The temple is so close to the highway, you could jump out of your car and land in the grounds. We didn't even need a GPS to get there because we had seen it on our way to our hotel and just guessed which exit we needed to take. I was impressed with us because we have a horrible history of getting lost either on the way, inside, or while leaving temples.
The Kona, Hawaii temple is another small temple, like Medford and Reno, which meant that I knew the layout exactly, which was comforting. Even though the construction is almost exactly like the other small temples, there are several things that sets this temple apart, both inside and out.
First, and this may be a cultural thing, the temple is not very well-guarded. This means that there isn't really a perimeter fence, so people could probably stroll the grounds whenever they would like. I was shocked by that! But that's because I live in a city where, if the temple grounds were left vulnerable like that, someone would spray paint or try to break into the building.
The non-gates (at the top of the stairs)
There were also these cool, marble benches:
And these fan palms:
The temple was kind of at the edge of a neighborhood, at the end of a cul-de-sac with just a stake center on one side, and this oddly singular house next door:
The temple is to the right. Josh was so weirded out that there was just this random house so close to the temple, he kept taking pictures and videos of it.
The stake center next door had a satellite dish, which also entranced Josh because it was so big:
I made a conscious effort not to use the same dressing room like I had in the Reno and Medford temples (because I thought three times in a row might have been a little weird), and instead chose a room that I thought would be unpopular because it was at the back, but apparently it was the most popular changing room, and there was a long line of ladies waiting for me to change into my street clothes at the end of the night. I should have just stuck to my routine.
Other things of note about this temple:
* Instead of individual chairs in the ordinance rooms, there were benches, which threw me off. They were like pews. I think some of the older temples are like that, too (I'm thinking specifically of the Los Angeles and Manti temples), but I've never seen a newer temple (Kona was opened in 2000) like that.
* It was the first time I was the only White person in a session. I have been in a minority before (like when we went to the LA temple and it was a Spanish-language session and it was me, some blonde chick, and her husband who probably went to a Spanish-speaking mission and thought it would be cool to go through the temple in Spanish), but it was really just little old Whitey me, a gaggle of Hawaiians, and Hispanic Josh. I liked it. I was fascinated about what the experience made me think about.
Coming Up:
We've been talking about taking a Church History Tour for Spring Break and go to some of the temples in the Midwest. I always feel like I'm being self-righteous when I talk about visiting temples around the country, because it invariably makes other people feel bad about their own temple attendance, and I know that hitting the 50 temple mark is going to make it worse, but if we take this trip then it will put us in the mid-40s range.
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