Haleakala

The volcano was really cool. I'm not really exactly sure what I was expecting, but that wasn't it... Mum and I drove up to the summit, which is some 10,020 feet above sea level. Since there's no cone -- the top of the volcano is a great big crater from when it used to erupt -- the designated summit is really just the highest elevation around, which is a peak at the western rim of the crater. Now, it's far above the tree line (and the clouds, incidentally, which was pretty bitchin': the clouds occur between 4,000 and 7,000 feet, which is called the dust line or some such because the interior of the island used to be barren & dusty before sugar cane was planted & the meeting of the cold and hot air kept (keeps) the dust (and car exhaust, smoke, etc) down... so once we got above them, the clouds were like a fluffy white carpet around the mountains), so the landscape was really barren... red and black dust, gravel, and rock, some scrubby plants and blue, blue sky. The crater was kinda flat inside, with lots of (comparatively) little cinder cones... Mum said it looked like a moonscape. There were also these really adorable endemic plants -- Silverswords -- they bloom once in their lives, and then they die, and it takes them between three and twenty years to mature. And there were lots of pretty flowers and horizons and even some horses and cows... I bought a bird book, and have discovered that the cute, talkative brown birds that fly around here are mynas. They're pretty adorable. And from the summit, we could see Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa on the Big Island, and all in all it was a pretty awesome trip. Silly boys, should have come with us.

My foot was pretty okay, too... it's a little sore now, and it was a little sore on the mountain, but it hasn't bled too much today (I think it helped that my shoe was pretty tight on it). I have gotten a little more sun than desirable, but it's not a bad sunburn and will fade v. soon. Tomorrow we might go to Lahaina & see what's there.

And yes, I have taken many many photos, which will be available for viewing eventually. Maybe. And hey, surprise surprise, I'm even in some of them!