Ben and I hoped and dreamed, planned and saved for a trip for our 10 year anniversary. It was a bit of a process to narrow down a place: we considered New York, Denver, Banff, and Hawaii. We're so glad we picked Hawaii. It has been a blast! So far we have swam, snorkeled, star gazed, slept in, hiked and helicoptered. It's been wonderfully relaxing and excitingly adventurous.
Here's some pictures from the first half of our vacation:
The view from our room!
The night view of the hotel lobby: yes, that's me standing there with my arms crossed shaking my head at Ben laying on his back to take this "artistic" picture. Not bad my love, not bad.
I am calling this Ben's Baywatch picture
First ones on the beach in the morning (due to the time change!)
Hapuna Beach, the beach our hotel is on, is rated one of the best not only in Hawaii, but America and after exploring many beaches the last few days, nothing has compared to Hapuna. The sand is so soft that it feels like butter under your feet and the waves are calm. We feel so blessed to be staying here!
The beach on our Day 1 hiking through lava rocks adventure. To get to this beach we had a 20 minute sketchy drive on a one-lane black lava rock road. Then a 15 minute walk to this beach.
Then, we had read with another 20 minute hike we could get to an amazing isolated beach. So we did that hike too. Hiking over lava rock in sandals and 90 degree hot, humid weather is not fun. And while the beach was nice, it was not worth the time and effort. Live and learn.
The Big Island has old lava flows everywhere. It's amazing to see the texture and imagine the rocks actually being lava. We took this one to show the boys. It was in the parking lot.
Another beach: Ben snorkeling to see a couple turtles.
The Big Island is home to Mauna Kea, a mountain (inactive volcano actually) that has what scientists believe to be the best star gazing in the world. There are about 10-12 enormous telescopes on the top of the mountain. It was really neat to see them!
Watching the sunset from atop the world
And yes, despite the beanies and jeans, we are still in Hawaii. It was 43 degrees and windy on top of Mauna Kea. Freezing, especially after a day at the 90 degree beach!
Beautiful sunset above the clouds.
Unfortunately, because I'm not savvy enough with my camera, I didn't get any pictures of our star gazing experience after sunset. It was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. I had not, and will not, ever see that many stars. The milky way was completely visible to the naked eye. We saw Saturn and its rings through a telescope. We saw shooting stars and had constellations described to us. It was amazing to view the heavens that the Lord has created!
The next day we had one of the other most memorable experiences of our life: a helicopter ride!
We were so excited!
We sent this picture to the boys via phone and Sam thought Ben was driving the helicopter. Nope, we all had cool, professional looking headsets so we could listen and talk to the pilot if needed.
Off we go: these are fields of macadamia nuts.
Our first look at the most recent lava flow. The biggest reason that we wanted to do the helicopter ride was because lava is currently only visible via air. This lava flow started in 2014 and is burning through the surrounding forests.
A lava vent: the bright red lava was flowing through a crack as we flew over. It was so amazing to see real live lava!
This crater had lava in the bottom of it. It was hard to get a picture of.
Flying away from the crater
I couldn't stop smiling. It was such an amazing experience.
We also saw some waterfalls from the air. It was neat, but I think that they are cooler from land.
We're hoping to see these in real life in the next couple of days.
I loved seeing the coast line from the air.
After the trip. Did we really get to go on a helicopter? Wow!
Next we visited Volcano National Park. This was our lunch view. That's the newest crater of the volcano; it is filled with lava. The entire brown part of land used to be a sea of lava about one hundred years ago.
We decided to do a recommended 4 mile hike that takes you through rain forest and then down to the bottom of another crater. That straight, light-colored line in this picture is the trail we would later take. There are little black specks on the trail if you look close--those are people!
Rain forest part of the trail
Ben has been all about his binoculars this trip
I'm pretty sure that my hand is supposed to be turned the other way for the "hang loose" sign. I'm such a dork.
Entering what looks like "The Land of Morador" (for all you LOTR geeks out there). In 1959, this entire crater was full of lava. Crazy!
Plants are already beginning to grow on it. Beautiful plants! God is amazing!
In the lava rock field
I found it a little disconcerting that there are steam vents along the trail, Ben found it exciting and cool (men!)
Our final leg of the trip: in the rainforest again. The contrast of the trail was really neat.
These flowers were scattered throughout the trail and were extremely sweetly fragrant.
After a long and exciting day of helicopters and volcanoes, we made it back for a relaxing sunset on Hapuna Beach. Check out the puffy cloud: doesn't it look just like a camel? Best cloud animal I've ever seen!
Ben loves his sunsets, and we were not disappointed!
"The heaven's declare the glory of the Lord,"
"The skies proclaim the work of his hands." Psalms 19:1
Dinner view, night 3, from the restaurant outside our hotel pool.
Thus, the first half of our trip is documented. Who blogs while on vacation one may ask. Me, because I have time. Sweet time. Blogging is something that I really enjoy, but struggle to find time to do at home between all the real life activities. But here, on vacation, I can peacefully sit at a table, watch the waves of the ocean and guiltlessly blog. I'm so thankful for this vacation and for my and Ben's parents watching the boys!
I love your blogs of all your adventures! :)
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