Sweaty Day 7-30-11

Today started reaaally early this morning. I woke up thinking I heard two infants crying and crying. You can hear people walk by our hotel rooms because there is no AC so you leave the windows open. I thought a family was getting up really early to head to the airport. I was really wrong. It was cats fighting! It was sooo loud! They were really going at each other, and I think the room next to us thought it was babies too because they woke up then realized what I realized and ended up scaring them off! LOL! After a few more hours of sleep, Jed and I decided to head up Koke'E State Park. We were told to get up early to miss the fog, and there would be better photo opportunities. So we started our adventure and drove up the the mountain side, which took about one and a half hours! But we thought it would be worth the wait and drive. But when we got up to the top , it was raining (typical Hawaii), it was cold, and really foggy. I was sooo sad. I was really looking forward to a hike and some beautiful pictures. We did get some cool pics on our way to the top, but it was so foggy on the top we couldn't even take any pictures or see anything.

At the top of the mountian, actually pretty clear consiering about 10 minutes later we could not see anything

At a lookout point on the way to the top of the mountain

So we decided to head back, but we were so hungry we stopped by the resturant by the State Parks Museum. I am so glad we did because we had the most delicous home made food! Plus by the time we were done, the weather started to clear up and got really sunny. Before we left the resturant, we decided to buy some chicken feed because there were 30 or more chickens running around and they were so friendly! We feed them and it was pretty funny, we took lots of pictures and some videos.

Then we decided to start our adventure! We lucked out and found a pretty popular trail (lots of cars on the side of the road) so we thought it must be a good one. We probably walked about 5-6 miles through what felt and looked like a rain forest. Up, down, all around! It was really fun. We got to a ledge, which had a spectacular view, and walked further down to find a hidden waterfall! Overall a fantastic hike. But after that, we were so sweaty and hot from walking down step slides, rocks, and overgrown tree trunks, we were almost ready to call it a day (we hiked for about 3-4 hours) but I really wanted to go all the way to the top again in hopes the weater cleared so we could see the sea liked I wanted. Sure enough! It was beautiful! And we found out our new camera is amazing because it takes panoramic pictures!



At the top of the mountain after fog cleared, same spot first picture taken!

 On the way back down the mountain, we noticed most of the dirt/ ground is red. We noticed this really cool red burms with waterfall going through them! We stopped to take a picture. I was totally content standing near the waterfall for the picture, but of course Jed had to go above and beyond, he had to stand over the waterfall. While trying to get "the perfect shot" he halfway fell into the waterfall and almost fell all the way in. It was really deep so he had a hard time getting his footing, but he made it.

We headed back to the hotel, had a late snack of bread, cheese, and fruit and decided to jump in the ocean. It felt great! We cleaned up shorty afterwards to check out a resturant our hotel recommended, the Kalaheo Steak and Ribs Resturant. And what a find! It was so delicious! Only a 15 minute drive from our hotel, and home cooked food, and wonderfull service. We started off dinner with complimentary Potato Skins, soup (french onion for Jed) and salad for me, we shared Filet Minon and ended with a triple chocolate cheesecake ala mode! Oh and I had some wine from Germany and is was delicious! We are both exhausted but we are finding ourself watching ABC Family's presentation of Beauty and The Beast, which I am sure we will fall asleep to soon! (BTW Jed is only watching it because I wanted to! What a sweet husband!)