Arriving in the Big Island

We arrived in the Big Island today, and it is beautiful. This is my first time here, and the girls too, so we are excited! All the plants are really green and beautiful, and the flowers have such brilliant colors. Last night we got a small preview of what it is going to be like when we have to go home...we were leaving Dave's parent's house to come here until the end of the week, and Emma was crying because she wanted to stay with her cousins. It will be sad when we actually have to leave at the end of our trip.

On a happier note though, our hotel on the Big Island feels like we are staying in the middle of a tropical rain forest. The air smells of rain and there are the tallest, greenest trees surrounding the entire place, and the bird's chirps are so loud and vibrant, they sound unreal. We are pretty sure they might be computer generated sounds that the hotel pipes through speakers to add to the ambiance :-)

Today, we started to head up to the top of Mauna Kea, and found out the the girls would have to stay at the visitor center which is about a half hour drive below the summit. I could tell that Dave was really disappointed they couldn't go up, but the Rangers strongly recommended that we did not attempt to bring them to the top of the mountain, so we took their advice.



I ended up being very thankful that they stayed behind with Grandmommy, the road going up was rough, slippery and scary. Dave made fun of me the whole way back down to the visitor center, saying I had the altitude sickness. I was just really drowsy and couldn't keep my eyes open.



The summit was an amazing site though...I'm sorry the girls missed that part! It's the world's tallest mountain, 13 feet taller than Mount Everest, but most of it is under sea level.



After our safe return to Dave's mom and the girls we stopped to see the Boiling Pots. It was already late in the afternoon and the girls made me work really hard for these next few pics.












The Boiling Pots view.



We also stopped at Rainbow Falls ~ it was so pretty. More scenic pics are to come...everything we have seen so far is so nice.