Mele Kalikimaka...

Mele Kalikimaka!   (Merry Christmas)

So this post is late, but I have a really good excuse:  Kalikimaka Eve turned out to be a long day when someone tried to steal my car at 10:30pm after I went downtown to look at some of the Kalikimaka lights.  After dealing with the police, insurance company, and tow truck company, I finally climbed into bed at 3:30am on Christmas Day.  Kind of a bummer start to Kalikimaka, but overall Christmas was still great (and I'm blessed with a roommate who has constantly allowed me borrow his car while mine hangs out at the shop for a while).  I spent Kalikimaka at the beach followed by dinner at my place with family and friends.

Here are some Kalikimaka pictures I've taken.  Mahalo for visiting and I hope your Kalikimaka was great.

Sandy's Beach Park: My stocking is hung on the driftwood with care...

Ignore any shadow figures; The place was super crowded and I used long shutter speeds so the people didn't show as much. 

Honolulu Marathon...

I ran the Honolulu Marathon 2 weeks ago.  Not my favorite race ever, but I guess one does it more for the sights along the way.  I ran it with 25,000 other people, and let me tell you: Hawai'i's streets are not capable of supporting this many runners at one time.  The course bottlenecked constantly, and I was either in someone's heels or someone else was in mine.  It's a popular race for people visiting from Asia (especially Japanese folks).  In fact, it was so heavily populated with runners from Japan that the only language I heard was Japanese, including Japan's national anthem at the beginning.  I kept hearing people shout a phrase at me that sounded like, Heeeeey, nu-body.  I have no idea what that means, but I decided to assume it meant "you look awesome, keep running."  Ha.  It was a breath of fresh air when (at mile 13) I finally found myself running next to an American/US Marine.  We were happy to talk to each other for a mile or so.  All the negative aspects were made up by the awesome sights along the way since it ran through downtown, Waikiki, along the beach for a while, around Diamonhead and out to Hawaii Kai's Bay with views of Koko Crater.

It was't my fastest run, but I ran a smart race.  So I'll call it a success.  I've now crossed the state of Hawai'i of my lifetime list of marathons/Ironmans.  States crossed off so far: Florida (4 times), Ohio (3 or 4 times?), Indiana, Kentucky, Georgia, Tennessee.  Hum...I've still got a long way to go, but a lifetime to do it!  

Oh, if you were wondering: Horseback riding a few hours after running a marathon is a terrible idea.  Turns out, chaffed areas match up precisely with saddle areas.  Yikes!

Here are some pictures of the marathon.  Mahalo for visiting!

Expo time the night before.

Mile 17 and looking strong! (left)   //   Mile 20: caught me cleaning off some snot (trust me: this is not unpleasant compared to some of the things you see on a long course...endurance athletes have no shame or rules for decency)

Finishline!  I'm on the far right of the photo.

Happy to be finished!

Best Christmas tree ornament ever!

Little Sis is in the Aloha state

What's the first thing my little sis wanted to do when she arrived in Hawai'i?  Go to the beach.  Obviously!  The second thing was to go see a waterfall.  The adventure begins...

Kaua'i Part 2: Backpacking Na Pali Coast...

The Na Pali Coast is a 15 mile stretch of the northern coast of Kaua'i which is completely inaccessible except for one way...on foot via the Kalalau trail.  Na Pali is translated from Hawaiian means the cliffs.  Much of the Kalalau trail along the way is cut into steeply angled cliffs.  It has stunning views, but unfortunately the two days I was on the trail the visibility in Kaua'i was poor.  It made picking out photos to share easy, since I permanently deleted 80% of the photos I snapped since the vog (ie. volcanic-fog) was really high.  Luckily, with the naked eye, the views were much better in person; they just don't translate onto digital film well.  Not to worry though: I wouldn't tease you with stories of stunning views without providing you with a visual.  You'll just have to wait a couple more days until I post my helicopter trip photos (foreshadowing!).

The first mile = straight uphill   ...not so great with a 35 lb backpack 

Great view at the top of the hill, except I'm still not at the top.

Don't fall off the edge.  It's a long way down.

Hummm...that's a lot of dead hikers. Guess I should stay out of the water. 

On the Hanakapai Beach there are tons of balanced rocks from many hikers before me.

The beach was beautiful and extremely remote.

This is where a stream flows into the ocean.

Waterfall a couple miles inland from the beach.

Here's the same beach the next day on the way back along the trail. 

Hazy, but you can get an idea of the beautiful coastline and high rising coast.

Almost back to the trailhead.

Mahalo for visiting!

Kaua'i Part 1: Caves and Canyons

Well, you recently read about the Tsunami warning on a previous blog post.  I mentioned then, that I had a bunch of pictures from my trip, so this is the lead Kaua'i posting: Canyons and caves!

First is canyons: I arrived on the island early in the morning, and for the first couple of hours I went to visit Waimea Canyon before hitting the trail to go backpacking.  People say the canyons on Kaua'i are like a smaller Grand Canyon, but very lush with more "greenery."  Unfortunately, the vog (volcanic fog) was being really annoying so the pictures are not the clearest.

The vog was really bad at this lookout point.

Kalalau Lookout

mmm...found some fresh coconut at one of the lookout spots.

After the canyons, I drove down and around the island to get to the northern coast to start my backpacking wilderness adventure, but on the way were several caves.  One was dry while two had water in them.  I didn't let the water, nor the flesh eating bacteria warning signs, keep me out.  Whew, the water was cold!  I climbed down into a hole/cave in hopes to see the blue room.  It's supposed to be room within the cave where the water is an irridescent blue with the light filtering in.  It was creepy swimming into a dark cave with barely enough room for your head.  Unfortunately, it was bust.  I don't think there was enough light coming in, but the water was still a neat blue color.

Cave 1 (wet cave) 

Cave 2 (dry cave)

On the edge of the dry cave looking in.

In the dry cave.

Looking back out of the cave.

Hummm....gald I didn't get a case of the Lepto.

Found the hidden 3rd cave back in the woods where the blue room is. 

Time to climb in and swim to the blue room.

Mahalo for visiting!

Monawiliwili Falls

It's been a while since I posted a picture of a hike I've been on.  So here are a few pictures of the trail back to Monawiliwili Falls.  Typical Hawai'i...different day...different waterfall (yes, it's a tough life I live).   I didn't take many pictures of the falls since they were really crowded with people.

The trail constantly had electric wires crowding the pictures...bummer.

Monawiliwili Falls

Mahalo for visiting.  Much aloha til' next time.