| - Track 11: It's Your World (Pop's part) Last weekend we went to the Big Island. It is the youngest of the islands but it has the most variation in climate (11 of the 13 possible climates on the planet exist on this island).
On the same day I went swimming in the ocean at Hapuna, an hour later I was 10,000 feet above sea level on Mauna Kea where it was about 40 degrees. Our van wouldn't have made it up to where the snow was but we saw a truck with snowboards in the back and another truck with snow and a snowman in the back come down. On a clear day you can see from a distance that Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa can be snow-capped at times.
The night before we hiked a little bit to see the plumes of steam created by lava hitting the ocean. Joy and her niece say the steam looked like the goddess Pele dancing. Although we didn't get to see the actual lava, the red glow lit up the mountainside against the dark of the night sky.
We also got to see a natural hot spring fashioned into a swimming pool with only a short rock wall separating from the ocean. In fact, that day the waves were spilling over a into the pool a bit. Just up the coast a little ways from the hot spring, we saw the remains of the beachfront town that was covered by a lava flow circa 1984. Miraculously, there were no human fatalities back then although 95% of the houses of the town were destoyed by the lava.
Words and (our) pictures really do not do the Big Island any justice in representing its vast beauty & diversity. Everyone should go the Big Island and see it for themselves. We plan to go back as soon as possible. | 
