Perhaps the BEST B1G Forum anywhere, here at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

I’ve never worked in an oil refinery but I have been in a petrochemical facility. My understanding is that when you refine a barrel of oil you get a crack spread.  So much percentage of gasoline, diesel, naphtha, kerosene, all the way up and down the hydrocarbons molecular chain.  You can adjust the spread by increasing the heat here or lowering the heat there but you can’t just make 90% of one thing.

The top of Mauna Kea is "other worldly".  I've never visited a place that looked like I'd expect Mars to look to that extent.  You can't get to the top of Mauna Loa by vehicle, maybe a mountain bike would.  It's almost as tall and a whole lot larger. 

Yeah, I'm hoping to get there. We're talking about it next year. 

I've been to the top of Haleakala on Maui, and did the hike of the crater. Kind of agree--it seemed like hiking on the moon or something. And then some of the plants as you dropped a bit in elevation were amazing and completely different from anything I've ever seen closer to sea level. 

Kauai is my favorite of the islands. Oahu is fine, particularly the North Shore.

The "Big Island" is different, in my mind, a lot of it is very desolate, just black and brown rock as far as one can see.  Parts are tropical rain forest.  Parts are resorts (mostly on the western side).  A good portion is cattle and horse ranches, it looks like Texas.  My wife likes it a lot, unfortunately.

The beaches, in my view, are not that great.  The sand is brownish and coarse, there can be rock outcroppings that can skin your feet.  Some are quite pretty, palm trees and whatnot, some have pools just inland.  The resorts are quite nice.

We usually drive to Volcano NP when we're there, of late not much has been happening though.  Chain of Craters road is interesting.

I've never been. My wife has been once, but that was when she was with her ex who wasn't exactly the type to drive up to the top of desolate mountains for fun, and CERTAINLY not to hike lol  

Her really good friends in Long Beach lost their dad earlier this year, and he was a vet so they plan next year to take his ashes to Honolulu for his military funeral service. We're going to go along for that and then plan to hop over to the big island as part of the same trip. 

Speaking of weather, the Haleakala hike was a crazy day. Get up and into the car at 3 AM, drive up to the top of a mountain at 10,000 ft where it's 32 degrees to see the sunrise service. Then an 11.5 mile hike where the weather kept getting better and better--until it started raining sideways. Back in the car, completely drenched, go back down the mountain to get back to Kaanapali where it's 80 degrees and sunny. 

This is looking down off Chain of Craters road, which is one way, it ends down there a ways.  You can see the road down below, altitute where the photo was taken is around 4,000 feet.

Is the Gilligan's Island set preserved/intact?