Mike and Susan Davis from Palo Alto (right) were our part of our amazing support crew.

Mike and Susan went with Sheila on July 31 to get ready for the group's arrival the next day.   

The rest of the group headed to Hawaii on August 1.

Here we are in the Honolulu Airport getting ready to fly to the big Island. 

We were pretty excited by this point!

In the morning, some of us took a quick spin over to Volcano Village...

to visit the Sunday farmer's market

where we picked up some wonderful fruit jelly and jams that we enjoyed all week.

Then we biked through the rain forest on the way to Chain of Craters Road

Even the road itself was beautiful

Pretty soon, volcanic craters began to materialize out of the jungle.

We were all amazed that life could start over and flourish after such destruction.

Riding down chain of craters Road was a real treat.  It was just one long 20 mile downhill.  We barely had to pedal.  You could just sit on your bike and coast, watching God's beauty go by on both sides

We stopped on the way down to investigate the place where lava crossed the road back in the 70s

After that, we biked through an expansive lava field

From here to the bottom,
both beauty and desolation surrounded us

The views just kept taking our breath away 

After cycling past even more
amazing landscape ...

we finally reached the bottom of the hill.

  Here, we found the rest of the group who had driven down the hill to meet us at the trailhead to the petroglyphs 

James led us on the hike out to the petroglyphs.  He had been one of the original group of people to scout the area and his knowledge about the area was incredible.

After the hike, all but the most energetic people put their bikes on the car and drove back to the top, stopping to visit Thurston lava tubes on the way

What goes up must come down...

Day three began with a 30 mile downhill to balance the 30 mile uphill we had biked 2 days earlier.

Talk about fun!

At the bottom of the hill, we reached Punaluu Black Sand Beach

We took advantage of our first opportunity to do some swimming and snorkeling.

Punalu'u is a great place to view turtles - both while snorkeling and from the beach

The beach was also covered with coconuts

Ben was always the ham and could easily make us laugh

James showed us the proper technique for getting into a coconut (it's harder than you might think, even if you have a pick ax available)

Thanks to James' expert guidance, we were finally able to get into the coconut without even spilling any of the milk which we then shared with each other.

It was almost like sharing communion

From the beach, there was nowhere to go but up, so we started climbing again

it wasn't long before we reached the Punalu'u Bake Shop in Na'alehu, the southernmost bakery in the entire United States

It was also our lunch stop where we took time to sample and enjoy the wonderful sweetbreads and malasadas

David found a great place near the bakery to park his bike.  It turns out that Hawaiians just grow their own bike racks.

 After lunch, it was time to start foraging again.  This time, we found fresh macadamia nuts that had fallen from the trees and rolled to the road.

They were delicious!

We stopped at a scenic point along the way to Ocean View.

There was a little sign at this scenic point that gave us some statistics about our location including:

From this scenic point, we could see the southernmost point in the United States only 12 miles to the south

Our elevation was 1900 feet, which the sign claimed was higher than any point in Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, New Jersey, Ohio, Rhode Island and the District of Columbia (but lower than any point in Colorado, New Mexico, Utah or Wyoming).

From there, it was only a few miles to the Kahuku Congregational Church.

This church meets at the house of Harold and Leina'ala Teves, who graciously welcomed us into their home and allowed us to spend the night.

We were in for a real treat.

After serving as a fabulous meal, cooked entirely by Leina'ala ...

Harold and Lei told us stories about their life and the island and then proceeded to serenade us with Hawaiian songs while playing the ukulele.

it was a visit we will never forget.

Harold even built a shower in his backyard just for us.

  After dinner, the women got to sleep inside while the men got to sleep outside in the warm tropical air surrounded by Leina'ala's beautiful outdoor garden.

After expressing many thanks to Harold and Leina'ala for their amazing hospitality, we left their house and headed north towards Kona

The mango trees began to appear about 10 miles north of Ocean View and continued for 20 more miles. 

The road was literally littered with mangoes and we frequently had to swerve out of the shoulder to keep from running over them.  However, we also discovered that the mangoes that fell into the soft grass on the side of the highway were unbelievably delicious.

Another interesting thing on this day's journey was the zebra that Carol found in a farm along the road.

Only Carol knows where this photo was taken. She found this beautiful animal by peering over just the right fence somewhere along our ride that day.

We also discovered yet another UCC church, Puka'ana Congregational, on the way to Kona. Most of the group had passed without seeing it.  However, Clairnel, Russ and Sheila just happen to stop at the store right across from it.

