Spectacular lava scape with the blue pacific in the background 

The most difficult part of coming to Hawai'i--goin' home. 

T & S are convinced they see the flow of fresh lava on a distant hillside. 

Sarah Giles, intreprid lava mountain climber, silouetted against the clouds. 

The lava coastline reshaping Hawai'i (Big Island's) east coast. Look carefully and you can see the plume of steam in the distance. The steam contain hydrochloric acid and fragments that could be life-threatening if inhaled. 

Let's see just how close to the precipice we can get this pose 

T & S see the largest waves of their Hawaii stay. Taylor notes how the waves are churning up fragments of volcanic lava converting them to grains of sand. Visitors hundreds of years from now may be on a black sand beach near where they are standing. Note in the background the plume of steam rising where current lava is flowing into the ocean. 

Taylor and Sarah demonstrate a new dance step, the Lava trot standing atop a pile of lava of a flow that is about two years old. 

Taylor and Sarah stand on the lava flow of two years ago which made it so we needed to hike a mile plus to get a closer look at the steam plume rising from the sea where still hot (2000 degrees F) lava is flowing into the sea. 

Looking out over the lava fields to the pacific shore, I (Peter) am in awe of this new manifestation of the force of nature. 

Sarah and Taylor light up this lava tube, formed hundreds of years ago when the flowing lave cooled slowly from the outside in, allowing the more recent lava to hollow out a "lava tube. 

Sarah and Taylor consult on which volcano to check out while sitting at the Vocano National Park parking lot. 

The flowers are the highlight of the Hilo Farmers' Market. These anthariums are just a small sample of the profusion of tropical flowers for sale at low prices. 

Taylor, Sarah and Leanne shopping at Hilo's Saturday Farmers' Market. The little bananas are delicious but the seller felt they were either too ripe, or not ripe enough and refused to sell them to us. 

This is following our (Sarah and Taylor Giles) 1.5 mile run, along the beach, around Coconut Island, along Banyan Drive, stopping at the Heber J. Grant Banyan tree, and then across the fishing harbor and back along the waves to end up at Bayshore Park. Taylor and Sarah were nice to run at my speed. 

Geddes family after hiking the volcano. 

The adventurous threesome, on some of the newest land on earth. Steam plumes came up out the ground. This could be Mordor in Lord of the Rings. 

Kimber on the trek across the Volcano. 

Sara, getting ready to hike across the volcano at Volcano National Park on New Year's Eve. 

This is 'Imiloa Astronomy Center of Hawai'i where Leanne and I go daily to work. Today Sarah and Taylor, daughter in law and son, went with us and volunteered their services to create a removable covering for the mosiac in our atrium and folding invitations for our grand opening in mid February. The rainbows are a reminder that Hilo has the highest annual rainfall in the US. 

Here I am, Dec 2, 2005, near the summit of Mauna Kea at the adze quarry. Ancient artisans created a commercial colony here at 13,000+ feet to shape stone tools that traded throughout the islands. 

these are adze--rocks prized throughout the Hawaiian islands anciently for scooping out tree trunks to make canoes. They were only found near the summit of Mauna Kea.  

this is the silversword plant, high up near the summit of Mauna Kea. It is a spectacular plant that takes years to bloom. The mountain used to be covered with them, but grazing sheep have nearly made them extinct.