Hawaii Vacation-Day 4

This week Mason has been taking the car to work in the mornings while the boys and I have some slower mornings at the hotel.  This has worked out pretty well since the boys aren't feeling well, and have actually been sleeping, which is huge for Woodrow.  Theo did a few school papers, and we relaxed around the hotel until Mason came to pick us up for lunch.  We ended up eating at Yummy Korean BBQ at a strip mall close to Ford Island, and I grabbed a Jamba Juice smoothie.  The boys didn't eat and Maximus just wanted to crawl all around...I miss the highchair!

I wanted to get on a hike today, so even though Woodrow was not feeling great, I decided we'd attempt the Manoa Falls Hike to a waterfall.  I got a little turned around on the directions and we stumbled upon a Chinese Cemetery.  It was a very pretty location so I hopped out and took some photos.  The Asian culture and influences are so interesting.  The kids only liked the dragon statues guarding the entrance.

The area around the Manoa Falls trail head was very beautiful.  There was a "Botanical Garden" but from driving by it, it looked like someones house with an impressive garden.  There were lots of chickens and roosters wandering the parking lot and patrolling the lot.  After living in Guam, the kids didn't even bat an eye at the wandering chickens.  One of the challenges of hiking solo with the kids is how to carry the gear we need on hikes.  Woodrow doesn't hike without water and snacks, so those are necessities.  Usually we just need water, snacks, bug spray, a diaper, and bottle supplies for Max.  I could tell this day that Theo wasn't going to do well carrying the backpack.  We tried it out, but I decided it wasn't going to be a good idea (and looking back that was the right decision).  I chugged some water, gave Max a bottle before starting the trail, and the boys each carried their water bottles.  Usually I rely on just using my phone to take photos, since carrying the Canon adds bulk, and I don't want to damage it if I were to fall, but I was really trying to take better photos on this trip, so I carried the camera and Max. 

The trail was 1.6 miles round trip and had a 784 ft. elevation gain.  I had also read that it was pretty muddy in some parts but that the 100ft waterfall at the end was supposed to be beautiful.  I'm not really too familiar with the shows Jurassic Park and Lost, but I guess some of the scenes were filmed in this area.  We set off at a very slow, but steady pace.  Woodrow was looking pretty pale and wasn't that in to the hike, but he was doing pretty well.  The beginning part of the trail was very flat and there were lots of pretty trees and plants to look at.  We followed the trail along a stream and stopped at all the trail signs to read about various stream life and plant life along the trail.  Theo did AWESOME on this hike.  He was a huge helper with Woodrow and had a great attitude.  I completely bribed Woodrow with being able to open a small little lego package when we got back to the car.

When we were about halfway into the trail I asked a woman who was hiking with her dad and children about how much longer it was to the falls to assess whether we should continue with Woodrow in his pitiful state.  She was concerned about us hiking the end of the trail since she said it got very muddy, slippery, and steep.  I told her we'd continue on and if we needed to turn around we would.  She said, "you must be military."  I said yeah, not our first solo  hike.  Closer to the finish line Woodrow had had it and was crying on a rock.  An older couple passed us and stopped to chat with Woodrow and even offered to carry him-which we didn't need.  They went on their way and the man kept calling out, "Come on Woodrow, you can do it." and "I see the falls, where's Woodrow."  A little embarrassing, but Woodrow did press on to the end to see the falls.  They did great!  I did have mom guilt.  The second half of the trail was very muddy, slippery, and steep as we had been warned, but we did pretty well.

The walk back to the car was slow and steady and thankfully I got a message from Mason that he'd gotten a ride back to the hotel, because we finished up a little later than I had planned.   After piling our muddy/stinky selves back in the car, we headed back to the hotel room and cleaned up.  We ended up having dinner at a small Mexican restaurant nearby and then headed to the airport to surprise my parents who were arriving to join us for vacation!

This was such an exciting part of the trip.  We haven't seen family since moving to Guam in April 2016, and no one has met Maximus yet, so we were so thrilled that my parents and sister and her boyfriend decided to meet us in Hawaii.  It was soooooooo great to hug them and see them.