South Seas Interlude II

I'm becoming as poor a blogger as I've become a correspondant. We came back from HI three weeks ago and still I haven't fininshed relating the trip.
Images from the rest of our time in Hawai'i:
A black sands beach, with a sign strictly forbidding the playing of horseshoes.
A backpackers' hostel, where they confused the reservation for our threadbare suite.
A half-mile of subterreanean lava tube, opening up into the rainforest.
Rainbows and waterfalls everywhere.
Hiking past a line of cars, past where the road was enveloped by a lava flow a few years back, and over the ropy fresh ground to see lava flowing down the hillside to meet a steamy end in the ocean.
Walking around the Mauna Kea observatories at sunset.
A sign warning "BEWARE OF INVISIBLE COWS" at the Mauna Kea Onizuka Visitor's Center.
A rainy four-wheel drive ride through the Waipio "Valley of Kings".
Circumnavigating the Big Island in a Buick : beaches, coffee farms, temperate and rain forests, cities, cliffs, 14000' volcanoes, 1700' valleys, open grassland, desert.
Watching the sun set into the sea with S from an outdoor table above the ocean.
Snorkeling with sea turtles, tropical fish, and an octopus.
Another 13 hours of plane rides back to BWI.