Hawaii: Part 9 (Ka'ena Point State Park)

Yesterday I shared our first day in Oahu, which was pretty relaxed and low key.  For day two I had a little more planned!  We started our morning off right by walking to Moke's Bread and Breakfast, which was only a couple blocks away from where we were staying.  I had read that their lilikoi (passion fruit) pancakes were amazing so I was eager to try them...unfortunately, there was a passion fruit shortage while we were on the islands.  Insert sad face!  But as a substitute they were serving up mac-nut pancakes, which were A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!  See for yourself here, though the picture doesn't begin to capture just how magical they were!  If you're on Oahu definitely make a trip to Kailua for some pancakes at Moke's, because they are awesome (and I know my pancakes!).  Plus, our waitress was probably the nicest person we encountered on the whole island!

Anyway, after breakfast we made our way to the most western part of the island, Ka'ena Point State Park.  I had read great things about the park and that it was THE spot to see monk seals, but that the hike was a little intense because there is absolutely no shade.  Eh, who needs shade?  Who me...the pale white girl who burns just looking in the sun's direction?!  Nah!  I'm good, I've got my SPF 70, I'll be fine! [Lies, all lies!]  As I kept saying to Antoine..."ADVENTURE!!"

When you're hiking on the trail to your left are these beautiful, bright green cliffs/hills...

...and to your right is gorgeous, blue ocean!

Hiking selfie!

The ocean side is kind of a mixed bag...most of it is rocky with tidal pools (like this) and walk outs but every once in a while you'll come across a nice little beach area.

Here's the cute, private little cove where we decided to take a break and go swimming!

A lot of the trail was mud from some previous rain they had, but it was quickly baking in the sun, which I thought was kind of neat...

A rock with bits of coral embedded into it.

We hiked for about 5 hours...it was pretty intense!  And the whole time I kept saying "ADVENTURE!" the whole time, until the end because I was just plain exhausted.  We didn't get to see any monk seals, which was a bummer.  And this is the hike that left us both so badly sunburned that we were miserable for the rest of our trip.  FYI, Antoine didn't put on any sunscreen (BAD!) and I put on two thick applications of SPF 70 and still burned!  Not fair.  But even with the sunburns and the exhaustion I had a great time and I'd definitely do this hike again!  There were only a couple other people there and I loved the bright blues and greens and the crashing waves!  I'd definitely recommend it, but bring a sun hat and the highest SPF you can find and apply it every 30 minutes!

Well, that's it for this week.  And yay because today is essentially Friday for me (and I'm guessing most people out there)!  It's been a long week and I'm so ready for three days off!  We really don't have any plans this weekend, besides me resting up my back.  Have a great 4th everyone!