Day 11 - A Special Day

Last night was the first night it really rained and we kept the van doors closed. Fortunately we had a fan and AC unit we could use that ran on the battery system. In the morning I walked around the property and took some photos of all the flowers then we quickly left early to see rainbow falls. The reason for this name is because if you arrive early enough and the conditions are perfect you could see a rainbow in front of the falls. We had the timing down as we arrived, we just needed the conditions to be right. We hiked up to the top viewing point where we admired the falls and to our surprise, saw the rainbow appear. It was a small one, but definitely there and better than nothing at all. We next headed to Akaka Falls and of course, stopped along the way. One place we stopped was what looked like a cave going straight through the mountain with a river running through it and a waterfall. We later found out this was a lava tube with a river and that we could have hiked down and swam in it. I’m not so sure we would have though, it was running pretty fast and you don’t test Mother Nature around here.
Akaka Falls is a very large waterfall comparable in size to some we saw in Maui, but not one we could hike to the bottom of. This was more of a side of the road fall with a short 20 minute hike. It was impressive to see, but we would have liked it much better if we could get closer.
Today included several more stops on our route so I will continue with a more structured approach for the sake of blog length. We stopped at a goat farm where they make cheese and anything else you can think of including fudge. After a few goat pics we were off to Umauma Falls. This was an impressive 3 drop falls located on private land where you can also zip line, 4 wheel, and horseback ride. We just opted for the self guided walk, and again could not get to the bottom of the falls. At the main office there was also a cafe where I was able to try a Hawaiian delicacy, rice topped with spam and wrapped in seaweed. Yum!! Back in the van we saw there was a cave along our route according to our map. Once in the area we had trouble finding it, until we made a second pass where we thought it could be and Annemarie says there, pointing to a hole in the mountain on the side of the road. Adventure seekers we are, we quickly parked, grabbed our flashlights and entered what was really just an opening in the rock. . Now I could say we fearlessly wondered for hours exploring the cave but really we never went further then the light shone from the entrance, even though we had enough flashlights to last a week in there. Once we saw the multiple directions you could take we decided we didn’t want our vacation involving a cave rescue so we left to continue our journey.
This next part of our travel story is one of the most special. We weren’t really sure where we were going to stay because it’s hard to know what you are getting with the county parks. Not liking 2 that we checked out, we decided to go further up the coast to one Annemarie had seen on the map. We knew this was our camp for the night when we saw it quickly parked with a waterfront view. But the special part came as we discovered this was where a group of locals gathers weekly for a Ukulele circle. Yes, not a drum circle, a Ukulele circle. It was like our own private concert. They sung and played a lot of old classics, making for a nostalgic evening as Annemarie remembered songs her dad enjoyed and i remembered hearing them growing up. During this symphony of Ukulele’s, I saw spinner dolphins leaping out of the water as they made their way down the coast. Shortly after we had a magnificent sunset that was the icing in the cake for a great day.Okumaya devam et