Last year I got to explore the Big Island's beaches, volcanoes, and culture with two of my best friends, for three weeks. Dream come true!

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Mind you, we were working on a devised theatre project while we were there, and that’s how we paid for the trip! Read more about it here. For this post though, I’d like to focus on the natural beauty of the island (not our work!).

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I snapped all these shots on my iPhone 6+ while bopping around the island. The shot snapped of me was taken by my buddy Brandon on his iPhone 6+. No filters on any of ‘em, just natural loveliness. 🌺

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The twilight view from Coconut Island, a little island near our hotel in Hilo where we swam at least once a day. There were some great old cement structures out in the ocean that you could swim to (making a great place for early AM yoga practice).

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This is a shot I got on our first day on-island, and it’s still one of my favorites because it shows off the color of the water so well. Living in the Pacific Northwest, we have a lot of blue water, but none of it in this glorious hue!

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The inside of the Mauna Loa volcano crater! We got to hike inside and across the center floor, which was warm to the touch, and hissing steam in places. Apparently that’s normal, i.e. we were safe?! In the far back center of this photo you can see a trail of smoke/steam (that is where open lava flows!).

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Adventure friends suited up and ready for action inside a volcano.

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We drove back up Mauna Loa later that night to the other side of the crater and got to see lava! This picture isn’t too great because I had to zoom in a lot in the rain, but there it is.

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One weekend we took an overnight trip to Kona and the other side of the Big Island, stopping at some great beaches along the way, like this one! Check out that black sand!

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Snapping shots of coastal cliffs on the drive to and from Kona made for some spectacular rest stops along the way!

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Ahmed withstanding the wind on the southern most tip of the Big Island, Ka Lae. It’s also the southernmost tip of the 50 United States. Look at the state of that towel--it was brisk out there my friends.

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We spent a lot of time taking short adventures out of Hilo that could be done in a few hours after our workshops. Here’s a snap on our way to Akaka Falls (a pic of that beautiful place is in the other work-related post!).

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Rainbow Falls is another easy jaunt from Hilo (just 15 minutes from downtown!). They say if you see the falls at the right time of day the sun creates a stunning rainbow effect in the water. We didn’t get to see the rainbow, but it was still beautiful!

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And finally, I’ll leave you with this shot of Waipio Valley, one of the best hikes we did on the island. Be warned: there is a very, very steep hill for about a mile to get to the bottom of the valley. Be ready for a workout!

And that’s all for now friends! Is Hawai’i on your bucketlist yet? Maybe it should be. 🌺

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Hi friend! Thanks for stopping by, I’m really glad you’re here!

I’m an artist, writer, and creative consultant based in the Pacific Northwest. I see steemit as an incredible asset to artists and creatives as a way to share their work and connect with like-minded people. You can check out my intro post, read more about the theatre projects I work on, or follow me! I’m especially interested in finding other performing artists on this site. If that’s you, please say hello! See you around the steemosphere! @lilyraabe

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