June 16

I did head out for a run in the rain. Ran along the river and it was exquisitely beautiful. Truly running through the jungle. Came back and swam in the pool and sat in the hot tub. We had a little breakfast at the AirBnB and then got packed up and hit the road. First stop was the Hawaiian Botanical Bioreserve and Garden. What an incredible place! Flowers and trees that continue to blow your mind. It is so well maintained. The guy that started this bought 17 acres and cleaned up all the trash, old cars etc on the property and created this garden. You walk through the garden down to a view of the ocean. So beautiful. Just loved it and took a lot of flower pictures to prove it. Nothing like tropical flowers. They are so unique. After leaving the Garden, we drove to the Akaka Falls State Park. This is a 442 foot water fall with cliffs on all sides. No way to hike to it but the trail gives you a beautiful view. Short hike in and out but well worthwhile. Stopped for a latte at a true hole in the wall espresso store. These little towns with worn out buildings look like something out of a movie. Drove the rest of the way to our Air BnB in Honokaa. It really isn't in Honokaa - about 8 miles beyond in the heart of the jungle. Difficult to find and really difficult to believe you are going the right way as it looks like you are driving deeper and deeper into nowhere jungle. But find it we did. The sign on the "office" door obviously wasn't the office but a locked up room of junk. We wandered around the property and finally knocked on a door that looked like it might be the place. A skinny older woman covered in pain patches that looked like life had not treated her well showed us our room. The view from this room is nothing like you've ever seen. Beautiful jagged cliffs joining the shoreline. Realizing that we were pretty hungry and has not eaten yet other than our small breakfast, we started trying to figure out where to eat. Honokaa had a couple of restaurants but the hours are bizarre. We found an Italian restaurant that closed at 5 so we made a "reservation" for 4:45 and headed in to eat. The food was good but we still can't figure out why a restaurant that serves dinner closes at 5. Maybe leftovers from Covid? Came home after and were treated to a beautiful sunset.

June 17

It poured, and I mean poured. rain all night and it was still going strong in the morning. By about 7:00, I was going stir crazy and told David I had to get out of the room. He was a willing participant. We packed up all our stuff for hiking and swimming and hit the road. We drove to Waimea which was so cold and windy that I had to wear a jacket but we finally found a place to eat that was open! It did not disappoint either. Delicious coffee and a breakfast salad. Loved it. Drove on to Anaehoomalu Bay. Wow. This is where all the big resorts are - Marriott and Hilton. It was only about 10:30 and it was too cold and windy to even think about swimming. We got back in the car and drove down the road and did the Kiholo Bay hike. It looked like the desert with scrubby trees and volcanic rock but we ended up on the water which was beautiful. Saw five turtles swimming in the Bay which was awesome. Too rough here to swim and it was getting hot. Hiked out and headed to Hapuna Beach State Park. This beach was divine. Soft and silky sand with water that was clear and turquoise. Felt divine. We stayed in the water for a long time.....until we decided that maybe we better get out of the sun. Got out and headed back home. Decided we better eat dinner before we got back to our place with all the weird hours and difficulty finding restaurants. Stopped at a craft beer house and had more good food! We just haven't had any bad food anywhere. It was only 3:30 but we had pizza leftover from the Italian restaurant the day before. We headed home after stopping at the market and buying a couple things. Got in pretty early and decided to relax and watch TV and eat leftovers. It was a nice way to end the day.