One of my favorite things about this trip thus far has been its spontaneity. True, I did spend quite a bit of time researching accommodations before we came, but since actually arriving in Hawaii we’ve been flying blind…. in a really good way. Everyday we get to decide what we want to do…it’s really fun….and so far everyday has been pretty perfect.
I loved our most recent hike because it wasn’t like the rest. For starters we decided to run it. It was suppose to be all paved, so we thought it would be easy. We started out, whizzing by all the tourists who I’m sure either thought we were super cool, or super crazy. Or maybe they just thought we were super dumb, because the paved path was about a quarter mile loop….the shortest run in history. That just wouldn’t do. We saw other unpaved paths, but they all had signs saying “remain on designated walkways”….so of course we took the forbidden paths….are you shocked? After all, we survived the forbidden road….this was child’s play :) We continued with our running, which became a little more difficult. We were running through rainforest. It was so tough and fun. I felt like a kid. We were crossing streams rock to rock, jumping logs, and running straight up at times. At some point the running stopped. The jungle became thick and the path was taking us deeper and deeper into the valley. Or at least we were taking ourselves deeper into the valley. There were multiple paths all going in different directions…sometimes up, and sometimes down. We were for sure lost, but we didn’t seem to care. We were having too much fun. At one point we stopped and I showed Jessica how to do a “hold up” on a skinny piece of tree…it was pretty funny. We also stopped close to the top where we saw some amazing climbing trees. Jessica and I each had our own to climb, and from our “tree houses” we could see the peaks of the IAO valley walls around us. All this time we hadn’t spotted a single other person…we had managed to leave the tourists behind us and got to explore the beautiful IAO Valley in a whole new way. I loved it. On the way back Jessica was in the lead ( I was responsible for getting us to wherever it was we were, it only seemed fair that Jess have a chance to lead- and get us back….some might say she got the shorter end of the stick for this one, after all, it was getting late, and now it sort of mattered which path we took back…no one wants to be stuck in a jungle at night). We set off, definitely not going the same way we came up (an impossible task given the random path picking we had done earlier). Jessica found an awesome route though, taking us to a clearing, and a path that ran right along the cliff edge of the valley (sorry for the visual mom). Don’t worry, we only stayed on this “slip and plummet to your death” path for a short while- Jessica does have some common sense and found us an alternate route, with some equally amazing views, just a little less risky. We hadn’t been hiking down long when we suddenly saw the parking lot….it was the oddest thing. At one point we were lost to the world, hiking through thick jungle, and a second later we were plopped right back into civilization….it was so strange how our adventure had ended so abruptly, nice path picking Jessica! It was funny coming out of the forbidden pathway covered in dirt and sweat and watching the reaction of some of the tourists….especially when we climbed over the railing right next to the sign that said basically to keep out…we’re such rule breakers :) We went back to our little B&B in Kula that night satisfied with our fun filled hiking day. We got cleaned up and treated ourselves to dinner in Lahaina at a placed called Cool Cats. We walked the streets of shops and restaurants for good measure. Whatever “kid-like” super energy we had possessed during our adventure run had surely left us, and we turned back into our normal, need to go to bed by 11:00 adult selves. It had been an all around great day.