"Milk was a bad choice"

For some reason, Dave and I thought it would be super cool to spend a day hiking to the center of an active volcano. We figured, "Hey, it's fall, how hot can it be?" Umm yeah, apparently we aren't the brightest bulbs because we forgot these key factors 1) there is no shade on a volcano, 2) just because the temp says lo 70's, it's actually worse when there are no clouds 3) you're hiking on a VOLCANO with molten hot lava inside, with steam and heat that permeates up through the very ground you are walking on. Needless to say, it was HOT!
And being the genius that I am, I didn't pack any shorts. I'm glad I wore sneakers for the climb, because this was quite the climb - but it meant that I was also wearing pants.

We started out enthusiastic and excited about our adventure. But first, we had to get off the island :) We opted to take the cable car down the mountain, I thought it was a great way to see eeverything - it was really beautiful. This is the cable car we went down.

This is the boat that took us out to the volcano. Look at how happy we are, so naive ;)

We made it to the volcano but while we were on the boat we started to realize how hot it was and how doomed we might be. But we tried to stay optimistic.
This is how excited I was about this climb

This is me and my attitude about 30 min. later

Despite the heat and failing spirits - we made it. This is us at the top of the volcano.

And like Dave says "how many people can say they've climbed a volcano?"

Besides it being incrediably hot, and seeing a few puffs of steam, the volcano wasn't that exciting for me. Dave liked that it looked like a whole other planet, but I was happy when it was over.

We then took the boat over to the "hot springs" they warned us that the ocean was cold, but it felt perfect to me! We jumped in and swam out to where the hot springs was, which wasn't as hot as I thought it was. I enjoyed the cool swim after the rough hike, and now that I've climbed a volcano I don't feel the need to ever do it again. :)