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.
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.
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