Chasing waterfalls and Luaus

Today was an eclectic day. We started off with a pancake breakfast at Kao Pancakes - a local almost fastfood pancake house. From there, we made the trek East, past Honolulu to hike up to Manoa Falls. The hike itself is not terribly hard - approximately one mile with moderate terrain. However, just as we got there it started to rain. We sheltered ourselves under the porch of the Arboretum until the heavy rain past, and then headed out for our hike. The 120 foot falls is in the middle of a rainforest type environment. The fact that it was raining only made it the more ironic. The path was muddy, and the rocks were slippery, but we made it up without incident. Even Katie, who often complains about too much physical effort, stopped complaining quickly, and enjoyed the hike.



The falls were well worth the trip. Although there is only a small viewing area, and plenty of people, each group got a chance to snap some solo pictures. The fact that it had rained probably helped our cause. The trip down was a little trickier, but the fact that the sun came out made it all the better.



Since Manoa Falls is just North of Wakikki, we headed there for lunch and a tourist walk. We walked through the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, walked a portion of the beach and lunched a Dukes - an island favorite. Post lunch, we hit a few stores, and headed back to the hotel. It was quite sunny in Wakikki, but it downpoured on the way back. However, to our luck, the rain ended shortly before Ko Olina where we were due to prepare for our Luau. It didn't rain the rest of the day!

The Luau dinner was so-so, but the kids learned to weave palm leaves, and played a few games. The show was quite good. The Somoan group performed a number of dances for the local Polyesian islands including Hawaii. The kids were invited up front, and even got up to perform their own Hulu dance. Traditional video wasn't allowed, but my new camera got some grainy close-ups of Emily.



The Finale was an excellent fire dancing show.



To put it in Katie's words, it was, "an amazing night."