Our Hawaiian adventures continued after a stressful trip to the airport.
Note to self and others: When planning a relaxing trip to Hawaii, pick one island and stay there, because any peace and sense of calm you gain by sitting in the sun, listening to the waves, etc. will flee instantly upon arrival at the airport!
In our case we were on Maui for business and had never visited the Big Island so we added that to our itinerary.
After spending most of Saturday (one of our sunny days) in an airport we were happy to catch this beautiful sunset and check into our new hotel, the Hilton Waikoloa Village.
This place is huge! It consists of the three hotel buildings, other outlying buildings, golf course, several pools, a protected lagoon and pools with dolphins. That said, we spent very little time there. We only had three days and one was a Sunday, so our activities were limited. The lush green grass and plantings are a major contrast to the miles of black volcanic ground we passed on our drive from the airport.
On Sunday we located a ward through LDS.org and made the hour drive. Each talk began with a friendly "Aloha" and carried the theme of Family History that day. I found it rather ironic to be in Hawaii being reminded of the importance of family history work since much of mine remains hidden there.
Lets just say, my heart was touched!
One of the funniest things to me, was parking on the grass. When we arrived, as the second ward in progress, the parking lot was full. So we followed another member around the building and found the only remaining place, the grass.
That night I did as the locals (more likely fellow tourist do) and placed "graffiti" on the beach, lava rock style. The beaches are covered in white coral remnants and the black lava rock makes a great contrast. Along the roadways people bring the white coral to "graffiti" upon the black lava mounds. I started with Glen's name and he came along and helped me add mine.
Below are some pictures I took of the beautiful surroundings at our hotel. It really was on a magnificent piece of land!
On Monday I talked Glen into a trip to the Mauna Kea Observatory. The weather wasn't the best, so laying out by the pool wasn't an option. This turned out to be one of his favorite experiences!
After a two plus hour drive, the latter portion on very steep, gravel roads (4 wheel drive recommended, but obviously not mandatory, as proved by our Toyota Camry rental), we reached the top. Driving above the gloomy cloud cover.
Home to thirteen telescopes funded by eleven countries, it does indeed provide an amazing view!
Standing 13,796 ft above sea level, its peak is the highest point in the state of Hawaii. However, much of the mountain is under water; when measured from its oceanic base, Mauna Kea is over 33,000 ft tall, much taller than even Mount Everest.
There was indeed snow on the ground and Glen's only regret was that he had no skis. He wanted so badly to say he skied Hawaii, as a sweatshirt he owned in youth claimed.
At this height the oxygen to the brain was running a little low!
We arrived in typical Hawaiian gear, shorts and t-shirts, but prepared as best we could by taking anything "warm" we had packed. After putting on my jeans, thin sweatshirt, windbreaker, and socks for my hands I still could only stand outside for minutes at a time. The car said it was 36 degrees Fahrenheit, but the wind chill had to of brought it down to single digits or lower. I don't remember ever being that cold!
On our final day we made arrangements to take a helicopter flight over Kilauea and the surrounding area. Personally, it didn't matter what we saw, I was just excited to be in a helicopter, and it did not disappoint! We chartered our flight through Blue Hawaii at the Hilo airport.
On our trip we saw "Jack's Lava House", a little activity in the cone of the volcano and several lava flows around its base. My favorite parts were take off and landing!
Overall it was a great trip! Our children were well cared for by a newlywed couple we adore and we had some time to ourselves. Between the suns disappearance and our various adventures we didn't bring back the souvenir tan, but many great memories instead.
We have been to the four major islands, most several times, so I think we might be done island hopping, but we do hope to take the children to Kauai someday to visit the graves of their ancestors.
Aloha, Hawaii!
