Hawaii Day 2

On our second day in Hawaii, we headed to the Makapu’u lighthouse and tidepools at low tide. This was recommended to us by Norma, and we looked into it on TripAdvisor. What we found out was that people thought the rock scramble down to the the tidepools was very dangerous. What we found out in person was that it was nothing more dangerous than what we do at Lake Powell fairly regularly. And it was awesome!

Beautiful drive, beautiful hike, fun rock scramble, amazing crashing waves, and dramatic, windy cliffs.

We were nervous that the "trail" we had to climb down to the tidepools would be an unreasonably steep cliff. We had pretty much given up on it when we came across the actual trail head.

 

 Sea anemone and tidepools!

 We loved the rugged lava rock and the crashing waves. See the sea arch in front of John? 

 Beautiful cliffs with the lava rock island. One of our favorite parts were the couple of blow holes in the middle of the lava rock. They were so loud. Check out the videos above for a sample. 

 Crashing waves. They made us a little nervous because of all the reviews claiming it was so dangerous. It reality the worst we got was an unexpected wave in the back. Wet clothes, but the camera and phone were fine, thank goodness.

 Big wave leads to...

BIG crash!

All over Hawaii we ran into these little black crabs on the lava rock beaches. They were hard to see because of the black on black, but they were very distinctive because of the loud clatter they made when we got too close. To be honest they were kind of alarming and freaky because you go to sit and and hear this clatter of a couple of black crabs. Yikes!

There is the lighthouse we were hiking up to. 

Ah! We got caught by a wave!

This beautiful pool supposedly gets swam in by people at the tidepools, but we sure couldn't figure out a way to get down.

Then we hiked up to the overlook of the lighthouse. Check out the view of the bay--amazing!

A view from the top with my sweetheart!

This is the view opposite the blue cove. It is a stark contrast between the wet and dry sides of the island. 

The next stop was Lanikai beach--beautiful sand, beautiful water. The only sad part was that we didn't spend more time here snorkeling. Oh, and we couldn't find a place to change into our swimsuits. We ended up doing quick/tricky changes in our car.

It was a little windy, but the water and wet suits made it warm. 

I have the itch to rewrite this. I guess that is what happens when I'm spending so much time on calligraphy practice recently. To give myself some credit though, it is a lot harder to write on sand than paper. 

I was so nervous about the water being too cold to swim in for me, but these wet suits off Amazon saved the day! They made such a difference! We are super excited to use them at Lake Powell, San Diego, really anywhere that isn't Phoenix summer swimming.

Added bonus of being great sun protection. I get sunburned so easily! So not surprisingly I got burned on my face, hands, and feet--the only possible places I could get burned. We also found that there was fun snorkeling here. I wish we had spent more time and swam out farther, but we were just getting used to our gear and had more plans for the day. 

Next stop was the Dole Plantation. Here was John with a super cool looking papaya tree. Then of course, is a grove of banana trees. 

Pineapple fields! I learned it takes about two years from planting the start to harvesting pineapple. I also learned that you can actually plant the leafy top of the pineapple. You start by cutting it off the pineapple and pulling off the bottom few layers/inches of leaves to make more of a stalk. Then you soak it in water for a week or two until you see roots growing that are twice as long as the stalk is tall. Then you plant it in a pot and water it once a week. I don't know if I'll ever try it, but it was kind of fun to learn about.

Beautiful grounds viewed from the Pineapple Express. 

Chocolate trees. They also had coffee trees, but they were far less interesting, obviously.

We're so funny. We also learned about how to pick out a nice pineapple at the store. Look for evenly sized eyes all over the pineapple that are full and firm to the touch. Apparently color doesn't matter, and pineapples don't ripen after picking so don't leave on the counter to ripen.

I loved these evergreen trees. They had the tiniest needles and were so soft to touch. Here is John nice and personal with the cacao tree. We like chocolate!

I was a little bit cold so John let me wear his jacket. I loved these fun signs around. We also saw these fun plants that look just like the agaves at home. They even had the stalk that shot up to be the flower. The other differences were that clearly the leaves were different (retaining less water or something) and the beautiful, rich color.

Look at that banana bunch and blossom. 

We loved wandering around these beautiful gardens. 

Jungle garden!   

After the garden tour we enjoyed a delicious dole whip! I only wish it had been warmer so that ice cream would have been more ideal.

I love all of this brightly colored foliage!

There was a whole hibiscus garden with a variety of the colors and sizes. Since we got home we had to plant hibiscus in our yard. Turns out they are supposed to do okay as long as we keep them out of direct afternoon sunlight and give them enough water. We planted two in our front yard--red and pink. I hope they work out! Not shown--how much work it was to remove the large stump that was residing there before.

I loved these two trees. The huge ones with the painted trunks and the root/trunk trees. Like my super official names for these??

After the Dole Plantation we went on a quick trip over to Walmart and then went on a long drive around the island back to Laie and Kaaawa. Unfortunately a lot of that drive was in the dark and rain. But we did get to stop by the temple and see it all lit up. We then had one of my favorite meals--delicious burgers at Seven Brother's in Laie. Spectacular!