I had a friend who lived between Hilo and volcano national park. This tube had an entrance in one of his neighbor’s property. He ran tours, but did a private one for us (Jon, my wife and me). Can’t remember the name and I’ve long lost his card.
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Great collection you have designed and beautiful wood!
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You are a great creative artist!!! Going to Hawaii is my dream trip. Maybe some hotels will sell your beautiful itemsL
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When we were looking to go for the first time I found a website where a person who’d been to all of the main ones described them in a very detailed way, and then concluded that Kauai was the least worth visiting because there was nothing there to interest them
We of course went to Kauai and had an absolute blast. VERY little “high-end” shopping, and the majority of tourists were surfers on the northern half of the island. We stayed on the southern half and drove everywhere. Had an amazing time. I hear it’s gotten more and more popular with tourists, so now I’m eying Lanai 
We visited Oahu for a couple days on that trip because we’ve got friends who live there 
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kauai would be next on my list.
oahu was part of our trip for a few days because i wanted to see a couple of things (like pearl harbor and north shore). but the big island was our primary focus. the last thing i want is “high-end shopping.” i was greatly amused by the fact that most of the “high-end” shops on waikiki were also in the local malls here.
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yeah, it’s the homogenization of America. If you travel a lot you get tired of seeing the same strip malls and Olive Gardens in every city in the country 
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I really really want to see live a live volcano. My …let’s call it “overly enthusiastic” desire for that made my friends put the big island at the bottom of their lists, they were afeared for my limbs
I still wanna though!
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don’t stand on the lip of the volcano during an active eruption and you’ll be fine.
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this is why i prefer food inside cities to food in the suburbs. a lot less chains inside major cities than in major suburbs.
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The last fissure eruption really kicked our asses out here, popping up suddenly in a residential neighborhood and taking out about 700 homes on the Puna side of the island (though it also created about 900 acres of new land on the coast). When that flow exhausted itself, Kilauea stopped completely. I was born here in '82 and this is the first time in my life that there hasn’t been any lava flowing at all. We’re grateful for the clear skies (the vog is an awful reality when living near an active volcano), but it almost feels unnatural having no lava flowing at all. If you’re a volcanophile, this last one would’ve been a wet dream. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a36BxWJKuDY
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I was thinking more something like this
^-- note boat
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Oh man, I watched that on the news. That was…exciting from 1000 miles away, I’m gonna guess more on the terrifying end of the scale from up close!
you can literally stand a few feet away from the slow moving lava on the south road. the huge lava flows going into the ocean like that aren’t happening all the time. there were no active flows into the ocean when we were there.
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i lost touch with my friend a year or two after we visited, he lived in Puna, so i don’t know if he lost his house or not. he built the whole thing himself, completely off the grid (other than internet, especially important because we met playing online games). I hope Jon made it through safely.
one of my favorite silly photos from my visit is my road closed photo.
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The Kilauea eruption, which officially started in 1983, has finally stopped, but in reality that’s a lot scarier for us than an active flow. When the fissures stop producing, it means the magma is going to build pressure and eventually find another release point. We’re actively taking bets right now on whether it’ll be Mauna Loa (the most active aside from Kilauea) or Hualalai (which we live on the flank of), which generally erupts every 200 years or so, and which is overdue by about a decade.
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i’ll keep my fingers crossed that whatever it decides to do, it does it in the way that does the least damage to lives and lifelihoods.
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That is such a sweet offer. I tend to get wrapped up in projects at home and work flows into evenings unless someone comes to town and I can be a host. I have no idea where to begin figuring out where are the best places to stay, what to do, etc., and the only “reference” or guidance I have is my AAA office and no idea if any of them have ever been there.
It will probably be at least a year, as I am going to make sure the job is secure before I go off on a big adventure since I just came off furlough recently. I have always been very curious as to what Hawaii and the other islands have to offer, hopefully pineapple will be in season when I visit as it is a fruit I can eat just about any day (I have this thought that it probably tastes spectacular compared to what I eat at home – just like AZ where family lives has the best grapefruit I have ever eaten). I would like to see Hawaii one day. Thank you.
Oh jeesh this message has set on the back burner for several days it appears. I had 2 phones and my Surface Pro 4 all die in one week and I’ve been working on getting trade-ins on the phones and hopefully a Ma & Pa computer store (open since 1988) can fix the Surface for a reasonable cost. I got a bit nervous on driving my computer driven car after the 3rd thing went caput in a week. 
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As a native of Hawaii, I am too excited for this! I would like to purchase Koa from you, but I am BRAND NEW how would I mask the wood to be cut?
There are a lot of good answers in this thread
So, I just use regular masking tape?