Johnny's Hawaiian Adventure, Part Five

Johnny's photos on his last full day started with, what else?, a hike. From what I could tell by the photos, just hiking to a beach each day was quite a trip. From the condo, they climbed down to the first beach on a steep paved path. That was the Bali Hai beach where they snorkeled and watched sunsets over Bali Hai (the movie's Bali Hai). (Actually called Pu'u Poa Beach). But to get to the second beach (Hideaways Beach), where they also snorkeled, they had to go first almost to the Pu'u Poa beach and then climb up stairs to get to the other side of the cliff, where they took a steep, rough trail down to the Hideaways beach. Confused? So was I.

Here they are here walking down stairs (Jessica hidden in the lead) to get back to the condo from the second (Hideaways) beach. They had climbed up from the second beach, around the cliff, and now are going back down to the first beach (Pu'u Poa) and then they will go up to the condo. Whew.

I think they are climbing back up from being down on the second beach (Pu'u Poa), with Jessica almost out of sight in the lead again, Sarah and Ian following, Kevin and Johnny trailing and not in the photo.

And then came the real hike for the day: the Kuila Ridge Trail.

This was taken on their way to the Kuila Ridge Trail, looking down at the Wailua River that they kayaked the day before. The dots on the water are kayaks, Johnny tells me.

Opeka'a Falls seen on the way to the trail

Eucalyptus trees

Some tree from Africa that Johnny didn't know the name of that was introduced and is taking over. Kevin thinks they may be Monkey Pod trees.

Vines totally covering trees. Johnny thinks Sleeping Beauty's castle is under that mound in the middle.

As if hiking, snorkeling and swimming (no photos of those), kayaking, tubing, and hula dancing were not enough, they took Johnny to play miniature golf on his last full day there. Here is a giant snail next to a golf ball, the only photo he took on the golf course.

Johnny tried to get bird photos for me, but seldom succeeded.

Red-crested Cardinals, another introduced species, were common, he says.

Of course, there was food. Here are some fruits they bought.

Johnny's flight home left about noon (their time, which is three hours earlier than ours), but Kevin wanted to take him snorkeling one more time. So that's what Johnny did Thursday morning, before his plane flight home. Then, after flying to Honolulu, he left paradise for Portland... and caught up to, on the way, yet another beautiful sunset.

 Thanks to losing three hours in transit, Johnny landed in Portland about ten thirty our time and drove in the driveway at one in the morning, Friday, Aug. 24.
                                                                        Aloha! Welcome home!