The Reason We Went

Man, between trying to catch up on 3+ weeks worth of blogs and doing our trip report, I’m getting behind just a bit. It’s hard to believe we’ve been back for almost 2 weeks, but here is the next installment of the Hawaii trip report. Thursday turned out to be a full day.

In the morning we went to Waipio Valley on the north side of the island. We wanted to go to the black sand beach at the bottom of the hill and see the valley from the bottom. To get to the beach and waterfall, you have to have a 4x4 or you can hike the ½ - 1 mile road. It has a whopping 25% grade and a few river crossings. Check out this guy’s pictures and you’ll see what I’m talking about. After making it down to the beach, we decided to take our snack break while sitting on the boulders and watching the waves. From the point where the freshwater river runs to the ocean, you have a great view of the valley and mountain tops. We hung around the beach for a little while and then started making the trek back to the top. I told Stacie that I was not ashamed to hitch a ride back to the top if available. A local guy in a Four Runner passed us and we asked for a ride. He was playing tour guide for some of his friends and kindly picked us up. He showed us around as well and took us over the river crossings to see great views and some taro farms. This was really cool of him because we were not able to make it to these places on foot. The ride to the top was very quick and this saved us enough time that we decided to hit the beach before the ceremony.

The condo had some boogie boards that we could use. We changed in to our bathing suits, grabbed our boards and headed for Hapuna Beach. This is a great family friendly beach that has a perfect setup for some body surfing. We had never done boogie boarding before, but it looked fairly easy. It was a blast! We only had a few hours before we had to get cleaned up for the wedding. We were having so much fun, I started to be disappointed that there wouldn’t be enough time to our fill. After about an hour and a half of playing, we realized that it was a lot of work and we had had enough. I spotted a good sized wave and suggested we end our day with one more great ride. This sucker was huge and it broke right over us. Not exactly the smooth ending we planned as we got completely thrashed underwater and Stacie damn near hung herself with the lead. This ass over tea kettle display filled Stacie’s head full of sea water, so she called it quits. I couldn’t end the day like that so I stayed out for a few more waves. Once I caught one more great long ride, I was ready to head back and get ready for the evening.

So, the main reason we went to Hawaii was scheduled for sunset. Chad and Joan got married at the Hilton for a sunset wedding. It was a beautiful outdoor ceremony and the rain held off until the very end. When a very light drizzle came, we all huddled near the chapel for about 10 minutes and had champagne. Luckily the weather cleared right up and we were able to enjoy the reception dinner by the lagoon. It was a great evening and Stacie and I got to spend time with my buddy Ted and his wife. I will definitely have to make the bike trip to Nashville in the coming months to visit with them again.