More Hawaii Pictures

This is the beautiful Waimea Canyon on Kauai...the Grand Canyon of Hawaii...so lush! How great are your wonders, oh God!!!!!!!!!! Thank you Lord, for creating such beautiful landscapes for us to treasure and enjoy on this earth. I can only imagine what Heaven will look like...
Mama & Kristi after dinner at a great north shore Oahu restaurant on our last night
GORGEOUS pineapples at the Dole Pineapple Plantation on Oahu...has anyone else ever seen this kind of pineapple before? There was a cool little garden that showed many varieties of pineapples, as well as diagrams of the growing process. I think it takes almost a few years to produce one pineapple. I could hardly believe it! No wonder pineapple can be an expensive fruit. But oh so delicious. We had so much fun eating pineapple chili dogs and pineapple slushy ice cream drinks...can't quite remember what that was, but it was yummy!
Erik, Melody, Melody's mom, Kim & Melody's dad hiking the Kanapali Trail on the Na Pali Coast of Kauai. Erik & I hiked this on our honeymoon 3 years ago, but I think we forgot that it was meant for advanced hikers! Mom, Dad & Kim were all such good troopers! And of course, little Kristi in the Kelty pack did a great job too, except for the last 45 minutes or so. She was exhausted after being in that pack and on the trail for a few hours. We didn't get to do the whole hike, which goes on for miles and miles, but we made our way to the top of the ridge where we could view the gorgeous Na Pali Coastline with its rugged textures. The wind was so gusty that day that we nearly were blown over as we got up to the top! And that is when we turned back.
This is the Hawaiian state bird, the Ne Ne. It is a goose of some sort, and kind of reminds me of the Canadian Geese that we see so much here in Minnesota. I was surprised to see these Ne Ne's walking around near the Kalalau lookout point at Waimea Canyon on Kauai. There was a small flock of them, and they were quite used to tourists as they hardly flinched when I took photos of them.