Hawaii: Day 3: This is the Road that never ends...

One of the things I wanted to do while in Hawaii was drive the Road to Hana.  My mom and dad have just raved about what a wonderful drive and adventure it is.  Obviously Blair couldn't go on such a long road trip but Grammy and Papa selflessly (I had to twist their arms so much) offered to stay back with her during the day.

On the way, I read about the things we could stop and see and we started out with stopping for some waterfalls.  The first one had a blockade across the path to hike in on (which was super muddy because it was raining) with barbed wire and an actual ANIMAL CARCASS over it to try to keep people from getting through.  It had been pushed aside and I don't know why I dared get that close to it but we went through.  We probably could have hiked down further to get a better view but the path was slippery so when we went back to the car we realized we had a better view from there, haha oh well!

 The next one we stopped at required a bit longer of a hike but still under 5 minutes.  We had the preggo (Nicole) with us so we had to take the path carefully since it was slippery.

 Jen REALLY had to go and Jason promised not to take pictures (and then I promised not to post them) but seriously, this is a legitimate candid shot of me LITERALLY pointing and laughing at her!  There were little fish swarming around her, it was amazing!

The best waterfall of the day was called "The three bears."  We didn't have to hike to it, it was right on the road.  The book said you could hike down after a "tough first step" but that was actually a 12 foot vertical drop, a bit much for any of us!

It actually was really beautiful!  In fact, despite our complaints about the day, it was honestly a beautiful drive with beautiful scenery!

 At this point I have about decided in my head that I have seen enough waterfalls and this drive kind of sucks but not wanting to be a Debbie Downer I keep it to myself and onward to the black sand beach we go!  We planned to have our picnic lunch here but of course right as we are getting our things out of the car, a downpour starts.  We ended up eating all huddled up in the rental car.  Luckily it stopped quickly and we were able to hike down.

 I found this creature in her natural element... texting!

 We hiked into this "cave."  It was really just a little cubby off the beach.

Jason and I hiked up some rocks to check out the view.  It was an ugly day but the coastline was amazing!

If you ever decide to do the road to Hana, I would say if you stopped here it would make it a much better and SHORTER day.  There wasn't really anything good past this point so save yourself the extra 3 hours :)

But we didn't...

We went onward to Hana not stopping as we had seen enough waterfalls but we wanted to go past Hana to the seven sacred pools to do some swimming.  We drove over some cool rapids and when we got to the entrance we were sad to see a "flash floods, no swimming" sign.  We asked about it and they said, "those rapids you just went over, those are the pools!"  So we hiked down to see them anyway and another downpour started.  We tried to huddle under a tree and this is when I couldn't take it anymore and said, "I was trying to keep it to myself but this day has really sucked, this is stupid" to which everyone let out a sigh of relief to admit it too! 

We hoped on the way home we could get the macadamia nut brownie and banana bread we had seen to save the day.  We were able to get only 2 brownies and the banana bread place was closed.  We also were nearly attacked by two locals on the way home because according to them Jason was going to fast. 

We entertained ourselves by singing, with great harmony I might add, some fantastic belt-it-out songs.  We are particularly good at Carrie Underwood if I do say so myself.  We actually ended up laughing so much throughout the day that our cheeks hurt so we have some great memories!

Blair, Grammy and Papa had a great day at home too.  Blair made pancakes with Papa and they went to the beach.