Over the hump

The morning following our adventure to the lava, Karissa, myself and two of our friends (Natalie and Caroline) headed over to Kona-side for our own various reasons. There are three general ways to get from the east side of the island to the west; the north road, the south road or along the saddle. Karissa and I had previously gone both other ways, which are gorgeous in their own right, however on our way to Kona we headed between the volcanoes.

The saddle is named for the space of land between Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa, forming this large saddle like feature along the middle of the island. Very few people live out there, most of the land is on long term lease to the U.S. Government and is used for a series of military installations. The amazing part falls where the installations don't, large tracts of the drive is taken up along a plateau, cool without being too cold, but looming to both left and right are the snow covered peaks of the two mountains and straight ahead, where the road dips off the edge, the blue waters of the Pacific. Breathless view that sadly, no camera could do justice as it goes literally 180 degrees.

As we started our descent into Kona we came down through a cloud that was raining on the shoreline below. I've descended through rain storms before when flying, but its an entirely different experience doing it in a rental car. Visibility became nothing. Even the brake lights of the car in front of us, who we only knew was there from the occasions when he'd slow down enough for us to roll up within a couple car lengths, didn't pierce the dark misting cloud.

After dropping off Natalie and Caroline, we were able to begin our own adventures in Kona. Covered in the posts Karissa got up just before this one. Please excuse the non-consecutive log entries. This is what we get for having a "blog date."