{Blog for Saturday, July 28th, so it will be in the present tense}
We had some time to sleep in this morning. After we all woke up, changed, and ate breakfast, we headed to a beautiful beach to clean it up. We started off picking up trash. I really liked cleaning up the beach, and as a plus, I saw a green sea turtle. During our trash run, we saw another monk seal! There are only 5 in the entire state of Hawaii, so to see one is really lucky. But just you wait! That made it the second time we’ve seen a monk seal, so we’ve seen two different monk seals in two days. Looking st this seal, I noticed how curious the creatures are. I also learned for s fact that they prefer to stay isolated and by themselves because the monk seal chose the most isolated place to sleep. After our trash pickup, we had a sand castle building contest, but we could only use sand from an area of the beach that had sand there that shouldn’t be there. The hurricane that devastated Hawaii left a lot of sand in a little pool, which hurt the marine life. So, we used only that sand. My group and I built a monk seal as our sculpture; however, we did not win.
After the beach, we headed back to the houses to relax. My group went on a very cool bus to Maunakea, one of the largest mountains in the world. We went to the max height of 14,000 ft. On the ride, our guide, Jeff, pointed out the differences between the lava rocks. The more recent ones, from the 1900s, were much darker and desolated the countryside. Lava rocks from the 1800s, however, were more greyed out and there were even signs of plant life taking over. As time moves on, the rocks break down into small pieces, which allows more room for the plants to grow.
As we ascended to Maunakea, the air got colder, and we were more winded easier.
When we got to the top, we were blessed to see the sunrise from the “top of the world!”
After the sunset, we went down a little ways to stargaze. It was truly amazing. I have never seen so many stars in my life! It made me a little sad though. I was sad because I knew I’d never have an enjoyable time stargazing in Dallas due to all the pollution. All my life I’ve heard of cleaner airs, but I’ve never actually experienced it before. I truly learned on this trip just how powerful pollution can be. It can blog out millions of stars worldwide. I hope to someday help the world.
Tomorrow I’m looking forward to hanging out on the beach with my friends. I might get really brunt, but it’ll be fun. I’m also looking forward to seeing my family again, it’s been a while since I’ve them!
For more info about Maunakea, click here.
