Kilauea is Active!

Kilauea Volcano is active right now and the lava is flowing. A few weeks ago, we drove over to the park to see the lava. This made me VERY nervous....we've all seen the touristy pictures of people standing so close to the red stuff and I have no desire to be that close to red lava. Plus, protecting Jillian adds an extra level of paranoia for me. Jeremy thinks the volcanoes are so cool...he convinced me to take the trip and off we went. As soon as we arrived, I noticed the massive amount of state officials working and all the yellow barrier tape...I immediately felt at ease with the situation. They only allowed us to get so close to the flowing lava and close ended up being something like 3 football field lengths away. That was close enough for me.

We were not able to see the actual red, flowing lava enter the ocean....we could see steam on land along the path it took and then also above the water as the lava reached the ocean. This picture is of crashing waves and lava steam. It was a neat experience, a fun family road trip, and I would definitely do it again.

Not only does an active volcano create obvious lava hazards, it also emits a toxic sulfur dioxide gas that is very harmful to breathe. Right now state officials are evacuating many areas on that side of the island. On our side of the island, the SO2 gas has created a dense vog that makes the mountain and ocean around us appear hazy. Many mornings we can't even see the mountain and the ocean looks very gray (instead of blue). When we first moved in, our neighbor told me she never opens her windows and runs their A/C year round to keep the vog out. Now I know why, the dust in our home builds up fast. I should probably dust, vacuum and sweep daily. The vog dust is more like dirt....I wiped off my scrapping table the other day and the dust was thick and brown. WOW, that is what we have been breathing! And we are physically far from the active volcano! It is no wonder the state is evacuating closer residential areas.