Ka'ena Point

Ka'ena point is the westernmost tip of land on the island of Oahu. In Hawaiian, Ka'ena means "the heat." Ka'ena point is a spear-shaped protrusion into the Pacific Ocean. Some ancient Hawaiian folklore states that Kaʻena Point is the "jumping-off" point for souls leaving this world.

We have wanted to hike to this point for quite some time and we finally did it today. We weren't sure how far it was but after doing the hike and some research we discovered that the hike is 3 miles one way. The kids were shocked to learn that they hiked 6 miles today....they did a great job. They didn't even complain! (No complaining, amazing I know)

It was a gorgeous hike, right along the coast. We spent much of our time on the way to the point walking along the coast, looking in tide pools, exploring coves, etc. While walking along we saw this man made mud bog which looked like it had been crusted over for quite some time. As Steve and I passed beside it Cole asked if he could run down into it....I said "sure, its just dried up mud." Cole took off running down the slope when all the sudden we heard a thud. Much to our surprise it wasn't just dried up mud and Cole was up to his waist in thick nasty mud. Thankfully it was only up to his waist! While taking a mud bath Cole's shoe went missing, so the girls got in to help find it. Luckily they did find it so we could finish our hike.

Luckily we were next to the water and clean-up was easy. Is this not the prettiest bath you have ever seen?

Our kids have always been in great shape. Today they were showing us how strong they are. They are such show offs.

Cole needed two hands to lift the rock

Taylor could get it with one hand

Madi just needed a finger...she takes after her mom!

I told the kids to get dressed in clothes that they could wear hiking. I don't know what others wear but my kids think flip flops are mutli-purpose shoes and they choose to hike in them. About midway through our hike Cole's flip flop broke. Great....we don't have extra shoes and we don't want to turn around. Even if we did how is he going to walk all the way back to the car with one shoe? Lava rock is not friendly on the feet and we definitely don't want to carry him. We searched the area for anything that we could find to "fix" his shoe and this is what McGiver (Steve) came up with. It did the job! And it looks so good we don't even have to buy any new ones.
There were many areas where there had once been tide pools. All the water had evaporated and all that was left were piles of salt. It was amazing how much salt there was!

My cute family by an arch

Finally, we reach Ka'ena Point. It is amazing being able to sit and watch two coastlines at once. We saw whales breaching and were lucky to see and be very close to three monk seals sun bathing.

Another seal in the background (Havyn's keeping an eye on him)