anniversary trip to the big island

Happy New Years everyone! We have just come home from a very wonderful and exciting trip to the big island. We had rented a cheap compact Chevy Aveo for our three day trip but when we arrived on the island, they did not have any for us to take. After a patient one hour wait they let us upgrade to a yellow Jeep Wrangler! We do not know what we would've done without the jeep on this trip. We set out going up toward the north point. At first we were completely surprised by the scenery. It seemed a bit dry, barren and completely covered by lava rock. For those of you who don't know, the big island in Hawaii has an active volcano and much of the island is covered in lava rock. The rest of the terrain sports 11 of the 13 climates. After a while it turned into the lush green terrain that we imagined (but looked more like Oregon then Hawaii). Our first destination was Wiapio Valley (also known as Hawaii's grand canyon). It was beautiful!! Because we had the jeep, we were able to go on the beaten, muddy, steep hill down into the canyon and enjoy a very secluded black sand beach. To save some money we camped at a park next to the ocean. Luckily we weren't caught camping without a permit. The next two days we were able to visit many of the famous waterfalls, Mauna Kea summit (where some of the worlds best telescopes are and the only place you can find snow in Hawaii), the macadamia nut factory (with free samples), the emerald green sand beach (one of two in the world), and we were able to witness the active lava flow right into the ocean!! Of course the highlight of our trip was visiting the tiny but beautiful Kona Temple. All in all we lived like bums for three days, eating whatever would satisfy our hunger and bank account, sleeping wherever we could find a piece of ground without a no trespassing sign, and soaking up a larger than life experience. Now it's time to once gain buckle down and hit the books :) Need we remind ourselves that education is our main focus here in Hawaii!