Waipio Valley

The hike down the valley road on Tuesday was very hard on my legs, but the beautiful scenery made up for it. The kids had fun playing in the river,in the waves, and digging in the sand. The beach is a black sand beach. Because of the volcanic rock on our island we have quite a few of these. I sat in the sand next to one of the many streams that flow through the valley. The sand has green sparkling olivine in it that you might not notice unless you were as tired as I was. I sat staring at the green glittering sand, the silver stream, and a dark cherry colored wild horse eating water hyacinths on the edge of the water.His mane and tail were dark black, and he had a white star on his forehead. He slowly sauntered down the river until he was about 20 feet from me, and then he slipped into the water, and gracefully swam across to the other side. I guess the hyacinths were greener there? The boys carefully crossed the river, and ran down the deserted side of the beach to swim in the waves there. The hike back up was so easy for the kids. It was a little more difficult for me hmmm, and felt like I was hiking straight up a wall at times. I was glad we had a good breeze, and the clouds shading us overhead while we hiked. We had Kealani and Arah pushing us up the hills too:-)Thank you Sarah and Y.B. for the photos!