still catching up with myself... hawaii... hana...

just to warn you... there are 30 pictures on this one blog post...

i hope you have some time...

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our road to hana day was awesome!!!  i cant even tell you how much i love this day and how many times i day dream i am back there in the lush beauty that surrounds you there!  hawaii is beautiful no matter where you are... but hana is like another world...  

this is where our day began...

the road to hana... hana highway...

 then we went on our first hike... 

twin falls... 

couldnt resist...

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 the falls... this is the lower of the twin falls... super awesome... a huge overhanging cave behind the whole waterfall that you can hike behind give you a feeling of how powerful a waterfall is!  crazy!!!

had to get a pic with my toms... they took me everywhere on this trip!!

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then to the next hike...

puohokamoa falls...

these are the upper falls of the two... and we took an off course and wound up on top of the falls instead of at the bottom... that hike was way more fun than what it was supposed to be...

truthfully... brent was making me SO nervous right here... he had to see how close he could get to the edge... and he finally listened and layed on his stomach instead of standing...

then... i was like.. "hey we should see what is up the stream"

and brent was like, "ok... lets go..."

we were about to turn around when we saw this...

 a third water fall that was not on our maps or guide book... i know we werent the first to find it seeing that there was a rope to the top... but it was certainly amazing that we were the only ones there and no one seemed to know about it!!

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brent was in heaven... guava trees everywhere... so he was eating them left and right... i finally tried one... disgusting... maybe i had a bad one or something... but i did not enjoy at all!!!

 since we could see a rope and a cave on the other side of this lake... we had to go check it out...

i made brent go first... honestly... so scared to get in at first... the water was so cold and it was at least 6 ft deep and i couldnt see anything!!!  but again... super amazing that we got explore this and it was all to ourselves...

 headed to the cave...

 crazy little cave...

 brent swam back and then got some proof that i did it too...

such a rush being so close the falls again... 

back at the technical "upper puohokamoa falls"...

where brent is pointing with the branch is where he was standing/laying in the first picture of these falls... it looks a lot smaller here than it is...  but the falls we found after/behind this was way way bigger... 

 and this... this is the secret entrance... you have to go around it... the people that own the "secret garden" closed it off because their land it right there and they dont want people trespassing... or something like that... i read it somewhere in our book...

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next stop...

half way to hana...

thats right ... we are only half way there so far...

 and the banana bread there really is as good as everyone says...

delish!!!!

and i loved that we are the same age...

halfway to hana inc was born in 1983 too...

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when we left half way to hana i had way too much fun with one bag of chips... 

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 they were also delish and also found at the halfway to hana stand...

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black sand beach

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 red sand beach = the nude beach

 thats all the picture i could take...

...you thought we went to a nude beach for a second...

we decided not to go there... although i really did want to see the red sand...

i took this picture as we drove by the mile marker for it...

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wailua falls

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my new favorite tree...

eucalyptus degulpta

 when we decided we didnt want to pay to see the seven sacred pools and it was getting kind of late... too late to see the late charles lindberghs grave site... we turned around and made one last stop at the ke'anae arboretum...  it was so beautiful... we were the only ones there and i LOVED that my favorite tree was there... a beautiful forrest of them... and so many other beautiful colors of leaves and vegetation...

 yes... i am a tree hugger...

this wind storm came out of no where and then all of a sudden it started raining too...

it was crazy... but so beautiful... these huge leaves were falling all over and i couldnt get enough... it was one of those moments in my life i will always remember...

it was beyond belief so beautiful there and i tried to capture some of the colors below but you will have to go there to see what i mean...

it is breathtaking... the way this place made me feel... i would have to say euphoric...

 love the colors and textures...

 these leaves were huge...

 twice the size of my head...

i loved these... too bad its blurry...

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the road to hana was great... i didnt know quite what to expect... other than we heard it was amazing... green... beautifully filled with waterfalls... like to other....

it held up to all that and more... it was wonderful!

and the best part is... if we were to do it again... there are so many waterfalls and hikes that we didnt stop at... you could travel the road to hana so many times and have such different experiences...

i loved it!!!

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and to top it off... while we were in hawaii...

we found out that i am pregnant...

yeah!!!

happy anniversary... happy welcome home... happy us...

have i mentioned i love hawaii!!!

[smile]

november 7th 2010