Piilani Highway

On our second last day, Ashley, Tom and I packed ourselves into the car and drove the scenic southern portion of the Piilani Highway. We had very good weather for this trip, so we saw a lot of blue skies and fluffy white clouds.

Cinder cones.

The weather was lovely, but it WAS a bit windy...

Wiiiiindy!

This particular highway runs along the southeastern side of the volcano, and had some sweeping views of volcanic rock canyons.

Not to mention, some columnar basalt! Columns form in basalt depending on the rate that it cools at. The columns form because as the basalt cools it can shrink in the vertical direction without fracturing, but will fracture in the horizontal direction. If the lava cools rapidly, it will form very small columns. If it cools relatively slowly, larger, longer columns will form.

There was also a goat farm on one of the hills, with a particularly large goat tromping about.

We saw some Hawaiian-style Inukshuks along the coast. Both Tom and Ashley went to work building their own rock towers. It was quite windy along this portion of the coast, so you could test the solidarity of your structure by watching it wave in the wind.

We are home now, and I am getting ready to go back to work tomorrow. I don't want to go! Why can't we live in the tropics all-year round?

*Whine*