Liquid Hot Magma

I just returned from an epic trip to Hawaii. I feel like I've been gone for a month or more, but it has only been about 10 days. Each and every day was unique and diverse- from sitting on the beach with a Mai Tai to an all-night hike up a volcano to an epic evening sprint to witness actual lava flowing into the ocean. I don't honestly think that you can watch a lavafall creating new land and not be changed. Since I believe in a personal creator, I find it a little ironic that the act of creation of the land on our planet occurs with burning fire- a product generally associated with hell and destruction. There is something incredible about wandering across a massive lava rock field- the black rock stained with sulfur, smoke rising out of cracks in the ground, the new earth crackling beneath your feet because it is younger than you are. The anticipation is pretty overwhelming, then... there's lava flowing into the ocean- the newest land on the planet is being created.
I mean, are you serious? The absurdity of the situation as my friend Timmy put it, "Don't people usually run from lava?"
On Thursday, I flew up to Maui for a day (how often do you say that?) to meet my friend Timmy and to assist his older brother Sean in an ascent of the 10,000' volcano Haleakala. The catch is that Sean is paraplegic and started with his wheelchair wheels in the ocean in order to fully climb the volcano by his own power. It wasn't exactly what you expect your typical day in Maui to be like- walking 1 mile per hour up a mountain road in the middle of the night with someone you met that morning. But we got to take turns sleeping in the back of the rental car and I was blessed to be able to walk from 12:30 AM to 4 AM where I saw more stars then I ever thought existed (not only are the Hawaii volcanoes one of the best places on earth for astronomical observation, but the air from the south point of the Big Island is considered the cleanest air on the planet- the standard by which all other air quality on earth is measured). Unfortunately, Sean got shut down at 4 AM by a park ranger due to early morning sunrise traffic- after 22 hours, 7,500' of gain and 3o miles! Here's the view from 5,000' looking over the "hourglass" of Maui and the town of Pahului:
I could go on for pages- and these are just 5 of the 100's of photos taken on the trip- but you get the idea. Sufficed to say, I am stocked up on Kona coffee, Mai Tai's, my eye's ability to absorb crisp colors, my lungs' ability to breath clean air, and many other intangibles that I could never communicate. I'm still alive- the adventure continues...