Hawaii, Day 3

Our day began with a drive to the Valley of the Temples at the foot of the Koʻolau Mountains.

The mountains were mindblowingly huge and beautiful. The whole temple and burial ground area was very peaceful and calming.

After wandering the grounds for a little while, we headed into Kailua, where we had sushi for lunch. S. was quick to point out the side of "mac salad" that apparently comes with everything in Hawaii whether you order it or not. Good to know!

Our next top was Bellows Beach. The moment we parked the car, it started pouring down rain.

We woefully watched the rain through the car windows, but it stopped a few minutes later. Hooray! We relaxed in the sand for a few minutes before deciding to brave the water. It wasn't nearly as cold as the water at Chun's. S. explained that Chun's is a reefy bottom and Bellows is a sandy bottom, which means at the latter we could swim without fear of being slammed into a volcanic rock and dying. The waves were super strong and knocked us over multiple times, but it was very fun and thrilling and outstanding in that way that only being smashed around by ocean waves can be. S. yelled, "The Pacific isn't very pacific!" We took lots of pictures of ourselves throughout.

We swam until we couldn't swim anymore, and then we headed home along a winding mountain road. We pulled over immediately when we saw a sign reading "Scenic Point." It was scenic, alright. It was the Halona Blowhole, and it was gorgeous and breathtaking and all of those other adjectives that don't begin to capture what it felt like to stand up there.

After sufficiently taking in the glory of the view, we drove home through a very ritzy part of the island. We stared with mouths agape at the HUGE movie star mansions on the mountain and decided to try to see if we could get up there. We could not, as we would learn from a security guard who laughed in our faces. It was called Hawaii Loa Ridge. In my mind, the stars of Lost live there.

We got back to the house, showered, ate pizza, and collapsed. It was another really exhausting and really wonderful day.