Paradise (6&7)

Our last day on Oahu began with a trip to the Hawaii Temple.  Aaron helped in the baptistry while I did initiatory.  The temple workers were SOO appreciative of us coming it was almost funny how much they thanked us.  We enjoyed walking the grounds as well which were so beautiful with all the native plants and trees.  We walked all the way down the tree lined street that leads to the temple and dead ends at the beach.  In the flower bed we found several delicate shells that we brought back for the kids.  On our way back from the temple we stopped at Ted's bakery for some chocolate haupia pie-very yummy!  His pie has gotten so famous on the island that McDonald's even introduced a chocolate haupia dessert-I bet it's not as good tho.

Before heading to the airport to hop over to Kauai, we took a hike up Manoa Falls.  This first canopy, meadowy area before we got into the real hike was unreal-kinda like being in some kind of fairy tail with foilage covering each tall, tall tree and these huge umbrella growing type tree limbs all above us-so cool!  At one point I almost stepped on a tiny green and black frog. Surprisingly, we really didn't see many bugs or wildlife the whole time we were in Hawaii, aside from the wild chickens that were EVERYWHERE!!

It was impossible to tell where this tree started or ended!

We got into Kauai late and went right to our resort in the dark.  We hot tubbed for a short time and then walked out to the beach to stare at the unbelievably gorgeous moon.  I wish I could have taken a picture of it-it's like we were twice as close to it and it was twice as bright as I've ever seen-one of my favorite sights on the island for sure!

The next morning we climbed into a helicopter to tour from the sky the 70% of the island that is inaccessible by car.  So many waterfalls and canyons and movie sight locations, but my favorite was seeing the cathedrals of the Na Pali Coast-wow!

Next we had a quick change and headed to Poipu beach for more snorkeling.  It was busy and the water wasn't calm but not rough either.  I loved the white pencil fish and little black box fishes with white polka dots.  This beach had a sand bar to a small island in the bay that was exposed at low tides during the day.  And since Aaron's thirst for snorkeling still wasn't satisfied, we stopped at one more spot that didn't have much beach and was a bit too choppy for me.  I enjoyed sitting on some warm rocks and watching the sun low in the sky.  We stopped at Wailua Falls on the way back just before dusk and got this lovely view.  Aaron had read about unofficial 'climbs' down to the falls that were off limits because people had been killed, but he was anxious to try.  There were a couple homeless fellows that must have sensed Aaron's curiosity and walked right up to him to give him the down low on how to get to the bottom and what time of day was the safest.  Thank goodness it was getting dark and Aaron figured it was too late/dangerous to really try!  

That evening we hung out at the resort pools for awhile and then did some late grocery shopping.  We were really hoping to see that moon again but it rose later and later each night and there was too much cloud cover.  I think this may have been to night we went star gazing too but again-too much cloud cover to see much.