the last of it

On the day before our last day we drove up to the rainforst to see Manoa Falls

Half way up there was so much mud it was like a chess game to avoid the insanity, well, if you were me.

Look, I hardly got muddy. I wished I woulda have taken a pic of someone else's muddy ass shoes that came back.

Then we cleaned up and went down to the beach for a sec before we were off to a luau. 

(a typical Waikiki beach- tourists sitting on their surfboards because no one really knows how to surf. Not that I know how, just saying.)

 except that one chick ;)

Oh yes, cocktail time :)

 (^used a cool holga setting on Aspens camera, shoulda left it on)

We had one more day after this but I hardly took any pictures n it mostly consisted of back tracking to go to that one last store I wanted to go to. :o

Then we went to go watch the sunset one last time before it was time to head to back to the desert.  

 Oh pano, why I have I not explored you before

This guy looked all cool riding back in...

 n then I was all happy to get a take two w/ his friend,...and then he failed me...lol :o

 It was fun to play with the different settings on Aspens camera. This one was a pop art setting. It looked totally regular and blah w/out. Many times its not about what camera you have, just knowing how to use the one you do have.

Another day of adventures

The next day was filled with business.  We spent four hours snorkeling and went on a few hikes.

My first pano. Why the heck did I never touch that before. Darn it! 

Anywho, this is where we hiked down to and floated around forever

 Haha. Snorkeling is a pretty dorky looking thing to do, but when you're out there seein them fishies it don't matter. 

See, you never woulda seen this driven by or sittin on the beach

  

There were so many different kinds and it was hard to catch them sometimes, lol

HI!! :)

We took a break for a min and saw a lil rescue and took in the paradise

Then back for more

That was it, four hours was time to call it a day.

As we were leaving this lil girl came out and yelled for her dad, gave up on it and sat down hopefully waiting for him. lol. She was cute. N he was kinda far away and not paying attention. not lol. eep.

Thanks for having us Hanauma Bay

On the way to our next adventure we stopped by a few outlooks...

This was a ways up our next hike, looking back down.

Up a hill and around the corner was a lighthouse, Makapuu lighthouse.

We also went there to see the queens baths. Apparently the queen's would bath in these, hence the name, but it seemed so far down and then of course you'de have to hike back up. (o.O) So we saw and moved on. :)

Its not like we're lazy people though, we were headed to another hike. We started down there at that parking lot..

..and headed up a gazillion stairs

To a view of the city and ocean.

Then back down, which of course was much more fun

The surroundings reminded me of picture of Africa

Off to get dressed up for a nice dinner now.

 What a day that was. :)

Day 4 @ Byodo temple

On the fourth day we just planed for a relaxing day since our first few had been activity filled. We went up into the mountains to see the Byodo Buddhist temple. It was so serene n pretty there, I wish I had somewhere like that to go daily.

We kept stopping on the way up because the view was awesome

There is constantly sun, clouds, and rain or mist int eh mountains there. Mist, sun, and clouds were all coming down on me here: feel the universe.

And here we made it to the temple. I had brought my big camera but didnt take it out much because I  wanted to feel like I was on vacation. Sometimes though I now wish I had taken brought it out more, because this would have looked so much nicer had I done so. Still a beautiful place though.  

The sounds

I could have sat here all day.

So peaceful

Then we went back n watched the sunset on the beach.