Elmer and I visited the Big Island of Hawaii to celebrate our fourth wedding anniversary. We both absolutely love Hawaii and were looking forward to a relaxing vacation. The last time we were in Hawaii (Lanai and Maui) was for our honeymoon!
One of our first stops (besides Costco!) was for shave ice. This little kiosk was so good that we came here three times over the week that we were on vacation.
Place of Refuge
South Point, the southernmost point of the United States. It was super windy!
Sea turtle at Punalu'u black sand beach
Kilauea Caldera at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park
Thurston lava tube
Devastation Trail, where a lava flow came through and destroyed all the vegetation.
This land is just a bit younger than we are!
Sea arch
Interesting lava formation
Glowing magma inside the caldera.
Rainbow Falls
Akaka Falls
Waipio Valley Lookout
Elmer was able to play a round of golf at Hapuna
The view from our "partial ocean view" room at Hapuna
The color of the ocean was beautiful. The pictures can't do it justice.
We were able to see many whales breaching off the coast from the beach and from our room balcony. This photo isn't great, but you can kind of make out the whale!
We are wearing heavy duty parkas, but we're still in Hawaii! We went on an excursion with Mauna Kea Summit Adventures. The stargazing was absolutely amazing. We've never seen so many stars in the sky before! We were even able to see the Milky Way belt.
At the summit for sunset. You can see some of the high-powered telescopes in the background. It was freezing. I got a little bit of altitude sickness, but recovered within minutes. Elmer didn't do too well, but he felt much better when we descended back down a bit for the stargazing.
We tried to take a picture of the night sky. Not a great photo, but you can see Orion's belt and Mars (the red dot), I think.
Sunset from our room
