Waimea

On Sunday morning we headed up to the north part of the Big Island to attend church in Waimea at the Imiolo Congregational Church. Bo and Shirley Roddenberry from HSV attended church here when they lived on Hawaii; they highly recommended it. We arrived in time for the 10:00 am service following our 1 hour and 30 minute drive from Kona.

We watched and listed to the Praise Team practicing before the service. Two women did a sort of sign language-hula presentation of the song How Great is Our God. It was very interesting. Here they are practicing before the service. Here's the outside of the church.The inside of the church is dominated by Koa wood, a rare and beautiful wood native to Hawaii. You'd better be sure to be on time when you attend this church since the entrance to the building is behind the main altar!
After church we joined the weekly lunch held in fellowship hall. Our table mate is a lady who moved to Waimea a year and a half ago from Arkadelphia, AR. Small world!

Later we headed over to see the Pololu Valley and the original statue of King Kamehameha I which is near his birthplace in Kapa'au. Here we are in front of the statue.We next drove up to the Pololu valley. The view from the top was nice.

After the Pololu Valley we headed back towards Kona. On the way we stopped at the Hilton complex to see the beaches. People were relaxing, getting some sun and having fun in the water.
From here we headed back to our hotel in Kona. We had an interesting day and experienced multiple climates - which the Big Island is known for.