The drive to Hana was certainly... windy. It wasn't as scary as I thought it would be, I guess I've been in the car enough on mountain passes that this seemed tame. There weren't a ton of cars on the road, so it wasn't bad. When we got to Hana we stopped to check out THAT beach to see if we could find shells. No dice here either... why doesn't Hawaii have shells?
There may not be shells, but there were literally HUNDREDS of crabs, some bigger than others - like this guy:
Once we continued south on the highway, the road became a little sketchier and not quite as smooth and nice. It still wasn't that bad. We arrived at the entrance to the national park and were told to park in an open field. Applied sunscreen and then started out on our hike - no attempts at running today, we were starting later in the day & expected it to be more crowded, plus we didn't feel like it. The trail was definitely the most busy out of all the ones we had been on. It was super pretty again - forest and LOTS of tree roots.
There were signs all over the trail warning about cliffs and drop offs. I wonder how many people it took to do dumb stuff before they put these up.
We crossed this first bridge and ended up in ... no kidding, a BAMBOO FOREST. This was super cool. I had never seen anything like it!!
The closer we got to the waterfall at the end, the more crowded the trails got. We finally got up near the waterfall, and sadly, this was about the best view that we got of it. It was really pretty though, definitely seemed like something we would have seen in the Amazon.
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| This selfie was supposed to have the falls in the background... oops |
Ocean was pretty! Due to the risk of flash floods, people were not allowed down on the beach.
We went back to Lava Rock since we were arriving before happy hour. We didn't get great service this time either, but the food was still delicious.
It was already getting warm, and I was having a hard time keeping up. At least when we got a littler higher up, Kristin and Terri started to walk a bit more, which I *can* do. There were a decent number of bikes that made this less than amazing. It WAS, however, really green - which I love!
I figured I would join for the Zorro trail section and then run down the road to where I was parked. About halfway up, Kristin decided she was "over it" and turned around. I kept going - haven't done this trail in a LONG time, and I forget how tough it is!
Headed home and took Pika for a quick walk. Headed to 4 Noses so that Ben and Ariel could meet Obi, dropped Ariel off at a graduation party, then met up with Greg at New Image.
We decided to walk up to the dog park to get a bit more mileage, when I noticed what looked to be a tornado on the horizon!! (I did check, and it was in fact, a tornado up north!)
Wednesday (17,672 steps) - We decided to sleep in, since we didn't have anything planned. We managed to roll out of bed pretty late, and headed out for coffee/breakfast from our regular place (for the last time, sniff sniff). We then found a parking spot off the beach and rented stand up paddleboards! Ariel and I had never attempted this, so we donned the rash guards and life jackets - who wants to drown in the ocean? I was truly surprised at how heavy and awkward the boards were!
We all left our phones in the car and didn't have a camera on us - which was kind of a bummer, because we had the best time! It took me a while before I was actually able to stand up on the board (who knew that ocean waves would make this so hard?) - but once I got comfortable with it and we were past the wave breaks, it wasn't bad! And I was super grateful that I had the life jacket - as time wore on it got harder and harder to get back on the board, lol. Anyway, we had so much fun and it was beautiful on the water. There was a group (swarm? school?) of giant sea turtles that would swim right under our boards and they would poke their adorable heads up. It was SO NEAT. After about 90 minutes we were pretty much done. We were all tired, and I had swallowed probably a gallon of salt water.
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| Not my picture - from pmimaui.com - but this is what they looked like |
We all had a great time, although once we were done, cleaning everything and lugging it back to the place was probably the least fun. We ended up walking over to a restaurant down the street so Ben could get some of his seafood. I had a delicious burger & we decided to have a few "fancy" drinks.
We didn't have much to until our flight left, although Ben and Ariel still had to finish packing and we had some cleaning up to do around the condo. On the way back to the car Ben happened to spot a wallet on the sidewalk, not near any businesses. We didn't see anyone around so we took it with us and tried a number of ways of tracking the owner down. Ben finally found a valid number (and he answered!) and we were able to return it to him that afternoon. He was actually only staying down the street from us. Felt good to get that back to him, what a pain it would be to lose that on vacation. We decided to drive back down to the Lava Fields for one more chance of hoping to see the Spinner dolphins. Sadly, they were still not out. We stopped at Waikiki for a beer and some snacks from happy hour. We got back to the area of the condo and watched our last Hawaiian sunset :(
We were back at the condo waiting for it to be time to head to the airport when I got a text that our flight was delayed. Until THE NEXT DAY. WTF! I immediately tried to go online to change to an earlier or other flight, but United wouldn't recognize the current day as a valid departure time. Ben tried to call the airline but hold times were crazy. After 45 minutes we got a follow-up text that we had been rebooked on a different flight leaving 10 minutes earlier and connecting through LA instead of San Francisco. They could've saved us a lot of headache if they'd have sent us the texts together! The flight left a bit late, but at least we got out on the right day. I started watching a movie but kept closing my eyes, although I had a really terrible headache and didn't get much, if any, sleep.
Thursday (8,187 steps) - We landed relatively close to on time, not that it mattered, we had a few hours connection and our gates were close together. I had to work while at the airport since I didn't have enough PTO to take the day off. THIS SUCKED. Ariel had to get her second COVID shot, so I had to leave a bit early to get her over there. By the time we got home it was later than we thought it would be, although we had enough time to take Pika for a walk. Tyler came over for happy hour to talk about our Hawaii adventures.
Friday (17,110 steps) - Work in the office. Bah. Got up early to go for a walk at Wash Park with the gang and got to meet Kristin's new dog, Obi! What a cutie pie! Did a Peloton ride when I got home, then Ariel and I took Pika for a walk. Nothing else?
Saturday (30,225 steps) - Up early to meet the gang at Green Mountain/Matthews Winters for a trail "run." When planning, Tyler neglected to realize that the trail head was technically closed because there was a big motorbike competition happening. We were there early enough that we were able to just drive down the street to park at the base of Dino Ridge. I'd kinda been hoping that we would not be doing Green Mountain first, but sadly, those that wanted to run longer wanted to get that hot/exposed part out of the way. Fair. We had to run up the road to get to the trail and I was already getting dropped because my pace was so slow. The route Tyler planned had us going counter clockwise up the switchbacks I'd run down most recently with Pika.
Ariel and I took Pika for a walk when we got home so we could head back down south to watch her school compete in the Dakota Ridge Invitational! We picked up Tokyo Joe's to eat while we spectated and it was SO HOT. Felt pretty bad for those poor kids who basically roasted to death out there. We did not do more outside time after that ended.
Sunday (14,347 steps) - Ariel and I got up early to drive to the RMRR 4K race, which was in south Denver. (Yes, I realize that is a long way to go to run less than 3 miles). I had been running so "well" on roads that I was cautiously optimistic about running AMAZING. That did not happen. The first mile was ok, but I went out way to fast, then suffered immensely in mile 2, and the last half mile or so were "speedy."
Monday (20,271 steps) - Work from home. Did a Peloton ride and took Pika for a walk at lunch. Ariel had her first DRIVING CLASS, but it was early enough I didn't have time to take her, so Ben drove her up. We had heard a rumor that the goats were out at the lake, so after I was off, we drove up to the north trail head to take Pika for a walk and goat watch!
Picked Ariel up from her driving class - she supposedly learned stuff, so that's good.
Stats:
- 128,083 steps
- 12.79 miles run
- 26 minutes of cardio
- 93 minutes of strength training
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