Aloha, Hawai'i !

Since we're leaving the Big Island tomorrow, I thought I'd show you some random pictures.  A couple of weeks ago, a group of us seniors commandeered a van and went on a tour by ourselves. Terry and I had been to all the places before, but what made this tour unique was the older generation.  We had our own brand of humour.
We weren't at all unhappy that it was raining part of the time.  It didn't stop some of us from eating ice cream

Everyone of these people was Canadian except for the couple on the left, who were from Arizona.

 These are, malasadas, Portuguese doughnuts.  They're like doughnut, squarish, with no hole.  Very fresh, and delicious!

 On the way back, Janice, standing to my right above, said, "There's a snowman!"  No one said anything.  I don't think anyone heard her.  I thought to myself, "What is she talking about?"  On our way back from the road where we'd turned off , we all saw it.  Someone had a pick-up truck load full of snow, probably from Mauna Kea, and had built a snowman.  When Janice saw it, it hadn't been quite so melted on the bottom.  That's how warm it was, probably around 28 degrees Celsius.  At this time it looked like Frosty's wife, with a wide skirt. 

This is most of the Kokua Crew, which is what we were called.  Kokua means "help" in Hawaian.  We're all dressed up for a farewell dessert evening we had at the King's Mansion, a lovely house on six acres of property that YWAM owns, several miles away.

Our ladies' small group also had dinner out one evening.

Beside me on the left is Diane from San Diego, CA, Julia from Sweden, Julie from Washington, Magda from Germany, our leader, Gayle, from Minnesota, and Nina, also from Germany.  We had many a wonderful Wednesday evening sharing our lives with each other, and learning how to hear the voice of God.  I'll miss the fellowship!





Tomorrow evening we board the plane for Los Angeles, and the on to Calgary, AB.  At least it isn't supposed to be that cold anymore. It's hard to put into words what this last three months have meant to me.  We had to try, though, first in an evening of people sharing their experiences, and then in a written evaluation where we were asked several questions, such as, "What was your favourite time?  What did you find difficult?  Everyone answered through the lens of his/her own experience, but on the whole it was very GOOD!

From the Mountain to the Sea

Mauna Kea is the tallest mountain in the world because its base is 17,000 feet below sea level. It's one of the five volcanoes on the Island of Hawaii. We were excited to take the road to the top because there was snow there.  Wouldn't it be fun to say we'd been in the snow in HAWAII ! It was late Friday night before we found out that Elijah's 4 wheel drive Jimmy was actually available.  We weren't allowed to rent from Enterprise because the road was too rough even for their 4x4 vehicles.  The day looked promising with only a bit of cloud visible.

Alas, the road past the visitor's centre was closed!
All that way, all that trouble to get a vehicle, and we couldn't do what we'd set out to do.  So we started walking up one of the side trails to get to the top of a little hill.  We were at 9,200 feet, but we'd wanted to be at the summit of Mauna Kea at 13,796 feet. Once out of the car we put up our hoods and tightened the strings.  It was brisk and windy even at that altitude.  At the top, the winds were supposed to be between 70-90 mph, hence the road closure.

                                                                      It's the first time we'd worn long pants since we got here.

As we walked around we heard a gobbling noise in the tree tops.  Terry said it was a chukar , a plump partridge type bird, but it remained elusive.

At Terry's right is the Mauna Kea Silversword.  

This is the best we could do for view.
A group of Mission Builders had been up the whole way just the previous evening.  A young man from Brazil was elated to see snow for the very first time.
After this the clouds rolled in, so we were glad we'd arrived early enough in the morning.

Funny to see in Hawaii one of the same kinds of weeds as at home--  Mullein.  In fact the terrain was similar to the desert in Arizona.

For the rest of the day we ventured south of Kona.    This is the Painted Church, St. Benedict's Catholic Church, built in the 1800s.

Inside are frescoes painted on the wall and on the ceiling by a Father John Velge.  This one is "Handwriting on the Wall."

The last stop of the day was the beach at Pu'uhonua o Honaunau.  Wonderful snorkling!  I didn't explore the whole reef, but swam around a bit to see my favourite bright yellow fish, the Yellow Tang, striped black and white fish, also a Moorish Idol, and a blue fish I hadn't seen before.  Also huge coral and sea urchins everywhere.  If I'd remembered to bring the flippers, I would've ventured further.  Awesome!

Sorry, not a picture of the fish!  This is all Terry could manage from his vantage point on the lava rocks.