Hawaii #1

  Sorry to use this old mission post but Whitney helped me set this one up and I don't have another one so this is it. I have decided to split this into two posts because there are so many pictures so I will post the pictures from Kona under #1 and then the pictures from Laie under #2. Just looking at these pictures has been so fun. Thank you so much for making this possible for us to get there. And then thank you to LaNae and Rod and Lawrence and Elaine for making it possible for us once we were there. We had a wonderful time and it was all "a moment in time" to be sure.

Dad preparing for the trip wearing one of Uncle Terry's swimming suits

Our first stop was the beautiful Kona temple right in the same parking lot of the chapel where we went to church.

The little man who was playing music at the restaurant we ate at the first night. This is just to show you that your dad wasn't wearing his pants higher than anyone else on the Island. This guy was probably older than Dad.

The next morning we hit the beaches. All of them were beyond beautiful. The water was bluer than anything we ever saw in Panama.

We packed a lunch and swam and relaxed and only got a little sunburned. It was all worth it.

We also went to another beach that was loaded with turtles. While we were there we saw two weddings happening. This turtle was one of the bridesmaids, I guess.

Dad trying to fulfill a lifelong dream to be a sailor.'I sail, I sail".

The next day Rod rented a Jeep to take us to this beach. It was really this gorgeous but it had a scary, scary road to get down to it. Rod is a little bit of an Indiana Jones wanna be so he loved the whole thing.

The beaches were rocky and had black sand but the weather was perfect and so was the company. 

This little red-head was pretty interested in what we were having for lunch. There was never an end to the beautiful flowers or interesting wildlife we saw.

Just to add to the effect of it all being a tropical paradise there is a small waterfall cascading down the mountain in the distance

This is Rod's idea of a shortcut. He tried to wash the Jeep off a little before he returned it to the rental company

There were wild donkeys everywhere we went

Rod and Dad playing on the lava fields

Where life starts to return to the fields there are tiny flowers everywhere.

Then the  foliage returns

And Flowers!

We walked through a tube created by a lava flow.

We ate at the Volcano House with a view of a real volcano off in the distance

The lady at the gift shop taught us how to make leis---small ones.

We walked through fields of vapor caused by the lava heating the water under the ground

We watched the steam come up out of the volcano in the daylight

At night you could see that the lava was actually glowing red with the heat it was putting off

That night we celebrated the birthday boy's 70th birthday.

The next day we spent at the Keck Observatories

We were at 14,000 feet. It gave you a real bad headache

                                                It was really cool actually

Here is Rod climbing to the highest point of the highest hill

Talking to our friend Ram about the black hole he is studying that is 1 million light years away.

                                Then our time in Kona was over and we left the magical land of the NeNe birds                                   and the magical volcanoes

This picture was taken as we sat waiting to board our plane to Honolulu. Were we really there?