to beach, where we snorkeled for the first time since our last trip to Maui. Snorkeling is the main point and the reason we keep going back to Hawaii. When I haven't done it in awhile I always get a little nervous getting in-- but I love it. The water was really cold but the salt water and the temperature was very soothing to my itchy welts and I was thrilled to see all the vibrant fish and coral.
Next we drove to the only place where we could reportedly see the lava, where it spilled into the ocean. It was crowded and hot, and we couldn't really see any lava, just a huge cloud of steam.
On our way back to the condo we were on a remote rural road and an ENORMOUS wild boar the size of a baby bear, darted out in front of our car. Marc slammed on the brakes just in time and the boar ran into the bushes in the other side of the street. I think we were more startled than the boar! Today we also saw a pair of cute dogs playing too close to the street watching the cars go by, a goat and what Marc called "jungle squirrels"-- I'm not exactly sure what they are, but they ran across the road in front of our car often-- squirrel sized, only long and skinny like a hotdog with legs and a long tail.
For dinner I made gluten free spaghetti with some organic ground turkey thrown in the sauce for protein. For lunch we had peanut butter and jelly, which for me meant enduring really undelicious gluten-free bread, as well as larabars, grapes and bell peppers.
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