Waimea Valley and the North Shore

Wednesday was my last excursion with Anna and kids before I left.  Mom came over for a few days on Tuesday, so she was there, too.  We headed up to the North Shore and stopped at Waimea Valley.  It's kind of like a botanical garden with a path winding up the valley to a waterfall that you can swim in.  The weather wasn't the best--it rained on and off, but it was still nice.

As we entered the park we saw a little pig which turned out to be a wild one that had been adopted by one of the park employees. It was a so cute.  Apparently it's going to grow to be huge, though.

I didn't take many pictures going up the trail because of the rain. At the top of the trail is this waterfall.  You're allowed to swim in the pool below.  I decided not to--it still wasn't very sunny, even though the rain had stopped--but Cole, Sydney, and Mack did.

Here's the brave threesome and some other people beneath the waterfall.

I took more pictures on the way back down.  The tropical flowers there were just amazing. 

These last two flowers are banana flowers.  Very weird looking. 

We all enjoyed seeing these Hawaiian moorhens.  Apparently they're an endangered species.  There was a little family of them there. 

It was fun to watch the chicks try to get across the pond. 

After Waimea we headed on down the road to a shrimp truck.  Shrimp trucks are plentiful on the North Shore.  They're these rather dingy looking trucks where you can get shrimp covered in garlic and butter--yum!  We made quick stops to look at a few things on our way home.  Below is an arch off the coast on the North Shore. 

This is Chinaman's Hat--another unique island.