One Day on the Big Island: A Tale in Pictures

This weekend Bryan, Brian, Maiko and I flew to the Big Island to see Tutu and tool around a bit.

Saturday was chock-full of adventure and pictures.

All of us at Rainbow Falls in Hilo. Beautiful and sunny.
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Then we hit the Hilo Farmer's Market because it is one of my favorite things to do! We picked up Rambutans and envied those Hiloans for their affordable papayas.

Then Hilo reminded us that we're in Hilo and torential downpour ensued. We waited it out for a while and then got soaked running to the car to get out of town.
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We stopped in Lapahoehoe which was once hit by a terribly destructive tidal wave in the 40s that washed away an entire school. Today it is a beautifully peacefully point with gorgeous water. Check out those blues!

This is my brother. If I ever tell stories about how he annoys me or he's bad, envision him looking like this.

We were all set to take pictures with the beautiful ocean when Maiko shreiked at the top of her lungs to make us think the tidal wave of 2007 was going to sweep us to sea. I duck-and-covered and Bryan kept watch. In reality, the waves were more than 5 feet away and we didn't get a drop on us.

"Bryan, stop making silly fake faces!" exclaims Jenni.

Finally, a nice pic.
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We continued up north until we got to Waipio Valley, pictured above from the lookout point. You have to have a 4x4 to drive down so we planned to walk. All. The. Way. Down.

Uf! Can feel it in our knees. It is as steep as this picture makes it look.

Finally we hitched a ride with two punks in a pickup truck that blasted hard core rock all the way down. Bryan was particularly uneasy about accepting a ride because he is a firm believer in seatbelts. I practically pushed him in the truck and assured him you have to take risks to have a great time. Whatever, our knees couldn't have handled it anyway. And we arrived safe and sound at the bottom.

This is the valley. Absolutely beautiful.

Me. Looking all hike-y at the beach at the bottom.

Brian crossed the stream to get to the other side of the beach. Maiko refused. Bryan wasn't too into it. I gave it a shot but backtracked about half way across. On the other side Brian found some sort of alter like stones and then walked back across in his shoes.

This is the valley. It was all dreamy with mist and fog. But I was messing with settings on my camera and couldn't get the best light. How do you shoot something like this?

On our way back we headed down the river road until we spotted this waterfall, supposedly the tallest in the state. Next time we'll come back in the summer and with a 4x4 so we don't have to hike all the way back up the hill like we did. I was literally dripping with sweat. So gross.
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Following this day totally filled with adventure, we met our family for my cousin's daughter's 5th birthday party. And on Sunday we met my friend Jaisy in her hometown of Waimea where she treated us to a day at Mauna Kea Beach. It was perfect. We swam, relaxed, snorkeled and boogie boarded. We didn't take a single picture because we were having too much fun and relaxing too much. A perfect Day Two on the Big Island.