During conversation, New Jersey came up, and I started talking about the new "Jersey Shore" show, and how the people on it were really just disgraces, and really quite offensive to Italians. Calling themselves Guidos and walking around with their shirts off. Only problem? The other dude in the car was Italian. ouch. And so was the driver. Well half-Italian. In any case, a tad embarassing, since I wasn't totally eloquent about describing the show and probably came off as an ignorant WASP. Oh well, 4 more hours in the car with these people, it's best to just not be awkward about it and get on with life.
The tour was good at the beginning.
Checked out the Pali lookout where King Kamehameha claimed victory back in the late 1700s and unified the Hawaiian islands.
Oh, and I think it was the location for something from Lost. More and more Lost scenes, and then off to Kualoa Ranch, to pick up another couple and do the final leg of the tour. Finally! Another non-Lost fan. The girlfriend of the 3rd couple was not a Lost fan, and was indulging her boyfriend. Time to commiserate.
Kualoa Ranch is beautiful,
and also happens to be the site of a bunch of movies. None of which we really cared about (50 first dates? Godzilla? You, Me and Dupree? Come on. You don't care either). Well, Jurassic Park was filmed there, too. That's half cool. All in all, a decent tour. Lots of Lost scenes re-enacted.
For more "Lost" pics, check out:
http://themonsterismyconstant.blogspot.com/
http://themonsterismyconstant.blogspot.com/
What to do after spending 5 hours in a Hummer? Gotta get a hike in. So we eat lunch quickly, then head out to the Ewa Forest Reserve high above Pearl City.
The goal? Waimano Pool, which sits on the valley floor of the mountain range. It's like a secret swimming hole, complete with a mini waterfall. And yes, I said valley floor...not what you'd call an easy hike. Who cares about the looming marathon in 5 days.
We head off, and follow the directions to Waimano Pool, but take a turn to early, and miss a crucial trail sign. We spot another trail sign, which I mistake as the sign that we're looking for (it's not), and we continue to follow the directions, misguided. After heading down into the valley, we realize this can't possibly be right. The trail isn't well defined, and climbing down the slopes is not easy by any stretch So we head back up, and decide to follow the original path, and just take it to where it leads us.
After a while, we find this gorgeous stretch of land on the ridge of one of these magnificent mountains, and just sit there for 30 minutes, taking it all in. I can hear the birds calling on the mountain on the other side of the valley. It was unbelievably quiet. Mountain ranges as far as you could see. They had this unique structure, too. Reminded me of soft-serve ice cream. You know the ridges that the soft-serve dispenser creates? yea, kinda like that.
After finding our inner peace, we start to head back, and amazingly find the original trail sign that we had missed earlier. "It's only 3/4 of a mile away!" Let's go for it. Only problem. It's 3/4 of a mile downhill to the valley floor (~700). That's not too bad, but that's not a quick 3/4 mile walk. It'll take time. And it's late in the day (remember the 5 hour tour, getting lost hiking, and then finding inner peace?). We head down anyway. Man, it is down, down, down.
We get a way's down (maybe halfway), and the sun is starting to fade a bit. Begrudgingly, we decide to call it off. Not this time Waimano Pool. No time to get caught in the dark in a Hawaii mountain range with little food and water, no light, and no real sense of where exactly we are.
After an exhausting day, we grab some quick dinner, and call it a night.
No comments:
Post a Comment