Hawaii Day 6 - Mauna Kea

Sunday morning was nice and quiet. Me, Extremo & Judi went to Tourist Kona and walked around and did some shopping. We went into a little smoothie shop and found that it had a lanai out back. We went to sit and take a break while Scot ate his ice cream.

It was an bit "voggy" that day and a little overcast too. So the sky was gray.

Around 1:00 we went to pick up Laura who stayed at the room and went to have lunch. We ate at the L&L lunch place. We wanted to see if it was any better than the one in Portland. It wasn't.

We were supposed to be at the tour place around 2:00 so after lunch we took our time and relaxed in the warm air.

At the tour place we got together with about 40 other people. We got on these little mini-buses that held 20 people each. These buses were not comfortable or smooth riding. As a matter of fact Laura wanted to get off and go back to the hotel after a few miles! We went back up over Saddle Road and ended up at a little camp ground where they had little tents set up for dinner. Now the day before Extremo printed off some information for us about going up the summit of Mauna Kea. It cautioned that going from sea level to 13,000 ft. was a dangerous thing, that your blood vessels expand and your brain pops open and your eye nerves tweak and you get headaches, or strokes or heart failure, etc., etc. It made me really nervous. I was sure I was going to die. This dinner stop was supposed to be so we could "acclimate" to the elevation. It was about 7,000 ft.

We got out of the bus and everyone ran to the port-a-potty. We came back to a very cozy scene. There was dinner all set up for us inside a tent, sort of like the Sheik of Arabia. We had Beef stew and the yummiest corn bread. Oh, and lots of water so we didn't die and scrinch our blood vessels up the summit. Judi sat with these folks.

Laura was having a good time with her stew. It was chilly but nothing next to being in Portland so the cold didn't bother me none.

After dinner we were all given parkas to wear at the summit. We all got back in the bus to go to the Visitor's center. SURPRISE! We didn't get to stop at the visitor's center! I wanted to go potty before ascending to certain blood vessel popping death at the summit of Mauna Kea.

Scot was very excited! We went up and up and up the road. Now supposedly Mauna Kea experiences over 300 days of clear weather a year. That's why all the observatories are up there. Well our night was one of the 65 days of the year that you can't see squat. We were supposed to see the sunset from the summit and experience romantic interludes of love, or something like that. So up and up we went.

All of a sudden the road stops and we start bumping, and I mean bumping down the final miles of the road up to the summit. I guess it costs money to improve the roads, so they don't. It was so bumpy and rattly I thought my teeth were gunna fall out.

Scot didn't care for it either.

Of course, Laura can sleep through anything!

The observatorys and antennas and telescopes were all pretty cool. I didn't realize that there are many of them up there, and a lot belonging to other countries. Each observatory is watching out for different things. This was one of the arrays that are connected to other ones around the globe. They all move in unison.

Here is another one, there were lots. That is the back end our bus on the bottom. If you could see in you would see poor Judi, freezing, Laura in crisis, and me light-headed. We didn't get out of the bus. It was cold. Not terrible but we did need the parkas. And the wind was blowing really hard.

Extremo was so happy at the summit. It was what he was waiting for. The culmination of all his hopes and dreams. There wasn't really a lot of air up there.

Here are all the other nutjobs running around out there looking at absolutely nothing. And did I mention there was not a lot of air up there?

There was snow and lots of real fog, lots of wind and did I mention, not a lot of air. It made me really light-headed so I stayed in the bus. The ground was icy and snowy and the port-a-potty was down at the bottom of the hill, and I still had to go. Bad. But not as bad as Laura and that is not a story for this blog unless I want to die by the hands of my very own sister.

But Extremo was extremoly happy. After the sunset we didn't see, we went down the hill to the Visitor's center. We had hot chocolate and cookies and spent a while looking into telescopes. We saw the rings of Saturn, the Dogstar, the southern cross and lots of other really cool star stuff. It was nice at the Visitor's center. There was lots of air there.

Hawaii Day 5 - Riding the Rim

We woke up on Saturday grateful that we didn't have to be anywhere until noon! We got dressed and went to have breakfast at a little cafe on the beach. We sat at a bar that looked out over the ocean. This was our breakfast view...

After breakfast we did the long drive from the bottom of the west side of the island to the top of the east side of the island. Today we were going to "Ride the Rim!" I saw an ad on local TV to see Waipiho Valley - The Valley of Kings from high atop the mountains. You get there by ATV. Now just a few months ago I was up at Brad and Iris's house and they have ATV's. Brad got me to ride one and I just loved it. It seemed scary at first but once I got the hang of it, I loved it. Had it not been for that short drive I probably would have never thought twice as that being a fun tourist type activity. I signed us all up!

The is the Waipiho Valley Artworks where we were to meet our guides. It was a quaint little store with lots of art and good books.

Everyone was happy to be getting out of the car. We went into the store and looked around. We changed into our swimsuits and waited for the guides.

We waited...

And waited... It seems the van broke down while coming to get us. The guides went back to get the jeep and it broke down too. They finally came in a second jeep but only two could fit at a time so we went up to the ATV sheds in pairs. Me and Laura went first.

