Hawaii - Day 7; MORE Swimming & Some Stargazing

Day 7 was much like the previous day, Hawaii - Day 6; Swimming, with plenty MORE swimming!!  On the way to the beaches, we checked out a cool lava tube just off the highway.

We spent time swimming and sunbathing at Samuel M. Spencer Beach Park.

So nice seeing the kids having a good, if not goofy, time!

We found lots of little coral and plenty of urchins lining all the rock crevices.  We even saw a sea turtle who swam around everyone.

We also checked out the beach at Hapuna Beach State Park which was even nicer!

On the way from the beaches we could see the observatories on top of Mauna Kea.  Can you spot the tiny white dots below?  They are 4200 meters above sea level (that's 2.6 miles) and are about 25 miles "as the birds fly" from where I took this photo with Gretchen's little point-n-shoot.

We just couldn't pass up on taking these pictures...

We got some pool time in back at the house in the late afternoon before going out for a steak dinner.  

Back at the house that night, Gretchen and I stargazed for a good long while.  I wish my camera could record what I saw.  I'm guessing it could, but the "operator" of the Canon Rebel just isn't qualified to take quality shots.  As everyone says, you can see a zillion stars when there are no lights.  It was truly breathtaking and this was only time in my life I actually could see the Milky Way.  Wow – that was beautiful.