Day Eight, 4/19

It was the day we were to leave, but since our flight wasn’t until 10:30p we had the whole day ahead of us. While some would choose to relax on the beach (since there really wasn’t any of that during the whole week) I decided to go on one more hike. John stayed home to get things ready to go, return the rental car and snorkeling gear, etc.

I had mentioned that Ka’ena Point looked like an interesting destination. I didn’t know much about it, just thought it sounded interesting. It’s the westernmost point on the island. And it’s 6 miles roundtrip to get there.

On the way out there, everything was great. In fact, I finally saw the whales I’d been hoping to see! We had the beach to our right the whole walk out there, and happily watched whales breeching and spouting along our walk. We saw Hidden Beach, and once we reached the Ka’ena Point Wildlife Reserve, it only got better.

Though tired, thirsty, and hot we trekked through the sand past huge albatross birds to the rocks at the tip of the island. There we saw endangered Hawaiian Monk Seals basking in the sun. It was definitely a trip worth it’s weight in wildlife.

Other than the hike back to the car (seemingly endless, very hot, there may have been tears) it was awesome. But once we arrived home, I began to pack things away and realized it was time to go home.

We had dinner in Honolulu, grabbed a couple more souvenirs, and then settled in at the airport. It was (and continues to be) very sad for me. And John, too. Surprisingly we found out that we are, in fact, beach people. We really felt at home in Hawaii and loved every second. I will miss it and can’t wait to go back for more.

We didn’t sleep on the plane. Other than maybe an hour total. So we’d been up for well over 24 hours and we were beat! John headed to bed at 7p Sunday night, and I finished packing for my flight to West Virginia on Monday and finished writing my travel journal.

It was a really amazing, perfect vacation.