Last Day

Feb 4, 2011

Tomorrow we fly home, so today we are going for a drive and a hike. Our destination is Pololu Valley Lookout.

My leg is feeling much better, and a hike will be a nice way to see more of the island.

We drive north and then east to the end of highway 270 where there are many cars along side of the road at the trail head. There is some parking, maybe enough for 10 vehicles. Looks like someone is backing out, so we give them plenty of room to leave and we have a nice place to park.

The trail is a bit steep, manageable though. The valley drops below the trail, it is a magnificent sight with the ocean at the bottom of the trail. We stop about 2/3rds of the way down to rest a bit and take some photos.

We continue on and reach the bottom where the sand is black and very fine. Lots of ironwood trees are between the beach and the valley. Waterfalls back up the slopes of the valley feed a wide stream that runs into the ocean.

I take out the 15mm fish-eye and enjoy the visual effects on the foreground and the horizon in the distance.

There is a couple taking pictures of themselves doing yoga at the beach. I offer to help and they quickly accept. We fire off half a dozen photos while they pose. They intend to use the photos on their yoga website. Nice!

Ashara and I hang around for a while enjoying the moments together. Eventually we hike back up and drive back to town for a refreshing icy beverage at...yes, Starbucks in the Parker Ranch Center, Waimea [Kamuela].

Somewhere during the last day or so I forgot that we went to Greenwell Coffee Farm. It was fun to see the plantation and the rows of coffee trees full of ripe cherries. We went on the brief tour which was educational and gave us more reason to appreciate everyone who is involved in the production of fine coffee.

We tasted several different roasts of their Kona; my favorite was the Espresso Roast which was good and very satisfying - a nice deep roast.

After the tour I stopped to make some photos of the grandmother coffee trees which were the first trees brought to the island from Latin America. The volcanic-rich soil definitely imparts flavor to the beans!

Other photos include a couple of island natives just hanging 'round.

As the day was ending another gorgeous sunset was about to play out. Since I did not photograph any sunsets up to this point, I am ready.

 Lovely Light!

I hope you are enjoying the escapades of Glenn and Ashara. It is fun writing about our adventures, even though is has been a couple of weeks since we were on the Big Island.

Next up: "Sir, I cannot serve you a beer..."