It’s not often that Christin and I have the same days off together (although now that I don’t have a job it happens a little more frequently). Monday was one of those days.
There’s a hike nearby that a lot of people on the island talk about. On weekends the locals like to hike it and hang out at the end. It’s known as the “swinging bridges” hike, and it was pretty cool.
We started the hike early at around 9am. The day was very overcast and it looked like rain, but it turned out to be just cloud cover and the rain never came.
I’d seen pictures of the bridges before and I didn’t think they looked scary at all. But truth be told, they made me a little nervous when I was actually out on them. They’re higher up than they look. And they’re a lot more rickety than they look, too. Some boards looked like they have given way under people before, and some were almost completely loose from the cables holding them. It certainly made the hike a little more exciting.
Towards the beginning of the hike Christin got a phone call from work, so we stopped while she took the call. In just the minute and a half we stopped, swarms of mosquitoes gathered round and tried to take a bite out of us. It’s funny (at least I think it’s funny), but Christin for whatever reason seems to get more than her fair share of mosquito bites, and this occasion was no different. While I totaled 3 bites, Christin had around 6 or 7 on each leg, plus a few more on her arms. And she must be allergic as well – because instead of just little bumps she gets welts. I really felt sorry for her. And again, all the bites seem to have come during the first couple minutes of the hike when we weren’t moving. Poor thing.
At the end of the hike there’s a man-made waterfall, pictured below. To me the water looked a little dangerous so I swam cautiously. It was also some of the coldest water ever so I wasn’t in very long. I guess I need to come up one weekend when there are other people to see which parts of the water are safe to swim in and which are not. With nobody else around it was really a relaxing place to be.
After that we visited ‘Iao valley. It’s a common tourist attraction and it’s only about a 30 minute drive from home, but we’d never made the trip. The famous landmark there is the ‘Iao Needle. Really, the needle wasn’t too impressive, but the valley itself was beautiful. The mountains here reminded me of the mountains along east Oahu that I love so much.
The other thing we witnessed was the suicide of this local Hawaiian guy off of a bridge here. Just kidding. I guess there are a few locals that jump off the bridge for money. It was quite impressive – the fall must be 30 feet or so. I guess I’m just a chicken when it comes to heights, so that made the jump that much more impressive.
Anyway, that’s a day in the life. Sorry to hog the blog, but I just copied and pasted a post from my own blog (and if anyone's interested, you can go to http://heeble.blogspot.com/ where you can get more info on what we're up to here on the island). Aloha!
-Chris and Jeff
Hello Everyone! We are enjoying Virginia, here are some of the sights you are missing out on. We love visiting D.C., but it is beginning to get really humid, and it does cut back on the fun factor. Thank goodness for the apartment swimming pools and built-in AC. We went to Ocean City when the family came out for a visit, and to Monticello, we'll have to see about getting some photos. It was great to have them share this experience with us. The East Coast is amazing. Even just driving down the road is interesting because of the historic homes and tree-lined roads. We are hoping to make the most of Heidi's and my last month here, we're planning to go up to Baltimore for a fabulous seafood feast, visit the National Archives and the Smithsonian, head back to the beach one more time, and hopefully see the fireworks on the mall in D.C. on the 4th of July. The time goes by so quickly, and Heidi is getting big! (It's the only time saying that will be appropriate, so I had to throw it in) She is very ok with leaving the doctors here and returning home to familiar territory. Sorry our photos aren't as picturesque as Hawaii! But we do what we can.
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I made it onto the blog!! Ed, Josie, and I are still doing great. Josie is posing for pictures for me. Not sure if she likes it. But here are a couple that we thought were cute. She still has no teeth and she inchworms and trys to crawl and loves her new walker. She follows me around the kitchen hitting my toes with it.