We were lucky enough to find the church open and were able to meet the pastor, Nancietta Lincoln whose grandfather on one side was the very first pure Hawaiian ordained minister and whose grandfather on the other side was related to Abraham Lincoln.

Clairnel in front of Puka'ana Congregational Church

The group made a brief stop at the Royal Kona Museum and coffee mill.

They had great rum cake and coffee samples

and also had this neat tree house out back

The trip to Kona ended with a fabulous downhill.  In the middle of the downhill, there was a great lookout point

Most people stopped at this point to admire the view of the ocean and the many resort hotels along the shore

We ate lunch just south of Kona at Kahalu'u Beach Park, one of the best snorkeling spots on the island.

David had an underwater camera and took some great shots

Everyone especially enjoyed seeing more turtles

After lunch, a short bike ride up Ali'i Drive brought us to Magic Sands Beach, where we enjoyed some pretty good boogie boarding.

When we had all spent enough time in the water, it was only a few more miles north to downtown Kona and the Mokuaikaua Congregational Church, where we spent the night.

Mokuaikaua is the oldest church in the entire state of Hawaii

In the morning, we had to leave the church early to make room for a weekday nursery school.

We took advantage of the opportunity to visit the farmers market in downtown Kona.

We then headed over to the nearby Old Kona Airport Beach to enjoy our fresh local produce and some breakfast

It was such a peaceful spot to just sit and watch the water

There was also a coconut tree just begging to be climbed.

We quickly discovered that if it was up to us to climb coconut trees for food, we would all starve.

After breakfast, we headed north from Kona along the route of the Hawaii Ironman Triathlon

It is a super biking road.  The pavement is great and there is a huge shoulder with very few stop signs or lights.

We took a detour along the way to go visit the Hilton Waikoloa Village, a resort for the super rich

This resort has a man-made version of just about everything you can find in nature in Hawaii, except maybe a volcano.

Here we are in front of the man-made lagoon which is next to the man-made beach

We also stopped in front of the man-made dolphin enclosure ...

 and had our picture taken behind the man-made waterfall.

  We took a detour to visit yet another UCC church, Hoku Loa, which is just south of Hapuna beach

It is a small, but very pretty little church.

  From Hoku Loa, it was only a short ride to Hapuna Beach, a long stretch of clear blue water and pristine sand.

We spent the night at the A-frame cabins right at the beach.  They were kind of primitive, but you simply could not beat the location.

  After the beach closed to the general public, we were treated to a gorgeous sunset.

 The sunset provided some great picture taking opportunities.

It was also a great way to end a nearly perfect day in a nearly perfect place.

After breakfast, we followed James south out of the Hapuna Beach parking lot down this narrow, bumpy road.
 

James wanted to show us a beach he thought was even better than Hapuna

On the way down the road, we got some stunning views of Mauna Kea to the east.

What we found only a mile down the road was truly one of the most beautiful beaches many of us had ever seen.

We had a terrific time swimming, jumping off the rocks and snorkeling.

Of the entire trip, this was probably our best day at the beach. 

We even saw some more sea turtles.

Although it was mostly uphill to our next stop in Waimea that evening, it was a relatively short ride.

That meant that we had plenty of time to relax at the beach and eat our lunch in view of that crystal clear, blue water

After lunch, we took a short ride in the direction of Waimea over to the Pu'ukohola Heiau National Historical Site

The 14% downhill sign on the road to the historical site was a little intimidating, since we all knew we would have to come back up ...

luckily, the historical site was just around the corner from the 14% sign.

Pu'ukohola Heiau (temple) is one of the most famous Heiau's in the entire Hawaiian Islands. 

Built in the late 1700's, this was the place where King Kamehameha I finally unified all of the Hawaiian Islands under one rule.

Even though it was not very long, the trip up the hill from Pu'ukohola Heiau to Waimea was one of the hardest rides of the entire week.  We were about to climb 3000 feet in less than 10 miles with some places exceeding a 10% grade.

Here is Allie near the bottom of the hill, still looking pretty energetic.

This part of the island is pretty much a desert, so it was rather hot and there wasn't much shade. We all struggled on this hill.

Allie wore an appropriate T-shirt for the occasion
("Pain is Weakness leaving your body").

We were all happy to see this sign and know we were getting close to the top

Just a couple of miles later, we finally arrived at the Imiola UCC Church in Waimea, a very pretty church at the top of the hill.

After cooking ourselves some pancakes in the morning, we took a group photo in front of Imiola church ...

and headed off for our next day of Adventure.

