After lunch at Suisan we headed back to the Kilauea Lodge and took a short break. I also made late dinner reservations at the restaurant, this would allow us to spend more time revisiting Kilauea Caldera. We decided to head back out before sunset so we could easily find parking and relax and watch the "show". Before heading back there, I had one more stop in mind. It was Thursday and Volcano Village has a local food and crafts market at the Cooper Center. So, we headed there first.
It's a quaint little market and it seems that a lot of the folks there were locals as folks were having fun socializing.
Food and craft booths were set-up thru the community center.
It was a nice little stop.
Volcano Thursday Market (At Cooper Center)
19-4030 Wright Rd.
Volcano, HI 96785
We then headed back to the Kilauea Overlook and easily found parking adjacent to the lookout. There were folks just arriving to check out the "show".
Folks even brought beach chairs! We chatted with a few folks and they were all locals; some driving all the way from Kona!
Several folks brought offerings for Madame Pele.
We just stood and watched Halemaʻumaʻu doing its thing.
As the sun slowly set the bright red colors became the star of the show.
You could even make out the spatter cone!
We just loved this! We stood our eyes fixated on the crater, just as amazed as we were the night before. Heck, if we stayed another night, we would have returned again!
As it was, we felt blessed to have been able to have a once-in-a-lifetime experience twice!
More folks started arriving and the parking lots were closed. It was time to head back for dinner.
We just wanted to take things easy on this evening and had made dinner reservations at Kilauea Lodge Restaurant again.
The staff here are wonderful, so warm and friendly.
This time we started with the Coconut Brie which came with the bread made inhouse.
The coconut crust was a bit too sweet for us. There were also spots where the coconut was burnt, adding a rather unpleasant bitterness to the dish.
We enjoyed the bread.
The Missus had the same main as previous night, Crispy Tofu.
Again, we thought the star of the dish was the cauliflower and mushrooms.
This time around, I kind of went against my better judgement and got the Seafood Risotto.
The risotto was the standard par cooked version and some of the arborio rice was under cooked and hard in the center, it was also on the salty side. The Kaua'i Shrimp was outstanding, sweet and briny, cooked perfectly. The mussels were overcooked and dry; but the clams were nice and tender.
Overall, based on our dinner the previous night, we got what we expected. Of dishes, made better by the fantastic staff.
Kilauea Lodge Restaurant
19-3948 Old Volcano Road
Volcano Village, HI 96785
And most of all, we got to witness the glory of Madame Pele and nature!
beautiful volcanic show
Posted by: kat | Monday, 29 May 2023 at 05:25 PM
It was so amazing to see Kat!
Posted by: Kirk | Monday, 29 May 2023 at 07:12 PM