The Pursuit of Jackieness: Maunawili falls & Lanikai Beach

So while my buddy's brother was down in the beginning of the month, we decided to go for a hike. Our destination was Maunawili Falls, and later, Lanikai Beach. I was excited for the hike since it had been forever that I did one...and I was looking forward to the cliff jump at end into the waterfall. The night before, as I usually do, I looked up where we were going online, and read some yelp reviews. Maybe I shouldn't read so much...because I learned that at this particular spot, and several others in HI, people had gotten sick from a bacteria in the water. Now, I should mention, I'm not completely insane, I know that more of this kinds of stuff happen then I realize...and probably at many places I've been to, or often go, but reading about it brought it to the forefront of my mind. I suppose sometimes ignorance is bliss! So, after my reading, I decided I'd see how the hike went, and how the water looked when we got to the end-- a go with my instincts kind of thing.

The hike was ok, nothing too challenging. Watching the brothers run amuck brought some entertainment to it. There were a few stops where you got a couple nice views...I mean, it's Hawaii, every view is pretty much beautiful. And then, pretty quickly, we were at the falls. There were a ton of rocks leading up to it, and it reminded me of my visit to HI with my family last year. We went on The Road to Hana tour in Maui, and towards the end you stop off at the Seven Pools, and there were rocks you had to go through to get to the water that were similar to this. Anyway, we got through the rocks, and I found a pretty descent size one to cop a squat on and watch some people in the water. I'm usually not one to pass up the chance to do anything remotely dangerous...so it was kind of a bummer not to jump from the cliff with the brothers, but, I just wasn't feeling the way the water looked. In Maui, at the Seven Pools, the water was pretty clear, but here the water was much more murky. I'm sure no one in the water that day got sick, and I'm ok with that. I learned some time ago to just listen to my gut. Then we made our way back through the hike, and to the car...and over to Teddy's Bigger Burger for some much needed food!

This was my first time at Teddy's Bigger Burger..and I have to say, I was underwhelmed. It wasn't bad, I suppose I just expected more. I'm not a big burger person to begin with, but then, they fail to put my bacon on my burger, which I would have just dealt with...but then I saw that they had charged me extra for the bacon, and it sure wasn't a couple cents! So I went back up and showed them my receipt. They were very nice about it of course. But, even with my couple pieces of bacon (which were a little sorry looking) the burger was just ok. I suppose no burger has stolen my heart like the one at Five Guys! My dreamsicle float was pretty good though!

After food, Jas and I changed into our swim suits in the bathroom of Starbucks...hey, ya gotta do what ya gotta do! And we were off to the beach. Lanikai (which means heavenly sea) is known to be one of the most beautiful beaches in the world, so I had been looking forward to finally getting there. And I will say, this place didn't disappoint. It is absolutely gorgeous. And pretty perfect for a good game of waboba. If you haven't heard of a waboba ball before, no worries...I hadn't either. It's basically a ball, almost the size of a tennis ball, that's made to play catch in the water, because it bounces pretty awesomely off of it. After a rousing game of waboba, and a bit of relaxing we decided it was time to head home, after a pretty awesome, busy day!