Half way through our trip. Left Love Field at 8 am and arrived in Kona at 2:45 pm… switched planes in LV. Harry Reid Airport sucks for a layover. After landing in Kona, we grabbed our rental convertible, stopped at Costco, then headed across the island. Dinner was at Pineapples in Hilo - sat at the bar and had a great first night dinner and drinks. The drive from Hilo to our cabin in Volcano was about 30 minutes. The cabin itself was extremely nice and private, located in the forest, and only 10 minutes from the park entrance. A breakfast was stocked in the refrigerator to be heated in the microwave. Lots of fresh fruit and Kona coffee. First morning in the park, Kilauea was issuing a lot of gas and the ranger said all indications were pointing to an eruption. We drove the Crater Rim Drive to the coast, visiting the pullouts and petroglyphs. At the sea arch, a family informed us the eruption had begun. We drove back to the steaming vents parking lot and watched the north vent erupt for about an hour or so. About every 10 minutes there was a fountain followed by substantial lava flow. We went back to our cabin for some rest before heading back into the park for night viewing. The Vocano House area was a mad-house at 5:30, so we parked at the steaming vents and hiked the .5 mile on the Crater Rim trail up to the lodge. The lounge is open seating but a hour and forty-wait that night for a table - no problem because we had great views of the eruption with which to spend our time. By this time there was significant flow from the south vent in addition to the north. The waiter must have had to have dealt with some real assholes that night because when he found us smiling and being nice he comped our cocktails. We hiked back to our car by head lamps, avoiding falling to our deaths off the crater wall. The second day we arrived in the park early and got in about 7 miles of hiking. The views from the Byron Ledge were spectacular. The north vent had shut down but the south vent was a 700 foot fountain. From our vantage point on the ledge, the fountain extended higher than the crater rim. We left the park at 1 pm and drove past the hundreds of cars lined up to get into the park. Back at the cabin we heard the report that the eruption shut down at 1:45… sucked for all the people arriving late. We had great dinner with the locals in the Lava Rock Cafe in Volcano then went back into the park for a drink and one last viewing of the glowing lava field. We repeated our night-time hike for the fun of it.