Hawaii, day eight

For our last full day in Hawaii, we decided to hike Manoa Falls, and I'm so glad we did! It was so beautiful and otherwordly. This was Keith's other pick as his favorite thing we did in Hawaii. It was a little muddy and slick, and I had visions of myself slipping and emerging from the hike covered in mud, but thankfully, that did not happen. Cassidy dropped us off at the base of the hike and then took Truman to the library while we hiked. In the above picture, there is a cool natural arch that grew over the pathway.

I just could not believe how green and tropical everything was. Completely different from our desert hike of the day before! Everywhere you looked there were gorgeous vines draping across the trees and pretty flowers. The vines behind Keith remind me of an elephant.

There was lots of bamboo growing along the path.

The falls are just visible behind us in this photo.

We made it to the top!

It was so pretty at the top. We sat for a while and ate lunch before we started back down.

On the way back down. Seriously, I felt like I was in a different world.

So pretty!

Cassidy picked us up from the hike, then dropped us off in downtown Honolulu where we toured the Iolani palace. It was a really cool building with an audio tour. The story of Hawaii's royal family was a little sad, although I noticed they certainly left out any negative information about the royals and how they came to power.

Same building from the other side, with a cool tree in front of it. This building is now completely surrounded by concrete and large office buildings, but apparently back in it's hayday, it had a beautiful ocean front view.

Across the street was this government building with a statue of king Kamehameha. Hawaii is the only state with former royalty and to have a palace.

It was our last night in Hawaii, so I took this picture off of Cassidy and Jame's lanai so I could remember. This was the view we enjoyed every night.