Nope. The meaning behind the title of this post is this...
It contains photos from the Second of our hiking excursions that we ventured on.
It also contains photos from not just one excursion, but Two.
And Last but definitely not least, it contains photos taken at the last place we visited on our last day on Oahu. (Sniff sniff).
Up first!...our hike to see Manoa Falls.
Manoa Falls is actually the largest accessible waterfall on the island of Oahu. And let me just say, the hike to get to it is a BEAR! We started out walking (no, let me re-phrase)...climbing hill after hill through a nearby neighborhood until we got to the base of this mountain...
And had we not been guided by a wonderful gentleman who has lived in Hawaii since 1973, we would have wondered when we were ever going to see this so that we knew we were on the right track...
He spent lots of time with our group, making lots of stops on the way to name plants, point out birds, and even show us what a coffee bean looks like...
Our hike through the rain forest was absolutely gorgeous! Everything was SOoooo green! There were huge ferns everywhere, tons of flowering plants, streams of water, and LOTS of stairs! Fortunately it had not rained in the last 24 hours, so everything was not quite as wet as we had anticipated. Honestly, if it had been, I have no idea how we would have made it through without slipping or falling. Those suckers were steep!
We finally arrived, and this is what we saw...
Once we got there, we spent about 30 minutes soaking it all in, taking pictures, ignoring and climbing over the rope that was up to keep us from getting too close, and being completely fooled into thinking that going back would be easier. We had an awesome time (aside from the arguments we had about setting our camera up on a tripod), and at this moment, I was truly appreciative for the two legs God gave me that could take me on the 2-mile, round-trip, "moderate" (yeah, right) hike to see such an a-mazing, incredible piece of His creation.
And now moving on to the last place we visited on our last day on Oahu...
This is the Kualoa Ranch.
I think this might just be my favorite of all of the places we went/things we saw. It's hard to say, but I'm going off of the fact that this would unquestionably be a "must visit again" place if we ever had the opportunity to go back. I also think it's because I could actually relate to what we saw here.
The Kualoa Ranch is a place where LOTS of popular movies and television series' have been filmed such as 50 First Dates, Pearl Harbor, LOST, Mighty Joe Jungle, The Karate Kid, Jurassic Park, Godzilla, and Gilligan's Island...just to name a few. Every time our tour guide would point out something to us, I was like, "No way! Get out! Really?! I remember that!, I can totally see this part of the movie in my head!" I was totally amazed by it all because I just love that sort of thing. Hopefully you'll recognize a few of these famous items too...
Just in case this one doesn't ring as familiar as some of the others, this is Mr. Miyagi's house from The Karate Kid (I had to have help on this one, so I thought I would give it away just in case).
And not only is it the place were famous movies have been filmed, but it truly is a working ranch. There were animals all over the place. You could even go horseback riding if you wanted to...and we definitely wanted to, but that tour would not have been the "movie site" tour, so we opted for the bus instead so we could see scenery such as these mountains...
coconut trees and a traditional Polynesion hut...
Turtle Island...
and Chinaman's Hat.
We definitely saved one of the best for last in this case.
And who knows...maybe one day we'll have the chance to go back and do it all over again ATV or horseback style!
A girl can dream right?
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