Blow in' in the Wind/Sittin' on Top O' the World

Today the Tradewinds were still blowing strong.  We went down to check out 49 Black Sands Beach because it had been closed yesterday due to high surf.  We were given a pass and allowed in.  The beach was a private secluded beach with very few people there.  We settled in, high enough from the water (we have learned our lesson), sat back and soon realized why so few people were on the beach. Within 15 minutes we pretty much had fine black sand in all those hard to reach spots.  So we packed up and decided to go look at some petroglyphs near Puako.  Before we went to it we did an interesting beach hike and watched some surfers who are loving this high surf.  To end our search for a good beach we went back to our old faithful, Beach 69.

After our beach time we headed home, rounded up some warm clothes we borrowed from Jennifer and Tom and headed off for the Mauna Kea lookout station.  We hustled up the road in order to catch the sunset from 9400 feet.  When we got there we threw on all the layers of clothes we could along with our gloves and hiked up a hill to catch the sunset.  I've used this word a lot in this blog, but once again it was beautiful.  We were above all the clouds as the sun set behind them.  It was like when you're in an airplane.
Later we hiked down to the visitors' center to take a look at Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and the moon through very high powered telescopes.  We could even see some of Jupiter's moons. Through another telescope we were able to see a star "nursery "in the constellation of Orion.  A very cool place, both literally and figuratively.