Volcano, Big Island (Hawai'i Island), February 17, 2022

 The rain fooled us today, heavy downpours in the late morning, even down in Hilo, and dry skies in the afternoon.  Still as I hear about the wild fires on the western (dry) side of the island I think of how unusual the Big Island is.  Not much of a chance for a fire to start between rain showers over here, save for the off chance that billions of tons of molten lava starts rolling down the mountain.  

Waiākea Peninsula is a little spit of land that juts into Hilo Bay.  In 1933 the city began asking important dignitaries to plant banyan trees on the peninsula.  Fifty of these trees still stand, in spite of major tsunamis that destroyed much of Hilo on two separate occasions, 1946 and 1960.  Some of the people who planted banyan trees almost 100 years ago; Amelia Earhart, Cecil B. DeMille, Franklin D Roosevelt, King George V, Bobby Jones and Babe Ruth.  Eventually they made the peninsula a park and then built a road through it, Banyan Drive.  Today Sandy and I drove through that park.