After visiting Lava Trees State Monument, we drove a few miles to the south to Isaac hale Beach Park to check out the surf, as we were under a High Surf Advisory.  It was well worth the stop, as we saw some impressive 12-16 foot surf breaking just a hundred feet or so from us…
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Driving back along the northern loop of the Hawaii Belt Road, heading through the South Kohala/Waikoloa region, we caught this beautiful view of the approaching sunset:

After a drive over the Saddle Road to Hilo, we drove down to Lava Trees State Monument. This is an area where lava overflowed a forest, running up the trunks of trees and solidifying, leaving behind stands of upright lava where the trees used to stand.
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To learn more about Lava Trees State Monument, click on the link below:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lava_Tree_State_Monument

While we were enjoying a great Saturday morning breakfast at Bubba Gump’s in Kailua-Kona (might be the only Bubba Gump’s to serve breakfast, weekends only), we had a great surfing show right from our ocean-side seating:  (Yes, there are a LOT of pictures again, high-speed sequence shots)
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