Waimea Falls and Beach

(All photos are at the falls)

What a great day.  Madelyn stayed home and hung out with Daddy, while Mommy and the other three and g-ma and I went for an outing. Waimea Falls has a beautiful botanical garden with an abundance of tropical flora from many different areas. At the end of the trail is a waterfall, with swimming. Very cool. It was an economical outing, too, as the family purchased an annual pass to the facility, so only Grandma and I had to pay admission.

I was a little frustrated, though. I would have liked to have spent more time in the pool and less behind the lens. That just wasn't working out, though.  It turns out to be just as well, as the mild sunburn on my shoulders would certainly have been worse had I spent more time out in the sun.

My Facebook page has some different pictures of this outing.

After we finished with the falls, g-ma caught the shuttle back down to the entrance while Mommy and I walked with the kiddos. But as g-ma was the only passenger on the extended golf cart that served as a shuttle, the driver stopped as she passed us walking and offered to let us ride. We put the grandchildren on board with grandma while Cassie and I continued our walk.


We weren't sure whether a trip to the beach was still in the cards after we finished at the falls.  We had given up on it due to the lack of a parking space, when two young men walking past from the beach let us know they were parked in the last spot on the right.  There was a very light mist which our daughter informs us is the predominate form of rain here during the summer, but we decided to risk the beach anyway.

It turns out there were very strong waves breaking right at the shore, so the kids couldn't really get in, and g-ma wasn't interested in braving those conditions either.  However, the kids did stay at the edge of the water, letting the waves wash over their feet and more.  A couple of times the undertow started to carry one or the other of them out, but I was positioned in the water where I could grab them quickly and return them to safety. Then we had them go further up onto the shore with grandma while Mommy and I swam a bit and body surfed a couple of waves.

All in all, it was a really fun day. On the way back to the car, we saw the greatest rainbow! It seemed extremely close, between us and the nearby mountain, and was a pretty flat section of arc. Unfortunately my camera and phone were in the car, and by the time we got back there it was no longer visible.