My day began at the dining room table of our two bedroom house in Volcano, eating banana pancakes with my roommates, and ended at a local graduation party in Hilo doing the electric slide and drinking pineapple wine….Not a bad day.

First I should say that the place we’re staying for the next 4 nights is so great. It’s an actual house that is so cozy…which would sort of explain why I spent most of the morning in my pj’s just being lazy (and getting caught up with the bachelorette online :)) I will post the link for the house so you can see pictures. It’s called hale I’iwi, and the owner is an artist with all of her original artwork hanging in the rooms….very cool.

In the afternoon we headed north to Hilo and stopped at the giant farmer’s market for fruits and veggies. It was the biggest market I’ve been to so far…they had all sorts of things…not just food, but also clothes, jewelry, etc…My indecisiveness decided to show-up, and I couldn’t figure out what I wanted to buy for souvenirs, so I’m sorry, but none of you are getting gifts….sorry :)

The next stop was to Arnott’s Lodge. It’s a hostel, but we basically were using them for their cheap excursions. The one we chose was sunset and stargazing at the top of Mauna Kea, the tallest mountain/volcano in the world (I think that’s what they said…either way it’s really big ). One problem….rain. It has been raining for the past two days straight. Apparently that’s what it does in Hilo…the rainiest city in the US (thanks for the heads up…would have been nice to know earlier :)) So, I was a little nervous about the stargazing part…it wasn’t looking good. When we got to Arnott’s we learned that we were the only 4 people going on the trip…score! We had our own personal tour…with our own awesome tour guide…Keoki, a native Hawaiian who was super fun, very cool, young, informative, and just a real good time. Keoki gave us such a good overlook of not only Mauna Kea, but Hilo, and the surrounding area….and he promised that 90% of what he was saying was actually true! :) We got to see Rainbow Falls, and went into an actual lava tube, all before ever reaching the volcano. He even let us stop at a gas station for snacks..it was the best! :) We drove to the visitor station, all the while listening to Keoki telling us funny stories. At the visitors center we hung out for a bit, getting acclimated to the high altitude before climbing to the summit at 13,927 ft (give or take). The weather was getting a bit chilly…good thing Arnott’s provided us with some super stylish outerwear! (see pictures below :)) We climbed to the summit, and had fun taking lots of goofy pictures… all the while surrounded in white clouds…..we basically couldn’t see anything around us…it was still neat, but a little disappointing. Then, all of a sudden I turned to see the most beautiful thing. The sun miraculously appeared, descending below the clouds….and then everything came into view. It was fantastic. I saw all of the observatories, back-dropped in reds and pinks. It’s hard to explain how truly awesome the scene. We were the only ones on the summit….how lucky (people were actually taking pictures of us!) Every time we turned around, we got a new exciting view of the clouds, Mauna Loa (the other volcano) and the volcanic cinder cones….it was breathtaking…..and freezing, and hard to breathe. So many feelings at once. After the sun set, the clouds rolled back in…so bizarre. I felt so lucky to have witnessed such an amazing site. (I feel like I’ve gotten to say that a lot on this trip). It was as if, the clouds parted just for us…amazing. Our experience wasn’t over though. We traveled down the mountain a bit, and then did some star gazing. As I mention in an early post, the stars are phenomenal here. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the sky look so majestic, so filled. The stars literally used up all the sky space. It was fairy tale like. Keoki, gave us some great info….some of the things completely new to me (even as an 8th grade earth science teacher….impressive…way to go Keoki!) What a great night. On the way home we learned a bit more about our tour guide (man can he talk). He shared with us his future plans…..one of which is to have an amazing sunset/stargazing restaurant (I’ve already committed myself to being a waitress/tour-guide (see ya later AMS). Then, the oddest thing….he invited us to his nephews graduation party. Weird huh? We of course didn’t want to pass this up, so we went, met some people, had a great time, and that’s where the electric slide comes into the story. I couldn’t stop smiling, thinking that I was in Hawaii, at a strangers graduation party, dancing……unreal (Have I already said how much I’ve enjoyed this trip? :) ) Oh yeah, and the pineapple wine actually comes in now….good stuff…hope you could follow my rambling. Another fine day in HI.