Snow!

Yep, you read that right... snow and ice at the top of Mauna Kea, but I'll get 
to that in a minute. I started my day by touring a coffee farm. I figured I was 
living in the heart of Kona coffee land and it's supposed to be one of the best 
coffees in the world so I figured I'd take the tour and see how it's done. I 
went to Greenwell Farms and was very impressed with both their tour and their 
coffee and I'm not even a coffee drinker. But even though the tour was great and 
very informative, the two Jackson Chameleons that they have on the property were 
the hit! Their names are Emily and Carl and they're "married". Emily is the 
darker one and is currently pregnant! LOL. Carl is the green one with the wild 
horn type things and curled up tail. Is he interesting looking or what? Along 
with coffee, they also grew all kinds of fruits like avocados, papaya and apple 
bananas. I included a pic of a stalk of apple bananas growing. I also included a 
pic of the coffee beans drying to get ready to be roasted. The other pic I 
included was one of the sun starting to set and casting a long shadow across the 
water. I thought that was a cool shot. 
 
After the coffee tour and a quick stop at a flea/farmers market, I started to 
head towards the largest volcano on the island called Mauna Kea. The elevation 
is 13,796 feet above sea level. It's been a long time since it erupted and is 
pretty much considered extinct. The drive to get there is pretty cool along a 
road called Saddle Road, which is called that because it's shaped like a saddle 
in between the two large volcanoes on the island, the other one being Mauna Loa 
( the currently active one). The whole drive there was driving thru clouds and 
mist and you have to stop at the visitors center, at 9,200 feet elevation to 
acclimate yourself before heading to the summit so as not to get altitude 
sickness. Well when I got there, the road to the summit was closed due to snow 
and ice! Isn't that wild that you can leave the coast at sunny and 80 degree 
weather and hit snow and ice within an hour or so drive. That's one of the cool 
things about Hawaii is all its microclimates. I wish I could have gotten to the 
summit since not only is the view supposed to be spectacular, it's above the 
cloud line, but the sunset is also supposed to be surreal. That's also where 
they have the world's finest telescopes since the air is so clear and less 
turbulent at that spot and thus the vision out to the stars and planets is 
crystal clear. Oh well, I'll catch that on my next trip back! LOL. 
 
Well tomorrow I'm off to spend 3 days in Volcano National Park. The lava is 
starting to flow a little more on the surface but still not going into the 
ocean. Come on Pele!! Hope everyone had a great weekend! 
 
Jeff