TruFlite Image of the Big Island, Hawaii, by Martin D. Adamiker. Used with permission. CC BY-SA 3.0
Hawaii
We agreed to meet at my home near St. Louis for a direct flight to Honolulu, then on to Hilo on the Big Island. John arrived on Sunday, June 30th, so we could go over our final preparations. We compared notes and checked our gear. On July 2 we flew over 4000 miles to Hawaii.
We landed at Honolulu International Airport on the island of Oahu early afternoon local time. I was pleasantly surprised that my first impression of Hawaii was as I thought it would be – warm balmy breezes, swaying palm trees, tropical flowers, and white billowy clouds against a beautiful blue sky.
We agreed to meet at my home near St. Louis for a direct flight to Honolulu, then on to Hilo on the Big Island. John arrived on Sunday, June 30th, so we could go over our final preparations. We compared notes and checked our gear. On July 2 we flew over 4000 miles to Hawaii.
We landed at Honolulu International Airport on the island of Oahu early afternoon local time. I was pleasantly surprised that my first impression of Hawaii was as I thought it would be – warm balmy breezes, swaying palm trees, tropical flowers, and white billowy clouds against a beautiful blue sky.
Image, Hawaii Maui Maluaka Beach, by dronepicr. Used with permission. CC-BY-2.0
After our two-hour layover, we flew to the Big Island. By 5:00 p.m. Hawaiian time we were in the air and flying southeasterly on our 45-minute flight to Hilo. Flying over Maui I saw two massive humps in the distance, Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa. The magnitude of what I had agreed to do hit me like a ton of bricks. We were going to climb an active, massive volcano. For the first time I felt anxiety about the days ahead.