Rasmusen Family

Shocking!

Posted by Amber , Tuesday, September 30, 2008 Tuesday, September 30, 2008

I saw the stars for the first time in three months!!

Our car is broken down, so for the last three days Ben and I have been in the house. It hasn't been terrible but we had no idea what we were missing those few days of being indoors... the vog is mysteriously gone in Kona?!

From our first step onto the Big Island, Kona has been nothing but vog and clouds with the rare morning sunshine. We never realized the amount of haze in the air until we drove up to the Northern part of the island and actually saw true blue sky... something that we always have in Colorado. So then we began to notice just how bad the vog really was. Driving south into Kona was depressing after leaving the sunny northern tip. As we drove in, we could just see ugly haze and didn't know what we were doing in Kona. We have never seen the top of the mountain that is directly east of us.

Yesterday we went to spend time with our friends and they said "Have you guys taken a look around?" The vog was gone! There were rain clouds in the sky here and there, but when we looked up we could actually see bright blue sky! Then we looked straight for the mountain to see if we could truly see definition and most importantly the top of the mountain, and sure enough... we saw it clearly! Then we looked for the ocean to see if we could see the horizon line without a big blur, and sure enough we could see a clear horizon. Beautiful deep blue of the ocean in the distance along with bright baby blue lined up next to it in a crisp line. It was unbelievable. Who would have known the truly beautiful place we actually lived in? It is so sad to me that we have only seen Hawaii, Kona, our home... clearly after three months of living here.

We got home after dark and as we were walking through our apartment complex, I looked up and saw the stars! Perfectly clear sky, with bright stars above us. We haven't even been able to see the stars because of the constant haze! It was amazing!

This morning is just the same as yesterday... I can actually see the mountain clearly, we can see the ocean from our lanai along with that crisp line along the horizon. Has the vog gone from Kona? Or has the lava flow tapered off for a time... waiting until it is time to keep the beauty away from Kona yet again in the future?


(BEFORE: the mountain with vog)


(AFTER: this is not Kona, but this is what it looks like without vog)

Regardless, I am thankful we were able to see Kona for what everybody said it was... beautiful!