Our first destination: down the hill to Honoka'a

Our route from Waimea to Honoka'a took us on little traveled back roads past farms and green pastures.

At the bottom of the hill, we arrived in Honoka'a where Clairnel found a shop selling the most delicious malasadas.

The malasadas definitely met with Sheila's approval.

From Honoka'a we alternated between the main highway and more beautiful back roads all the way to Laupahoehoe.

To the left, John stands in front of a scenic point where you can look down on the original site of the Laupahoehoe town.

In a huge tragedy, the entire town was wiped out and almost all of its residents killed when three successive tidal waves hit the town on April 1, 1946.

Laupahoehoe has since relocated to a safer spot up the hill and is now home to the Laupahoehoe Congregational Church where Pastor Clem Malani and his wife, Leilani, were waiting to welcome us.

We had no idea what a wonderful visit they had planned for us.

Clem had even prepared a short worship service for us.

Clem gave all of us the opportunity to contribute something to the service and next thing we knew, Tim started playing the guitar. Clem wasted no time in accompanying him on the ukulele.

After worship, we went out to the parking lot to investigate the papaya tree outside the church.

One of the church members, Mona, provided us with a rake that she said we could use to dislodge one of the papayas.

We quickly discovered that a rake was perhaps not the best possible way to harvest papayas.  It was effective in getting a papaya out of the tree, but unfortunately not very effective in aiming the massive falling fruit away from Russ's head (Russ wishes he had still been wearing his helmet).

A little bit stunned, Russ holds his prize

Next, we were treated to a delicious lunch while Clem and Leilani played the guitar and ukulele and Mona did the Hula for us.

What an extravagant welcome and a very special treat!

After taking a group photo, it was time to head on down the road.

Our final destination on Friday was the Hilo Coast UCC church in Honomu.  However, before settling down at the church, we all went to visit Akaka Falls which was less than four miles from the church.

However, 3.2 of those miles were all uphill ... the falls were 1000 feet above the church.

Most people opted to go to the falls and the car. 

However, a few brave souls decided to make the trip by bicycle.

Needless to say, those who rode their bikes felt quite a sense of accomplishment at reaching the top!

It was definitely worth the effort to climb the hill.  The falls were beautiful.

  And of course, we could count on Ben to make the visit to the falls more interesting.

We were treated to yet another extravagant welcome at the Hilo Coast UCC

They provided showers at members houses and then prepared a wonderful feast for us.

The best part of our visit the opportunity to fellowship and make friends with the members of the church.

Right up to our last day of biking, we continued to escape the rain.  It did rain during the night at the Hilo Coast UCC.  However, by morning the rain had stopped and we were greeted with this rainbow.

The streets of Honomu were still wet when we left, however the roads were dry within a few miles and the rest of the day was beautifully sunny and clear.

We took the scenic route from Honomu to Hilo, winding our way through the rain forest

It felt like biking through a lush, green paradise

 We kept riding over bridges that crossed beautiful rivers and waterfalls, including this one that came out of an old lava tube.

We arrived at the Hawaii tropical botanical Garden just as it opened, parked our bikes and went to explore.

The botanical gardens were filled with beautiful flowers ...

 Some very pretty parrots ...

 This neat totem pole ...

Beautiful ocean views ...

And this stunning waterfall.

Our thanks go out to Peggy (Sheila's coworker), who knew the owners of the Botanical Gardens and helped to arrange for our unforgettable visit

From the botanical Gardens, it was only a short ride to downtown Hilo, where some of us stopped to visit the Lyman House Museum and Mission House

While others went to investigate the huge farmer's market

After checking in at the Church of the Holy Cross UCC, where we would be spending our last night, it was back to downtown Hilo for plate lunches at Café 100

Rumor has it that Café 100 was the home of the original Loco Moco.  Whether or not this is true, they definitely had good food.

After lunch, we were off on our last Adventure. Our fearless tour guide, James, had arranged to four-wheel drive vehicles to take us up to the top of 14,000 foot peak of Mauna Kea for the sunset.

After driving 10,000 feet up the mountain, we stopped at the visitor center to acclimate to the altitude ...

and to eat our sack dinners.

After that, the four-wheel drive vehicles became essential as the pavement ended and we began to climb 15% grades of loose washboard gravel.

The scenery became like a moonscape as ancient cinder cones rose from the earth below us.

Before we knew it, we had reached the observatory at the top of the mountain

Where we were greeted with a stunning sunset.

It was the perfect end of yet another UCC Bicycle Adventure full of fun, faith, and fellowship.