Hawaii- The Big Island Day 3 & 4

 On day three we went to the beach again. This time we went  to Hapuna Beach and it was a beautiful beach as well. We went snorkeling and this time I saw two sea turtles. I was so happy. They are my favorite thing to see when snorkeling. We also saw lots of fish, coral and a couple of eels. 


That night we went to the observatory. Now the volcano park and the observatory are the two most recommended things to do on the Big Island and we struck out twice. It was almost a two hour drive and part of it was on the side of an unpaved mountain with gravel that didn't have a guardrail. We were sliding and it was scary and kind of fun. We drove up this part as the sun was setting and the view was breathtaking because we were above the clouds. We got to the top, turned off the car and a guy knocked on the window and told us we couldn't be there after sunset, that we had to go to the center at a lower point. But it was also a very bright full moon, so the stars didn't even look that great. Bummer.

 On our last day on the Big Island we did some more sightseeing. We went to the Pu'ukohola National Historical Site. There wasn't a lot to see, but this was part of the original structure.

 A statue of King Kamehameha.

We drove to the north side of the island to see the  Pololu Valley lookout. It was so pretty, much better in person than in these photos.

 The last place that we had time to see was the Waimea Valley. We just went to the lookout. You can hike to the bottom and see a waterfall, but we didn't have time to do that since we had to get to the airport. It was beautiful anyway though.

On to Kauai!!!