You'd Think We'd Own Rain Gear

A weekend ago, I bailed on a girl's trip to Oahu. I told Brady I would rather do the Hanakapai Falls hiking trip and save the cash. Plus, I've wanted to do this hike again since Brady went with Ryan and Karen. Once I get something in my head, it has to happen, so even though it had been raining all week and the weather looked lousy that morning, we packed up and drove an hour and forty minutes to the trail head.

Everything started out nicely enough. Zachary loves to hike and he got going quickly. Kate loves the pack so she was all smiles and coos. I was finally on the north shore again, scratching a hiking itch. Brady was happy I wasn't shopping.

Then, the binkey fell in the mud:

We reached Hanakapai Beach and knew there was no way I could run back a couple miles and see the waterfall (my intended plan). The trail was muddy and tough to handle by that point, especially for Brady to take 2 kids on his own. By the time we got to our lunch spot, it was dumping rain. Pouring. Not just a drizzle. The good news is we had ponchos, umbrellas, and waterproof clothing.

Or not. We don't own rain gear. 5 years living on a lush, beautiful, and rainy island, and the best we've got is a $10 umbrella from WalMart. The umbrella stayed in the car.

Brady, Zachary and I did fine with it. I'd say it made the hike even more fun, in fact. Baby Kate did not agree, and she was sure to let us know. Poor little one.
Luckily, a few minutes after the sad faces above, she was snoring away and by the time she woke up, the rain was gone.
We had a sloshing good time the rest of the way back. The only other trouble we encountered was when a boulder the size of person's head came rolling down the cliff side and hit Zac in the back.


The rain has kept up. Last Monday, we had a "severe storm," which dumped 15 inches of rain in 5 hours, shutting down our highway up north and leading to a disaster declaration by the mayor. Our little island is resilient and all seems to be heading back to normal, despite continued rainfall.

There's still things to do. We get out the Play Dough. We sit in the hot tub and wait for our chocolate milk ocean waters to get clear again. We feel bad for tourists. We run around and splash in mud puddles with Zachary. We get soaked. Welcome to March!