Boy in Bed (at Our Cabin)

Boy in Bed (at Our Cabin)
Originally uploaded by Prairie Brown

On our first night in Volcanoes National Park, we found a campground immediately. When we got there, we had intended to set up our tent for the night, but we noticed a row of darling little cabins nestled in the woods on one side of the campground, and wondered how much it would cost us to rent one. Camping in the park is free with admission to the park, so we didn't think it would be too expensive to upgrade to a cabin, if one was available. We quickly found the Volcano House (the hotel in the park) and inquired about the cabins. Because it was a Thursday night, there turned out to be one cabin available for one night, for $50. We snapped it up, and were given bags containing sheets, blankets, pillows, along with towels and soap for the campground showers.

It turns out that the cabins are just as cute on the inside as they are on the outside, especially with the addition of the personalized touches we'd brought from home to make our camping trip comfortable (a Playboy bunny blanket for Michael and a Tootsie Pop blanket for me). We had a great night in the cabin, reading and giggling and really feeling like we were on vacation, and glad to be away from the Hilton where we'd spent the first couple nights of the trip.

In the morning, we headed for the campground showers, available to cabin customers. Much to our delight, the showers, while rustic in appearance, had more plentiful hot water and pressure that was more reliable than we'd had at the Hilton! On our way out, bemoaning the fact that it would be our last morning of hot showers since we'd be tent camping for the rest of the trip, we noticed a small sign announcing that tent campers could rent a key to the cabin showers for $3 a day. Deciding to splurge, we eagerly rented a shower key and enjoyed steamy showers for the remainder of the trip.

We were still on Seattle time, not having adjusted to Hawaiian time, and we were waking up at 5:30 every morning (felt like 8:30 to us). After finishing our showers that first morning, we snagged a prime campsite for our tent before any of the weekend campers arrived in the park, then set out to explore the park.