Happy Anniversary!!

It's been 9 years since Danielle and I made the big leap into marriage on the beach in RI.

Danielle - Thank you so much for all of the incredible times. Here's to many more!!

I love you even more now than that incredible Friday evening.

Love, Bill

Waterfall Hike

Danielle heard about a waterfall hike that was not far from our house at the top of the Pali Highway. So we decided to try it out one evening. After some uncertainty about whether or not we were in the right place (by me, but we followed Danielle's lead and it worked out great!!!), we headed down the path. It started out as an access road and turned into a path that wound its way through the woods and then along a stream. We stopped for a picnic dinner and considered turning around. Danielle ran ahead to see if she could see the potential for a waterfall. After a minute she called us ahead and we got a great view! We made it back to the car just before dark for another successful O'ahu hike!

Kaua'i - Part 2

On Friday afternoon, we headed to Koke'e State Park. From Kilauea to Koke'e as the crow flies is about 10 miles. However, the one road that circumnavigates the island does not quite connect. So, we had to head clockwise almost all the way around the island...

Of course the views were beautiful on the way. As we turned away from the coast and up toward Waimea Canyon and Koke'e, we had some great lookouts to explore.

The cabin that we stayed in was rustic and reminded us a bit of our trips to the cabins of Savoy State Park in MA. For the cabins were were up around 4,000 feet above sea level. We were amazed to see clover on the ground, hydrangeas in bloom and some butterfly bushes!! It almost felt like we were back in New England.

We went for a nice hike near the cabin that afternoon and found a tree full of Koke'e plums. We collected a couple of dozen, in addition to the one's that we ate while we were picking. They were sweet and quite delicious.

The cool air at night was quite welcome! The next day we hiked into Waimea Canyon. It is very much like a minature Grand Canyon. The girls did a great job hiking the 5 miles or so round trip! We found wild guavas and an orange tree. There were also feral goats that we saw scrambling around in the canyon.

On our last day, we went to an overlook of the Na Pali Coast. We arrived in time to get some great views, but the fog rolled in fairly quickly and the incredible views completely disappeared. We were very glad that we arrived when we did, since many people did not get to see it at all... From there we hiked into the Alaka'i Swamp, which had a nice boardwalk.

We had a late night flight (thanks to frequent flier tickets). So, we stopped at a beach that had an incredible collection of sea glass and we went snorkeling at Po'ipu. After a dinner of brick oven pizza, we made our way back to the airport in Lihue (and caught a beautiful sunset on the way). Our long weekend ended around 11 p.m. back at our house in Kailua!!


The view of Waimea Canyon.


A beautiful view!!

Did I mention that there are chickens everywhere on Kaua'i?


Hydrangea, alongside Ti!! (You don't see that on the Cape...)


Hiking down into Waimea Canyon.

We thought this silversword plant was pretty big!!

These liliko'i sure are sour!!

Exploring the Waimea River at the base of the canyon!

On our way back up!

A nice view of the Na Pali coast (before the fog rolled in)

The beautiful girls as the fog is rolling in!

Goofy kids...

Sea glass beach

Oh yeah, we also saw a blowhole near Po'ipu. The waves come through lava tubes that are underneath the surface and shoot out openings above the ground. These were pretty impressive!!

I great sunset to finish off a great trip!