Snow and Ocean All In One Day

Wait?  What's a picture of snow doing in your Hawaii post?

You can drive to the top of Mauna Kea, one of the two tallest volcanoes (of the five) that constitute the Big Island.  That's Mauna Loa in the distance.

The way the two of us are dressed here tells you everything about the two of us.  And I had JUST put on the long sleeve shirt.

There are a number of observatories at the top of Mauna Kea.

One of them is run by the Keck Foundation

And turns out, you can go inside and see the telescope!

When we were there, the telescope was actually rotating.  It was great.  We didn't get a chance to come back and see the stars, but with no light pollution, the stars were amazing just looking at the sky at night.

Above the clouds!

I'm a sucker for factories, so we stopped by the Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut Factory.  

Since it was around the holidays, the factory was closed, but we ate some macadamia nut ice cream.  We also learned the macadamia nuts have the hardest shell to crack of all the nuts.

Driving south from Hilo, we spent the afternoon in the Puna district.  I had to take a picture of this beautiful tree lined road.

Our destination was the Ahulanui State Park with a volcanically heated pool which is cooled by the ocean.  That's the ocean in the distance.  

After a couple hours of snorkeling and enjoying the water, we drove to see the lava at the former town of Kalapana.  More beautiful roads along the way.....

....and stops along the way to see the waves crash against the lava.

On this site, stood the former town of Kalapana.  

Another beautiful sunset looking west towards Kilauea.