35th birthday

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Thursday was my 35th birthday. I spent it on the island of HI. That is not a bad way to celebrate another year. I spent the morning walking around the town of Kona. Every Oct triathletes from around the world come to Kona to compete in the Kona Ironman. The ironman consists of a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride and then a 26.2 mile run. The race starts and finishes oceanfront in Kona. It is a nice place to walk around and people watch.
My big plans for the day was the Mauna Kea Summit tour. We were taken to the top of Mauna Kea to see the sun set. Mauna Kea is the world’s largest volcano at over 13,700 feet tall. If measured from the sea floor it would measure over 32,000 feet tall. I was concerned with the visibility for our tour. The weather has been hazy all week. We made our way over the Saddle Rd to begin our trip. This road was made by the military in WW2. I don’t think it has changed a whole lot since then. The entire trip it was cloudy foggy and rainy. When we reached the visitor’s center at 9,200 feet, it was still raining and 49 degrees. We had to stop and eat and give our bodies time to adjust to the high altitude. I could feel a difference at that height. Finally at almost 11,000 feet, we drove out of the clouds into the clearest sky you can imagine. It is so clear, that you can see a volcano 85 miles away on the island of Maui. We also so a large patch of snow!! I took lots of pictures and was totally loving the views. Our group descended a little ways and started to star gaze. We had some good size telescopes and our guides pointed out stuff to us. I think it was the first time I have seen Saturn and its rings.
A very good day in Hawaii.

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Comments

[steph]

wow....awesome, craig! i'm so jealous!!!