Here’s what I’ve noticed about the Hawaiian language so far. They seem to use all the vowels but I can only find evidence of the following consonants: H, K, L, M, N, P, and W. Can you really create a whole language using just twelve letters? I admire the efficiency of this.
Today we relocated from Hilo to Kona, which by good fortune took us right between the Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea mountain observatories. Mauna Kea is the famous one, home to at least 13 telescopes situated at the 14,000 foot summit. I thought maybe I could trick Jeff into driving up, in order to continue my observatorial life-tour, however several things foiled my plan. 1 – you are not allowed to take rental cars past the visitors center (at 9,200 feet) because the road is gravel and “steep”. To put that in perspective, the road to the visitors center reached a 14% grade, which means the road to the telescopes was steeper than that, on gravel. 2 – the road was, in fact, closed to all vehicles on account of dangerous snow and ice conditions. I guess the scientists are taking a snow day?
Interesting fact: 14,000 feet is so high the oxygen levels are only 40% that of sea level. When travelling to the summit, the visitor’s center encourages people to spend at least 30 minutes there in order to acclimatize to the change in altitude before continuing up.
I would not be happy if an 18-wheeler was trailing me down this road!
Kailua-Kona is a MUCH more touristy town than Hilo. It reminded me of a more tourism-intense version of Maui. We strolled past the many t-shirt shops looking for a place to book a snorkeling tour that didn’t require us to sit through a time-share presentation, and eventually made our way to our old Maui favourite, Snorkel Bob’s. We booked a tour for Friday, picked up a few fishing pamphlets at the Information Center and stopped off for some very delicious local beer. The very nice waitress saved us from having to take today’s selfie.
No selfie today!
We also made it out to a coffee farm after lunch, checking another box on the Hawaii to-do list. I sampled approximately 9 different kinds of coffee, which should make sleeping tonight quite interesting. We loaded up on some Kona coffee beans and tea made from dried coffee cherries. (Mom, if you’re reading this, you might be getting some coffee cherry tea…)
As an extra special treat, we’re pretty sure we spotted one of the singers from ABBA walking through town.
Ooh, see that girl
Watch that scene
Diggin’ the dancing queen
Tomorrow we are FINALLY going to go to a beach to go swimming.
No new animal species today, but I do have a very exciting amendment from Day 2. Turns out the weasel-like animal we saw on the Chain of Craters road was probably a mongoose! I’ve named him Riki Tiki Tavi. If you get it, leave a comment.
Honey, you had me at the ABBA photo. LOL! Remember this tip: always change out of a wet bathing suit. Just sayin’. Have fun!