Happy Birthday Daddy!

Dad dedicated this song to me the day I got married... Somewhere Over the Rainbow/Wonderful World sung by IZ, a famous Hawaiian musician who passed away... it's amazing!

(the original version of this song starts out, "Hey! This song's for Gabby!" truly!)

So today.... in honor of my dad's 48th birthday and the fact that he has moved to his beloved Hawaiian island just 7 months ago... I got him a ukulele so he can create some aloha spirit! And yes, Aloha really is a spirit of the heart! It's not something that can be described... only experienced... only here...

Tonight we're going to the top of the tallest mountain in the world ... Mauna Kea...

Mauna Kea - observatories in the Hawaiian snow © iStockphoto.com by Dan Schmitt

Mauna Kea:
The "Tallest Mountain"

Mauna Kea has an altitude of 4,205 meters (13,796 feet) - much lower than Mount Everest. However, Mauna Kea is an island and if the distance from the bottom of the nearby ocean floor to the peak of the island is measured, then Mauna Kea is taller than Mount Everest.

Mauna Kea is over 10,000 meters tall compared to 8,848 meters for Mount Everest - making it the world's tallest mountain.





Mauna Kea rises over 10,000 meters above
the ocean floor making it taller than Everest.

Who gets to play a ukulele on the highest mountain top?? I even created little homemade umbrellas for our hot coco and mom fixed the coconut dessert! The largest telescope is up there as well... so we'll be doing some of the greatest star gazing on the planet! This island - the Big Island - doesn't have regular street lamps and parking lot lights... just so that the view of the stars from the top of Mauna Kea won't be inhibited! Only dark, snowy, star light in Hawaii tonight!

Happy Birthday dad!!