Maunawili, and Coffee Wildcrafting (part 1)

Yesterday in the AM we saw Grandma E for a little kid-spoiling time and visiting time.

Once she'd left, we decided to go hike again, this time at Maunawili. This hike is in the mountains and is often seriously mud-covered, but we thought that since we'd had no big rainfall in the past week it should be ok. Ha.

Before we could leave, BittyPrincess interrupted the process by pulling a stool down on her face (ouch) and giving herself a nice bruise. It will probably be visible in any future photos for this trip. She rallied over saimin and an episode of Fairly Oddparents, and we were on our way.

When we started it was overcast. I got one picture of the trail before the madness hit:



By a little into the trail it was drizzling and the camera was stashed in a ziploc bag. Before we'd hit the halfway point it was pouring big fat thunk-thunk drops of rain on us. So much for there not being too much mud.

Still, we got to the falls without incident. The rain slowed to a light drizzle and I could get the camera back out. Almost everyone was game for a swim:




Well, not me. My belly is not actually that lopsided, I'm standing on two rocks and my hips aren't lined up with my shoulders.



Girliness was game for some jumping:



Uncle P, of course, had to jump from one of the higher points (not the highest at this site):



On the way back, OMG the MUD. We hadn't actually slogged through or detoured around (too much foliage to just walk alongside the path) anywhere NEAR that volume of mud on the way to the falls, it had collected/mudded-up(?) in a big way since then. Since I didn't want to risk the camera, again, no photos except for two as we left the trail:




And now, the coffee adventure begins

We found wild-growing coffee plants about 1/2m into the trail:



On the way back, we collected a smallish bag full of ripe looking beans, so that we could see if we could process them ourselves:



The coffee beans were surprisingly easy to liberate from their berry/shell/whatever you call the red not-coffee-bean part:



Two days of drying in the sun and we'll be ready to figure out how to roast them.

Kaena Point

There is an interesting myth that you can drive "around" the island of Oahu. Pure myth, even if at some point some intrepid souls could make the journey. Even when we say we drove "around the island," what we really mean is that we drove around the eastern edge, up to the North Shore, and then through the center of the island from Haleiwa through Wahiawa back towards the south. Yesterday (Saturday) we decided to go hike at Kaena point, the big circle-island-road fail point. Our group requires two cars; had we thought about it beforehand, we could have parked at opposite sides of the point and each done the hike in opposite directions, swapping cars at the end; we didn't, so we hiked to the point and back again on the western (Makaha) edge.

Among our first sights on the trail at Kaena was a tourist who "has done this before" (probably over 30 years ago...) and who "comes every year" who didn't realize that there is no such thing as going around the West/North border (aka Kaena Point) to complete a circular drive around the island. They got stuck about 1/4 mile in. As we walked on we saw them get free of their ditch and start backing towards the trailhead.



On the trail:





BittyPrincess spent about 5% of the trail like this:



And my camera spent about 99% of the trail in my backpack.

We got to the nature preserve at the tip of the island, and did see some albatross, a few brave ones even nested pretty close to the trail:




Later we saw some of the birds in flight, but again, the camera spent 99% of the trail in my backpack.

The point itself:



And some Hawaiian Monk Seals (a critically endangered animal, probably not least because people don't seem to bother them at all):




Here are a few photos of an area where the road just doesn't even exist at all anymore:





A pause to explore a rock bridge:








Plodding our way back (OMG it was HOT!). Boyness and Girliness actually jogged portions of the trail with their Tutu, doubling back to meet us. You would never guess it by the time we got back to Tutu and Papa's house, what with all the swimming and running around they did...



And a last view to the point from about the halfway out, before we couldn't see it anymore.



The hike was heinously hot. I remembered it (from doing this about 13 years before) as a "thirsty" hike, so I brought 6 40oz water bottles and Tutu brought her camelback, but we still did the last half mile or so thirsty and out of water. Oh cruel world, the water wasn't potable at the trailhead, so we had to drive out before we got another dose (the dog was suffering particularly badly). So (and I know this happens occasionally) if you've reached this blog doing an internet search and are deciding to do this hike, LOTS OF WATER.

Despite professing extreme weariness, the kids bounced around and sang the whole car ride back. Swimming in the pool. Plate lunches at the beach for dinner. Lots of rowdy for kids who'd just been on a tiring hike. Apparently there is no wearing them out...ever.

Pillboxes

As promised, there was hiking yesterday morning. This one the kids LOVED, but it was rough on me.
















After, to the beach at Kailua again, this time in the official "beach park" zone.



A little swimming and a lot of exhausted laying-around in the afternoon. Girliness made garlic pasta (and rather imperiously informed her papa that steak would go well with it) for dinner. The game "Bananagrams" turned out to be great fun. And the kids, surprisingly enough, stayed up all the way until we enforced lights-out at 10pm.

Big Waves

On Thurs the waves were supposed to be 15-20' on the North Shore, so we went wave-watching. Or tried to anyway.

Overcast and angry at Laie Point:





Biggish waves but no clean break at Sunset:




Light lunch (shared a plate) at Giovannis, and then a stop for some swimming and out-of-the-car time in Laie.



Boyness drew us a sand fetus:



BittyPrincess countered with a mother-and-child drawing that, alas, was total nonsense to my eyes (and remained unphotographed).

Back to Tutu and Papa's house to hang with Aunty B and Uncle P and swim in the pool.

WAAAAAAY too much energy in the car during our drive time, so the kids have pretty much forced us to elect a difficult hike for today...

Bishop Museum

No pictures today. I took a couple, but they're of the kids dressing up as "good insect bad insect" in the native/non-native section, and they didn't turn out so great.

Well, ok, one token picture, the only decent one from the set:



We had meant to go hiking at the Maunawili trail, but the day dawned very rainy and overcast, so Bishop Museum it was. The kids got more than I expected from the planetarium and found a few constellations once it got dark.

Makapuu Lighthouse

Tuesday, we hiked up to the Makapuu lighthouse. The weather cooperated (overcast and windy), so it was only mildly miserable (and not completely grueling the way it was last time). It's whale season in Hawaii, and it was a great day to rest on the lookout points and watch a pod of whales at play. No pictures of that, though, because from that height/distance it just looks like photos of "ocean" without the special lenses.





We were going to head for Logs after that to swim, but saw at least three groups of 6-8 people heading that way, and that would have been too crowded (especially with the kids). And then the beaches were too windy all the way through Waimanalo (really, really windy and deserted), so we wound up in Kailua again. Already have photos of that.

On the way home, John's Store was open and the kids finally got their shave ice: