Ten years ago today

Ten years ago today, one of my most cherished dreams came true. (Not to be sappy, but really, it was one of my biggest goals in life. And it has nothing to do with marriage or family or kids or church, even.) This is what I wrote in my journal that night:

Not many people in this world have the chance to see one of their dreams come true. Why I am so incredibly, marvelously blessed, I don't know. But a dream that I've had since second or fourth grade--I don't remember [which], but it was Mrs. Teigum's class--to actually, physically sample a real lava flow came true tonight. And it was as amazing as I had hoped and dreamed. Wow!
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LAVA!!! Incredibly hot--1161 degrees C--real, flowing, oozing, glumpy LAVA. Basalt. Real. There, and so was I! I honestly cannot convey the amazement, the thrill, the shock wave that ran through me when I saw it for the first time. WOW. I'm going to cry just writing about it.
...
I truly, personally, sampled an actual LAVA FLOW!!!!!!! Me! It was SO SO hot! And gooey. I wasn't expecting the gooeyness. And it sometimes wouldn't stay on my hammer. And sometimes it felt like...puncturing a bubble and having nothing but a tacky air filled substance inside. Oh wait! That's what it was!

The lava was pahoehoe--ropy and fluid, very very fluid. It came out in the weirdest toes and blebs, all slow moving but sometimes incredibly fast--comparatively. It was a gorgeous orange-red color, and then it would rapidly darken to a dull red-black, and then all the way to black. When I hit and scooped at it with the rock hammer, and then fled the front because the heat radiating from it was INCREDIBLE, it would actually stay fluid and hot and orange-red for a while.

Honestly, it was a day I will never, ever forget. I am amazed even now that I had the opportunity for such an experience. How many people have their craziest childhood dream come true?