8th Week in Hilo

Our guests this week were my brother and sister-in-law, Alan and Sue, from Bellevue, Wash. They are super active sports people, and their request: water everyday. They also hoped for sun -- and they got it! It hardly rained this week -- what a lovely change with the blue sky and water. We'd almost forgotten how beautiful it was here!

They arranged for a scuba dive with the manta rays (in the Kona area), so did a refresher scuba dive in Hilo. But because they were doing a scuba dive on Wed., they weren't able to go to Mauna Kea with us on Thursday -- can't do that kind of depth and height elevation difference within a 24 hours period. We found the best snorkeling area in Hilo -- we didn't even know it was there. They also found other ways to get their "water fix."

The absolute thrill of the week -- and probably the highlight of our Hawaii experience -- was a personal tour by Dr. Saeko Hayashi through the Subaru Telescope, which is the biggest of the 13 telescopes on Mauna Kea. Dr. Saeko Hayashi is a member of our church; her husband was the director of this Japanese-sponsored Subaru until recently. She has been one of the lead scientists, and she treated us like VIPs. Getting to Mauna Kea means driving across part of Saddle Road where there is always construction, and being in a 4-wheel drive. Then because everyone needs to adjust gradually to the 14,000 foot elevation at the top, we stopped at the 9000 foot level to wait a while at the scientist's cafeteria area. Once at the top, she monitored us carefully, and outfitted John with an extra oxygen tank. She also carried extra jackets for us ifwe needed it -- it was in the 30's inside. We were in awe looking at the huge telescope. The walls and ceiling open at night and the telescope is rotated into the position needed, driven by magnetic linear motors that allow for smooth, accurate action with minimal friction. (No humans inside the building when the telescope is working because even the body temperature of a human in the building would affect the research.) When completed, the mirror was the world's smoothest single-piece mirror, weighing 22.8 tons--How would you like to figure out how to transport it from New York where it was cast to the top of a mountain with a tricky gravel road? Much of the telescope itself was built in Japan, and the total weighs more than 500 tons -- it is the world's largest telescope.

The Subaru is exploring the farthest reaches of the universe, observing the formation of the first generation of galaxies. They have photos posted of a galaxy they recorded that is 13 billion light years away! There's no way to begin to fathom that reality! Just no way! It was truly a mountain-top experience, for sure. And it was a beautiful day on top of it (literally!)

We could see the other observatories and smaller telescopes, as well as look out across the island. The clouds came in, so we couldn't actually see the Kona side of the island, but could have if it had been clear. What a day!

On Saturday we participated in another Service Day at the church. One of John's tasks was to cut some of the palms around our house to use in the Palm Sunday worship the next day.

We had a great Palm Sunday celebration -- with activities at each table that represented the 14 Stations of the Cross. We pounded nails on a wooden cross, signed petitions for Amnesty International, interacted with Mary and Jesus (puppets), made cards, created a peace flag banner, a "helping" collage, made palm leaf crosses, and various other activities. It was a fun worship day.