Our 6th Day in Hawaii

We decided to go to Pololu Beach today. On the way there we saw these windmills and stopped to take some pictures. They were turning but were very quiet. It was a really beautiful day as you can see.
On the road with the windmills, you could see across the ocean to Maui. What an incredible site!
Then Pololu Beach. This is looking from a little ways down the path. It was a steep and rocky climb down. We were really glad we had our walking sticks and it was all I could do to get back up! The guidebook had said a 15-20 minute walk down and if you made it back up in 20 you hadn't stopped. Well, it took us more like 30 to get down and we only stopped to take a few pictures once. The the climb back up was something else. It is really steep! We rested only a couple of times and made it up in 40-45 minutes. But I was exhausted and not sure about that last little bit. I was really proud of myself for making it. But it was worth it. A beautiful black sand beach. So quiet and not many people. Thankfully they had a couple of log swings to sit and rest on before the climb back up.
After lunch we drove to Mauna Kea. It goes up 13,000 ft. What a difference after being at sea level. They strongly suggest a 4-wheel drive but we didn't have any trouble with the AWD thing we were driving. It was cold and windy there. But the view was breathtaking. You can see the clouds below the telescopes. There was a couple there with a pickup shoveling snow into the back and packing it down to get as much in as they could to take is down to the lower level. We thought of Scott and his snow blower to get rid of the snow and here were people trying to get it.
At the Visitor Center (we stopped on the way up to acclimate and again on the way down just to use the restrooms), Rick took this shot of a silversword. They don't seem to grow very many places but are really a beautiful plant.

I have again posted more pictures on the flickr in our Hawaii set. Be sure to check them out.