OTHER ACTIVITIES ON THE ISLAND OF BIG

So they say that the only vehicle you are supposed to take up Mauna Kea (one of the dead volcano's on the big island)is one that is 4 wheel drive.

This is what we think of that rule...
Oh yes that is us and our rented brand spankin' new Chevy Cobalt. The climb was a little scary... and there were times we had to turn the heater on full blast to cool it down, but we made it!
Take that all you 4 wheel drive vehicles that passed us shaking your heads and also the guy at the visitors center that looked at us like we were crazy.

Once we were above the clouds I was glad that I brought my jacket along because it was freezing. Then again anything below 75 degrees is cold to me. I think the temp was 50 degrees (that is what the cobalt said, however we could have screwed her up on the drive to the top). Sadly there was no snow on top. We went the wrong time of year.

Captain Cook Monument

FYI Captain Cook is real and sailed to the Hawaiian islands. And all this time I thought that he was just a story. I wonder if Peter Pan flew there too...I wonder if Never Never Land is Hawaii. Hmmm...interesting thoughts

Some of the best snorkeling I have ever done was at this monument. The water was so clear. There are two ways to get to the monument to snorkel, 1. pay a tourist boat to take you out, 2. hike. Being cheap (and liking to hike) that is what we did. Note to self: Next time pack lighter or wear your snorkel stuff down. It was a longer and more difficult hike than we both had anticipated...no wonder we didn't see anyone else on the hike. Well worth it though.

South Point

Contrary to popular belief the big island is the southern most part of the United States not the Florida Keys.

Southern tip. See I'm saying, "Antarctica thata way."

Black Sand Beach

HEIDI: Clayton can we go to that Black Sand Beach

CLAYTON: Heidi there is more than just ONE black sand beach.

Now you too know!

Pu'uhonua O'honaunau (try saying that 3 times fast...or just try saying it once)

Stupid kid wouldn't get out of my photo. So this place with the long, hard to say name (which I did master after 72 hours of practice) is a park where traditional Hawaiian lifestyle was preserved. Pretty cool place.

Helicopter ride over Mt. Kilauea

Thank heavens for Clayton is considered local. We decided to splurge on a helicopter ride over the active Kilauea volcano. Well worth it. Except for the motion sickness that not surprisingly I felt.

Kona Hawaii Temple

Continuing on with our "did you know" lesson...the Kona Hawaii LDS Temple was the first mini temple built. Don't you feel a little smarter now!?!

So there we were. Clayton had a interview on Tuesday at 10am. Tuesday morning was the only day we could go because we were flying out the next day. We were going to try to go before his interview. We called Jodie (thanks Jodie) and had her look up the times and the phone number on the Church website. They only had a handful of sessions and the only one we could go to was the 7 am session. Being a mini temple we had to call so they could get clothes ready for us. We called the number Jodie gave us from the Church website and it was a wrong number. We looked up the number in the phone book and once again wrong number. Clayton called 411 and the phone number they had listed was a fax number. We just decided to get up early and get there with enough time so they could find clothes for us. So we get up at 5 AM (not a misprint people...I'm an early riser, but not that early) and get ready. We drive to the Temple and not a car is in the parking lot. Tried the gates and...

LOCKED!
A few minutes later a couple of cars come trickling into the parking lot. One was the Temple President. He was kind enough to tell us that the Temple was closed for 2 weeks for maintenance. Something we should have looked up before! The point to this long story is that we sadly (for me not Clayton he has done a session at this temple before) didn't get to do a session, but we were able to take pictures (what a relief I know).

And thus our journey on the Big Island of Hawaii comes to an end. If you made it to the end of this post I am impressed.