big island day 3 (last day)

Today was our last day of our little mini vacation on the Big Island. We started off our day at the Hilton Waikoloa. Here is a pic of the inside of one of the waterfalls on the way to the dolphin area.

It was close to feeding time for the dolphins and they were super excited. They were swimming really fast and sticking their heads out of the water at the dock. They are so cute :)

We went back up on Mauna Kea today, but this time we went to the top of the mountain. For those of you that aren't from/familiar with the islands, Mauna Kea, Hawaiian for "white mountain," is a dormant volcano and it is 13,796 feet on elevation. If you measure it from its base under the water it stands 32,000ft making it the tallest mountain in the world.

It was scary getting up to the top. After the visitor center the road is gravel for 5 miles and has steep cliffs off to the side. The last 5 miles is paved and I felt much safer over there!! When we came up to snow level I kind of forgot about how dangerous the ride up was.

I took this snowball and threw it at the hood of our rental car because my parents and Mark were sitll in it (sshhhh rental companies dont really like you taking their cars up to the top). My hand was freezing after!!

Look at all that snow!!! Its so amazing up there! I felt like I was on top of the world!

When winter storms roll in the icicles that form off the roof of the telescope buildings can grow to almost 4ft in length!! I always go to the observatories website and check out the web cams Mauna Kea Weather Center.

It was freezing standing here! Yes, I'm crazy, standing in snow in shorts, slippers, and a sweatshirt! It was so cold that I could only breathe through my mouth because it froze my nose, haha!!

I still can't believe that I went to the top of Mauna Kea! I have been going to those web cams for over 6 years now and I always dreamed of going up there. It was awesome. You could see Mauna Loa to one side and Haleakala (on Maui) on the other side. I got to go right up to the telescope that has my favorite web cam. These pictures are going to be exciting to scrapbook :)