Mauna Kea Volcano...

This post follows me up Mauna Kea Volcano on Hawai'i Island (the Big Island).  This was later in the day as my last two blog posts, so once again you'll notice the poor picture quality due to my inaccurate camera settings.  Luckily, I realized it later in the evening after taking these pictures, so after this posting it will be fixed moving forward.

(Nerd Alert): Mauna Kea Facts:
-It is the highest peak in Hawai'i at 13,800 ft. above sea level
-It's last major eruption was 4,600 years ago
-Most of the mountain is under water, so it is actually the tallest mountain in the world at 33,500 feet tall (Mount Everest is 29,000 ft and K2 is 28,000 ft)

Mauna Kea's Observatories.  Picture credit here.  

-It is sacred ground to ancient Hawaiians
-It gets enough snow in January and February at the peak to actually make winter sports possible, so you could conceivably (and rather easily) snowboard AND surf on the same day!

Mauna Kea's elevation, dryness and crisp, clean air make for an excellent atmosphere to observe space.  It's home to the largest collection of observatories telescopes in the world.  It currently has 13 observatories that are supported by 11 different countries (and some universities).  The area made big news here in Hawai'i recently because the state just approved a 30 meter telescope which will make it the largest constructed.  It is a joint effort between 6 universities, the state of Hawai'i and one foundation.  The universities are from the USA (3), China, Japan and India.

Headed up the Volcano...wow that picture quality is terrible!

Here I am at 9,000 feet and ready to watch the sunset...until a cloud invaded the trail I hiking!

High altitude plants

Found this tree as I wondered around inside the cloud that engulfed me.

Waiting for darkness to arrive.  I stayed at the visitors center at 9,000 feet to attend the Park Ranger's star gazing program.  Once the clouds cleared, I was awestruck by the numerous amount of stars.  It was amazing.  I cannot describe their abundance.  Stars that I knew of before (ie. the North Star, Orion's belt, dippers...) were even more bright, but it seemed like God took the number of starts in the KY sky and multiplied it by 100.  Many of the starts were colored, a detail not easily seen in KY.  One could easily see red, yellow, orange and even blueish stars with the naked eye.

The visitor center awash with red lights to aid guests' night vision.

Orion is easily visible in this picture with his brightly lit belt (picture center) and sword (extending down and slightly right from the middle of the belt)

The star gazing made me wish I hadn't dropped my college astronomy class.  My astronomy skills leave a lot to be desired; mostly consisting of being able to pick out the Orion, big dipper, and little dipper constellations.  Luckily, the park ranger was fantastic and shared a lot of knowledge with me...which I've subsequently already forgotten, but I remember being fascinated at the time!  Ha.

I hope to go back again soon, because I really wanted to go to the top of Mauna Kea.  Unfortunately, after 9,000 feet you need a four wheel drive vehicle for the remaining 5,000 feet to the observatories.  My rental car was not up for that challenge.

Mahalo for visiting.  See you again soon.

Fields of the Big Island...

I was headed from Hawai'i Island's Northern point eastward across the island when I came across this beautiful country land.  It was a gorgeous day and I just had to stop and feel the breeze...and take some pictures.  I was so excited about these pictures, however, unbeknownst to me, I still had the picture quality setting on my camera set to low.  But it was a fascinating place situated randomly along the tiny road I as travelling.  It was God's country for sure.

In the background of the next picture you can see all the way to Maui.  Rising above the clouds is Maui's East Volcano: Haleakala.  You may remember it from earlier posts where I biked down it. Maui Island and Hawai'i Island are 30 miles away from each other at their closest shore-to-shore distances.

The Dave and Smess hanging out while I satisfy my curiosity of climbing up a hill.

I found this lonely little post at the top of the hill.

Mahalo for visiting!  Until next time...

Hawai'i Island Time (ie. The Big Island)...

It's Big Island time!  Hawai'i Island (otherwise known as 'the big island') is the largest of all the Hawaiian Islands.  This island alone is over 4,000 square miles, which makes it almost as large as Connecticut and 4 times as large as Rhode Island.  It actually gets larger every day due to volcanic activity.  It's just about the only place on Earth that is outpacing the rising waters from polar ice melting.

Hawai'i Island is a fascinating place to be, and I'm very excited to share parts of my trip with the blogosphere/family and friends.  I loved my trip there.  It has definitely been my favorite part of living in Hawai'i so far.  You'll see why as you see my next few blog posts: volcanos, black sand beach, great views, turtles, great lookouts, astronomy and lava.  I can't wait to show you the lava! (I'm having trouble narrowing down my lava pictures for you all...I took hundreds in my excitement, but I'll try to narrow it down to my favorite 15 or so).

