Capturing the Moment

  A beautiful Chinese cemetery sits atop a green hill deep within Manoa Valley. Also known at Lin Yee Chung Manoa Chinese Cemetery, this spot is open for visitors until 6pm daily. Heidi and I had turned back from doing a late Manoa waterfall hike due to some rain showers so we decided to walk around the cemetery grounds instead.   I had been here before but never close to sunset. The low sun cast long shadows on the gravestones and gave the entire scene an ethereal aura. We could look down the valley towards the ocean and see the high rises of Waikiki, but it seemed very far away from our serene spot. Giant plumeria trees offered easy pickings for flower offerings for the deceased. And intricately carved animal statues stood guard over some of the bigger graves. At the top of the hill stood a huge banyan tree and the grave of Lin Yee Chung , the grand ancestor.   Heidi and I walked around for a while, never seeing another soul. In our exploration we stumbled ...

Manoa Falls in Action   There are two types of sightseeing trips that you can do on a really rainy day in Oahu. The first is just to accept the rain as part of the tropics and get soaked, while the other options keeps you in the dry confines of you car. Either one can be pretty incredible, and who knows, maybe you will be lucky enough to have two rainy days here to try both. Rainbows and Honolulu Kualoa Ranch   Hiking to waterfalls can be a muddy endeavor but the payoff will be a fierce amount of water boiling over the falls. Throw in some rainbows that we typically get in the valleys on rainy days and you will have a Hawaiian day to remember. But if you aren't the getting wet and muddy type the alternative can be just as breathtaking. Here is what I suggest. Drive up and over the Ko'olau mountains into Kaneohe and make your first stop the Byodo-In temple. The picture I took on this page was from inside the car without ever getting wet. It is always a beautifu...

The muddy trail   A clear, sunny sky over the Ko'olau Mountains and Manoa Valley is a rare sight. Some years this area sees more than 200 inches of rainfall. I found myself in Manoa today picking up some food, but once I saw the clear skies I launched into an impromptu adventure. Luckily they are easy to find here in Hawaii.    There is a well known hike in back of Manoa valley that leads to the Manoa waterfall, or Waihi in Hawaiian, but there are lots of other hikes that criss-cross the rainforest covered mountains here. I stumbled upon the entrance to one of them called the Pu'u Pia trail. Moss growing around everything See the bug?  Pu'u means 'hill' in Hawaiian so I should have known the trail would lead me straight up. And I should have known that it might be a muddy path since it is in the rainforest and it has been raining for a week straight. So despite knowing this I trudged on despite wearing my usual hiking shoes...flip flops. Luckily ther...