Upon arrival in Hawai'i. King Kamehameha Day thwarted our plans so we could not get the state camping permit we needed for our first few days. Thus, we ended up for three nights on the side of Mount Haleakela, at some 7,000 feet altitude in a tiny National Park hideout.

The best thing about staying up there, and having just arrived from three time zones to the east, was the ease of popping up to the top of the mountain to watch the sunrise. Tourists from down in the resorts have to roll out of bed at 2:00 am for the long drive up. We didn't have to get up until about 4:15. Hah!

But the joke was on us. Every day we tried to see the sunrise up there turned cold and very, very wet and windy. The weather settled about the mountain top and refused to leave until we did, at least morning-wise. The evenings and afternoon turned beautiful, however, so we got to see a sunset up there. Hah back!

Hiking down in the volcano crater took a few hours, but offered good views of some harshly beautiful landscape. Much of the rest of our week on both islands took us on other paths, some perilous (a'a lava), some very pleasant (beaches of black, red, or white sand).



Sunrise on Mt. Haleakala. Pity the people that paid a good chunk of change to be brought up in a van so they could coast a bike down the mountain.




Part of the interior of Mt. Haleakala.




Some frozen lava on Big Island. Anyone else see a face, with a very large moustache?




Shelley wearing some of the black-sand beach on her back.