Big Island, Sunday, May 22nd

Our first adventure of the day was to the Hawaii Botanical Garden. It is located in a bay with small waterfalls and crashing surf. An array of orchids, heliconia, ginger, spider lilies, cannon ball trees, banyan trees, and so much more filled the hike around the gardens. Although the entry charge was $15, it was totally worth it.

Ginger Plant




Heliconia




Heliconia

Bay At Hawaii Botanical Garden

As we drove around the island, we encountered all sorts of fun little roadside shacks and stands. We stopped at one and had the best fresh fruit smoothies (no ice, ice cream, sugar or other added junk) we've ever had. And a fantabulous fish wrap sandwich. Yum. Wish we could go back for more.

Later in the day, we went driving along the north shore of the Big Island. One of the little side trips off the highway was to Akaka Falls. We passed through the farming community of the island, and saw many sugar cane and taro fields, coffee plants, etc. The waterfall was a short, steep 5 minute hike that seemed to appear out of nowhere. It reminded me of the sheer magnitude of Multnomah Falls in Oregon, but with the lush tropical vegetation of Hawaii everywhere. Stunning.

Requisite Touristy Photo Op

Akaka Falls

We drove to the Mauna Kea observatory summit to watch the sunset and see the stars this night. Took a pic of the GPS readings to prove it!

Elevation at Mauna Kea Observatory Summit

We had to take the Saddle Road from Hilo to near Mauna Kea, then from there, the summit road, which required 4wd, so the convertible rental had to go. We traded it in for a Jeep for the day. Mauna Kea is a 30,000+ foot mountain, but 17,000 of that is underwater. But we had the privilege of driving the other 14,000 (okay, so 13,861 ft to be precise) feet up. Lots of ear popping and VERY sharp and winding roads. Oh, and the warning about "invisible cows". Evidently, the moo-makers like to suddenly appear on the road in front of vehicles, out of the mists. Lucky us that we didn't encounter any of the beasties.
Not so great weather though, which was really a bummer. There was a freak cloud storm. Our first stop was at the visitors center at about 9,000 ft. We needed to pop in there for about 1/2 hr to adjust to the elevation change to help avoid altitude sickness. We were hoping that the weather would clear up as we reached the summit.
The observatory was amazing in that we were able to go from sea level to 14,000 ft elevation in less than an hour. But the weather didn't improve when we got up there. In fact, it was worse. It was 37 F and with gale force winds. There was a couple 10 second or so breaks in the fast moving clouds is all. We stayed about 15 minutes (in the car), then went down the mountain again.
Well, I can officially say that I have experienced altitude sickness. And it sucks. Think horrible headache (like from a spinal leak, which I can unluckily say I have experienced), nausea, dizziness, trouble concentrating, and generally feeling quite ill. The cure? Get down to a lower altitude. FAST.It's amazing how quickly I recovered once we got down to about 7,000 ft.
Naturally, Matt didn't have any trouble at all. I'm so jealous.

Cloudy and Windy