Here are some picture from my first day.  Disclaimer: I'm annoyed with my pictures from my first day on the island.  The next couple posts have some great picture locations, BUT the quality is terrible.  I accidentally had the image quality setting on my camera set for low quality versus the moderate-to-high setting I typically use.  I didn't notice this error until the end of the day, but, alas, I still wanted to share some pictures with all of you (so just pretend they are nice, crisp images).  This mistake reminded me that I'm still very much a novice amateur photographer.  Not that I really aspire to be much more than that, but I'm I little disappointed I made this big of a goof.  I digress.  To the pictures we go:

My fellow travel buddies at the first tiny little black sand beach that we saw: The Dave and Smess

An old catamaran just hanging out in the bushes.

Sailing boat heads out to sea.

I started my trip by flying into Kona on the West side of the island and then drove up the Western coast to the Northern tip.  Along the way was a preserved Hawaiian village.  It had this beautiful landscape of red soil, with palm trees and intermittent blooming flowers.  During our drive we frequently saw whales spouting, but when we stopped at the old village we didn't see any by the coast (the whales continued to hide from us I guess).

Hawaiian Hut

The digs might not afford many of the modern amenities, but the view is pretty awesome, right?

The coast line along the old village shore

There was a little town near the Northern tip called Hawi (Ha-vee).  In Hawi we had lunch, and poked around all the shops.  Calling it a quaint little artsie town is probably the best way to describe it.  Once we were at the Northern tip of the island, we arrived at the Pololu Lookout.  So I'll end this blog with a couple pictures from there.  I particularly love the change in the sea color between the shallow and deeper waters in these pictures.  Mahalo for visiting, and more Big Island Shenanigans to come!  

Hide n' Go Seek with the Whales...

While the Zallas and Smess were here we all went whale watching.  February is the height of humpback whale season.  They migrate to Hawai'i's warm waters to give birth to their calves.  Unfortunately, we didn't see any whales.  It was still a nice change of pace to be out on the ocean for a boat ride.  This day was a bit of bad luck all around: as I explained in the last post, we weren't able to go snorkeling and now the whales decided to hide from us.  Can't blame the whales though: they are wild animals and go where they please.  It was kind of a bummer, but we did not let that deter us from having fun anyway.   Below are a few pictures of the trip.

Relaxing on the boat's bow.

As we headed out we got a good view of Koko Crater

Various ridge lines descending from the mountain to the water.

Smess dutifully watching for the whales.

Neighborhood of Portlock and Hunama Bay Crater

We saw a vast amount of ocean, but still no whales.  Unfortunately, for our visitors they were not able to go whale watching again.  The whales won this game of Hide n' Go Seek but they will not win next time.  I'll have some pictures of the whales from my second trip whale watching up on the blog soon.

A few days later we went circle-island and stopped for a hike to Waimea Falls.  To the right is a picture of the Zallas braving the chilly fresh water.

I have several blogs from my recent trip to Hawaii Island (ie. the Big Island), so stay tuned and a big mahalo for visiting.

East Island with Mainland Friends...

A few of my mainland friends were visiting recently.  The Zallas and Smess were great company to have on the island.  We had planned to spend the day snorkeling on the east side of Oahu.  Unfortunately, mother nature threw us a curve ball and the swells were too large, so the beach was closed.  We decided to do some sightseeing around that part of the island instead.

Halona Blowhole doing its normal thing.

Action shot: Eric gives the Halona Blowhole two thumbs up.  Kelly is trying to use Eric as a shield from the chilly wind.  Smess just giggles for the picture as usual, and Dave is in full tour guide mode: taking the picture in stride as he heads to the car to drive us to the next stop.

The crew balancing on the lava rocks above the Spitting Cave of Portlock

We had some time to kill, since we were going whale watching tour later in the day (it's the next post), so we found a little park with a calm beach.  The ladies decided to read their books in the park, while Dave and Eric ventured out to attempt snorkeling in the shallow reef.  Thus, I decided to entertain myself by taking pictures.

Smess and Kelly reading in the park.

Eric and Dave doing their best 'Jesus-walk-on-water' impersonation 
Umm...I don't think you're doing that whole 'snorkeling thing' correctly.

There ya' go!  Face in the water!

I watched the man on the left swim out with his spear fishing equipment.  He swam back in a few minutes later.  He said he saw a couple sharks when he arrived in deeper waters, so he decided not to continue.  When you spear fish, you attach the speared fish to a line that floats with you.  The dead fish can become shark bait.  Should I have been worried that Dave and Eric where out snorkeling with the sharks?  No, they were fine, sharks really don't like the taste of people (that is a scientific fact).  I didn't tell the girls because they would have worried.

This poor little Hawaiian boy just couldn't hold onto his balloon   His Dad finally tied it to him with caution tape after having to run and catch it three times.  The boy seemed even happier with the new set up.

There were a bunch of white birds at the park.  Fortunately I found one that tolerated me following him around.  This bird is a Cattle Egret.  They are indigenous to Europe and Asia.  They get their name because they tend to hang around cattle and other large grass feeding animals to eat insects and bugs.  You often see them just sitting right on top of the cows when you pass the local ranches (yes, Hawai'i has ranches).

"What?  You lookin' at me?"

Oh calm down.  Don't get your feathers all ruffled up.