waimea falls

I didn't want to leave Hawaii without seeing and hopefully swimming in at least one waterfall.  Waimea Falls Park allowed me to do both of these things so I was pleased.  Zach had to sit this one out because Jimmy was asleep in the car. While I know he was a little sad to miss it, he did take a long nap too and he does enjoy a good nap.  It is a short hike to the waterfall, but there is beautiful scenery on the way and it is sort of like a botanical garden with lots of flowers and plants so I took lots of pictures.

Here are the Falls:

It is pretty deep water at the deepest point so the whole thing is patrolled by lifeguards.  I was also such a wimp that I took a pool noodle with me... I did opt out of the life jacket, however.  You are not actually allowed to dive off of the falls into the water (not that I ever would), but there is a picture of someone doing so on a website I found so I don't know how anyone managed to pull that off.

Apparently, the falls where much bigger this time then a month before when Zach's family had been.  This made it much more impressive to look at, but much harder (and colder) to swim in.

This is about as close as we could get without getting pushed away by the pressure of the water.

We could kind of stand on the rocks right here, but the lifeguard will blow his whistle at you if you try to get in too close

... as Nano learned.

Way better than a nap in my opinion.... but I do love a good nap as well.