Well as per usual, we got up quite early in the morning to head out somewhere beautiful and come back sweat soaked.  This time we went to the Manoa Falls Rainforest that sits in the middle of Oahu.  It’s a rainforest, a for real rainforest, and since the only reference point that Ron or I had to a rainforest was Jurassic Park, we never ceased whistling the soundtrack and quoting lines.

The main trail that leads to a waterfall is the Manoa Falls Trail, so obviously, we took that.

I’m not really sure what that sign said, but the tree ate it.

“Where’s he going?”  “When you gotta go, you gotta go.”

I very much expected a T-Rex to emerge around the corner at this moment.

That’s a big ol tree.

Eventually we hit a clearing where you could see the waterfall in the distance, and in that moment, it’s hard not to immediately feel like a 14th century explorer looking for a fabled lost city.

And then we made it to the waterfall itself.

Since it only took us about 30 minutes to get to the falls, we weren’t sure what to do with the rest of our time (after all, it was only like 8:45am at the time).  Then we spotted another trail that started at the falls.

So we decided to start heading down that one, having no idea where it went.  It was clearly more of an advanced hiker kind of trail.

With those kind of views, we soon realized this was a great decision.  We would soon learn it was also an exhausting decision.

As you can see, this trail was a little tighter.

This was where I thought we may have found an Ent.

There’s me standing next to it for perspective.

and Ron

Well what we didn’t realize was that this trail went up the side of a mountain.  I’m not sure how far we hiked, but it had to be a couple miles, all uphill.  So shirt, prepare to be completely soaked in sweat again.

Eventually we reached the top, or at least what we decided was the top.  Another trail started

but since we had no idea where this one would end up, we decided to head back.  On the way back, I spotted a huge tree with this:

Carved into the tree was “Corrine”.  While not spelled “Corinne” it was still quite weird (it also happened to be the same day as Corinne and my 4 month anniversary, a new record for me and relationships).

So we headed back down the mountain and back through the Manoa Falls Trail.

Needless to say, I was a little enamored by the place.

So the end credits played in our heads, and we left the prehistoric land to be picked back up by Alan and Junko.  We had a lovely lunch of Korean BBQ and then chilled out for the afternoon (watching the night games of the baseball playoffs in the middle of the afternoon.  weird)

At one point, I spotted a little lizard outside on the deck.

Later that night, Alan and Junko’s housemate Patty took us to her rowing practice.  We were running a little late, but after a short lesson

we got to go out on the water.

That night Alan cooked yet another amazing meal (we’ve been quite spoiled), and we chilled out, as the next day would no doubt involve waking up early and being covered in sweat.