Cool and Refreshing and Hot and Desolate
Mar. 8th, 2005 01:36 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rms10On my Hawaii trip (pictures soon, I promise), when I wasn't swimming or talking about cosmology, I had a chance to get some reading done. I flew through The Blind Assassin, by Margaret Atwood (thanks, aakepley!), and knocked off a significant chunk of Sense and Sensibility. Screw Emma: I much prefer the Dashwoods. And I'd never read any Atwood before, but I loved The Blind Assassin, and I feel like I've been digesting it since I finished it. Stories within stories and roundabout narratives are both techniques that I love, but I also think something finally clicked for me when I was reading it, and I've been looking for that feeling for a while now.
Also during my stay in Hawaii I went to see the lava flowing from Kilauea. We were staying near Kona on the big island, so this required a 3.5-hour drive each way (over the saddle road!), plus some significant hiking (climbing over rocks in the dark) to get to the surface flows. We started hiking at 11 p.m., and as there are no direct trails to the surface flows, we were on our own with our flashlights. First we followed the coastline for a few miles to where the lava was flowing into the ocean -- there was plenty of orange steam, and from the right angles you could see the lava flowing out of the lava tubes into the ocean. Eventually we cut inland, hoping to get close to the hotspots we could see in the distance. There were some very large ones that never seemed to get any closer, but we finally noticed a hotspot flaring behind us.
I think I was too awestruck to take pictures, but a friend did -- he and another friend also got close enough to this hotspot to poke sticks in the flowing lava ("Lava on a stick! Lava on a stick!"). I was content enough to stay a whopping 75 feet away and watch the ongoing creation of earth, and feel the warm rocks beneath me. By now the moon had risen behind us in the east, so while the lava still stood out (which it doesn't really do in daytime), we could see each other and the ocean behind us. It was one of the most spectacular things I've ever seen -- nothing to see but rock, but it was beautiful.
I think that may have been the coolest thing I've ever done in my life. And I'm finally starting to think that I really can do anything I set out to, whether it's hiking to see an active volcano or reading modern fiction.
aakepley!), and knocked off a significant chunk of Sense and Sensibility. Screw Emma: I much prefer the Dashwoods. And I'd never read any Atwood before, but I loved The Blind Assassin, and I feel like I've been digesting it since I finished it. Stories within stories and roundabout narratives are both techniques that I love, but I also think something finally clicked for me when I was reading it, and I've been looking for that feeling for a while now.Also during my stay in Hawaii I went to see the lava flowing from Kilauea. We were staying near Kona on the big island, so this required a 3.5-hour drive each way (over the saddle road!), plus some significant hiking (climbing over rocks in the dark) to get to the surface flows. We started hiking at 11 p.m., and as there are no direct trails to the surface flows, we were on our own with our flashlights. First we followed the coastline for a few miles to where the lava was flowing into the ocean -- there was plenty of orange steam, and from the right angles you could see the lava flowing out of the lava tubes into the ocean. Eventually we cut inland, hoping to get close to the hotspots we could see in the distance. There were some very large ones that never seemed to get any closer, but we finally noticed a hotspot flaring behind us.
I think I was too awestruck to take pictures, but a friend did -- he and another friend also got close enough to this hotspot to poke sticks in the flowing lava ("Lava on a stick! Lava on a stick!"). I was content enough to stay a whopping 75 feet away and watch the ongoing creation of earth, and feel the warm rocks beneath me. By now the moon had risen behind us in the east, so while the lava still stood out (which it doesn't really do in daytime), we could see each other and the ocean behind us. It was one of the most spectacular things I've ever seen -- nothing to see but rock, but it was beautiful.
I think that may have been the coolest thing I've ever done in my life. And I'm finally starting to think that I really can do anything I set out to, whether it's hiking to see an active volcano or reading modern fiction.
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Date: 2005-03-08 10:33 am (UTC)That sounds way cool.
Date: 2005-03-08 01:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-08 02:45 pm (UTC)Awesome!
Date: 2005-03-08 04:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-08 11:19 pm (UTC)I want to see fresh lava some day! :) I'm thinking Iceland.