Hiking, working, and shopping

On Wednesday, Cole and I went to Iao Valley and went hiking. I'm not going to say too much, I'll just get to the pictures, because it was GORGEOUS! We went around 10:30 I think and were there til about two. I took a ton of pictures with my camera, but I don't have a way to put those on here yet. You will be seeing the ones taken with my phone, which are still pretty good. No picture can really do it justice, but you can at least get an idea. Enjoy. 

Obviously here you can see that there is a path for visitors, but Cole and I ventured off of that and did some exploring on our own. 

There was a stream running through the valley with a lot of these big rocks in it. We left the trees and walked on the rocks for a while. However, Cole has much longer legs than I do, so it was a lot easier for him. I had to wade through the water a few times because I couldn't make the jump from rock to rock. During one such wading time, I may or may not have stepped on the side of a rock and lost my footing a bit. And by "lost my footing" I mean I totally fell in the water... :) Oops! Good thing Cole had my phone and camera! 

There is a ton of history here. I got a better picture of this point on my camera, but this will do to tell you about it. The smaller peak on the left in this picture is the Iao needle, which was a lookout point when King Kamehameha united the islands. Iao Valley was a big battleground in 1790 when Kamehameha defeated Maui's army. 

I loved being surrounded by the mountains. It was so gorgeous and peaceful. 

There were lots of cool plants in there too. It felt very jungle-like. 

Normally there would be a lot of waterfalls to see in the valley, but since it had not rained in a while, we didn't see any. 

So Iao was the exciting adventure for the day. Definitely a place I would like to visit again. 

Yesterday I worked for a couple of hours in the morning, then Sandy and I went to a resale shop, because Cole needed aloha shirts for his job, and they had a great used book section. I've been reading a lot since I got here, so I got a couple more books to put on my "to-read" list. Between these and the books that Aunt Terry gave me when I was at her house, I should have enough reading material to last me about a week. :) Okay a little longer than that. I might have to ship a box back home of just books at the end of the summer, because they will make my suitcase too heavy! Anyway, right now I am in the middle of Eye of the Needle, which you gave me for Christmas, Mom. It is pretty good so far; a bit more historical than what I usually pick up, but it definitely has me hooked. After that I don't know what I will read, but I have lots of choices now! 

Today Sandy and I went to Lahina and Ka'anapali and checked out the tourist area of the island. I had not been all the way over to Ka'anapali yet, so that was fun to see. We did a little bit of shopping and she showed me the hotel that she likes over there. It is the Ka'anapali Beach Hotel, in case anyone was planning a trip here. :) It looked nice; right on the water with a big garden area and lots of plumeria trees. We walked along the beach a bit and I saw people over jumping off of Black Rock. It didn't look so scary from a distance.. I'm sure that changes when you're standing on top of it though! After we were done shopping, we stopped in Lahina for groceries. Then we came back to Makawao. Now Cole is at work, Kevin and Sandy are going to meet some friends of theirs who are here on vacation, and I am going to hang out and make some more progress on my book! 

Tomorrow we are going to an outdoor music festival thing, and then some other friends of theirs on the island are coming over for dinner. Hope all is well back home! Aloha!