The came Extremo and Judi.

Hawaii is so laid back. These are our guides. Kim, Mike & Desmond. Kim is Mike's girlfriend. She wasn't official, just up there for the day and went with us. Mike was really outgoing and talkative, Desmond very quiet and was the caravan leader.

Laura got all suited up and ready to ride the rim!

We had to wear helmets and practice going around in circles to prove we could drive these contraptions.

It was so fun. We drove about 12 miles back into the mountains, up and up. We passed through groves of Eucalyptus Trees and ended up here.

To get to the waterfall we had to climb down a really steep set of rocky steps. It was a little adventure for most normal folks. Mike wouldn't let us NOT go down. I considered for a moment staying up top with the rigs. But they insisted we go down. I really wanted to experience everything so I did it. With my bad knee going down these steep steps was a little bigger adventure than most. For Laura with a goofy foot and being short it was a really bigger adventure and took her a while to get down the steps and across the bridge. I say we were really lucky to get her to the deck at all! I thought she was going to quit and go back.

Mike and Kim jumped in the water and headed to the waterfall. Extremo went next.

It was so beautiful and so cold. There were lots of shrimpy looking things and sword fish and crawdads in the water. It was really mossy, slipppery and rocky.

Laura rested on the deck. Judi ate her snack and we headed down into the water. Like I said it was slippery, rocky and mossy so I went in slowly. I took a misstep and !wham! into the water I went. It was shallow and shockingly cold. Once I was in I went out to my shoulders took a swimming stride and headed back. It was too cold. Judi just got her feet wet and went back up.

Getting back up the steps was the real adventure of the day! I headed up first because as you can see the the only siderail was a rope! It took a few painful minutes to get back to the top of the stairs. Judi came next and then Extremo. I had to sit on the ATV and shake out the pain in my knee. We rested a while waiting for Laura. I knew it was going to be really hard for her. Then I heard the crazy cackling of Extremo and he was excitedly doing something, up to no good, I could tell! He was trying to be stealthy and taking pictures of poor Laura trying to get up the stairs. Desmond was doing his best to help her up the stairs, as Laura put it, "hauling her up step by step" Mike and Kim were taking the break while Laura was coming up the steps to get in some makeout time. Laura bellowed, "Quit canoodling, can't you see I'm in crisis!"

We finally got all situated and ready to keep going! Woohoo! Ride the Rim!

We ended up at the top of Waipiho Valley, Valley of the Kings. It was breathtaking. Behind us is a steep cliff and to the left of us was a beautiful waterfall. It was the one they showed in Jurassic Park. There is only one road into the valley and you need 4 wheel drive to use it. They harvest taro there, electricity by generator. It is hard to explain the simplicity and beauty of that valley. The kings are buried in the lava tubes in the cliffs. It is a very sacred place.

We traveled through miles and miles of these Eucalyptus forests. They are only about 10 years old. Apparently some Japanese company planted them intending to harvest them and ship them back to Japan for paper products. They planted them in rows, very close together. When they went to cut them down to harvest they realized that it was just not cost effective to ship it all back to Japan and then found that the menthol drained into the ground contaminating the coffee fields and the beans down slope. What a mess. So now the miles of Eucalyptus stand in the mountains on the Hamakua Coast. They grow tall trying to reach the sun, they look a little straggly because they are planted so close together that there is not enough room for them to grow properly and they can't be cut down without contaminating the coffee farms. Go figure. Isn't that what the EPA Impact Statement is for?

Here is the standard view of Waipiho Valley we took from the tourists lookout. It has a black sand beach and was incredibly breathtaking.

Hawaii Day 4 - On Our Own Part 2

It's been awhile but I am back to share some more about our trip to the Big Island. Last I was here we were at the Place of Refuge. Now we got back on the road and headed south. We really wanted to go the the southernmost tip of the island but the highway didn't go that way. Besides we found a great little roadside stop where a couple of locals had set up rows of trinkets and it was fun to go shopping and support the local economy all in one fell swoop.

We found the end of our trail in a little town called Punaluu. We had gotten the same brochure for this bakery, pit stop, tourist trap a few different times so thought we would go there. It was a really nice little place with it's own botanical gardens. We sat on the lanai and had lunch.

We all had delicious island kine deserts and then bought some to take home. We headed back towards Kona full and happy.

We had planned earlier in the day to stop at the Keauhou Shopping Mall and watch the local hula show. I remembered it started at 5 and luckily we made it right at 5. When we found the right spot there was no one there. Turns out it started at 6! So we were able to take our pick of spots and rest in the warm evening air.

The show was fabulous. One of the best amatuer hula shows I had ever seen. It may have been that because we were on the big island where the Merry Monarch Festival is held that the standard of hula is higher than others I had seen. The mc was really knowledgeable about the origins of hula and hawaiian music. One of the most interesting facts to me was about the UliUli. That is the red and yellow feathered gourds in the picture. These are descendents of the spanish maracas. The Hawaiians just put feathers on them because they were pretty. Like I said it was a great trip. Day 5 was coming and it was just the best day ever...