2/365

Incline Your ear to me, and hear my speech

Show Your marvelous lovingkindness by Your right hand,

O You who save these who trust in You

From those who rise up against them

       Psalm 17:6-7

Manoa Falls is on the island of Oahu in Hawaii.  The hike is 1.6 miles RT uphill but not terrible and it ends at a waterfall/pool.   Some steps along the way.  The trail was pretty wet near the top but otherwise pretty well groomed.  We did the trail on a Sat morning so it was very crowded.

We started out at a Tea House, then made our way 

 to the trail which was a short drive from the Tea House.

Off to the left of the trail to the waterfall is another trail leading to an arboretum which

I hope to get to some time this winter.  

There usually aren't very many flowers blooming in the arboretums in 

Hawaii during the winter, but they're pretty interesting

anyway.

Britt & Betty.  

Britt recovering from rotator cuff surgery and 

Betty being her usual self.

The Waterfalls

70/365

A couple of weeks ago, I signed up to attend a photo field trip today to a location that is a short hike to a really beautiful waterfall.  After my hike yesterday I was pretty weary and half determined not to get up at 5:15 am this morning to get to the carpool location on time.

But then I thought that if I didn't go, I'd just sit around the house, bored and unproductive, so why not get up and go?

Although it was very cloudy and drizzly this morning, it never actually rained, thank goodness. 

The cloudy conditions contributed to the intense colors of the foliage and rocks, and it was easy to 

avoid the sky at this particular location.  So all in all, it was a good day

and I'm glad I convinced myself to get out of bed and get there on time.   

I don't know the people in this first image, but I love the image anyway.  I love how they are relatively sharp, while the waterfall in the background and the tree branch in the foreground are soft.  

I recently purchased Photoshop Elements 10.  It has some fun special effects that are very easy to do.  Since the images in most of my recent posts have been straight, traditional images, I decided to try a couple of the special effects in Elements 10.  All but one of the images in this post have had an effect applied.  Such fun.

Friday Hike

We started out bright and early (not that it was bright, but it was early) on Friday for our weekly hike. The destination was one of the trail heads for Mt. Marcy. Our fearless leader wanted us to experience the beginning of the trail to Mt. Marcy so we could get the feel of what the entire hike would be like when/if we do it later this summer.

We finally got there, got all our gear ready, and began, hoping that it wouldn't rain while we were on the trail. About 2.2 miles from the trail head is Marcy Dam.

This stream was flowing without hesitation after all the rain we've had. It was really beautiful.

After arriving at the dam, we ate lunch while Jane consulted the guide book to see how much farther we would try to go. According to the book, another two miles would get us to a waterfall, and we would be a little over halfway to the summit. (This is the lake as seen from standing on the bridge over the dam.)

So off we went, up, Up, UP, over rOcKs and through mud. Oh, by the way, did I mention that we went UP? We never did make it to the waterfall, but the distance we did cover took about a mile an hour. I finally gave up.

It was a good thing we stopped when we did. After going to a diner to eat, and then driving a little over two hours to get home, I finally arrived at my house at 10. If we'd gone any farther, it would have been close to midnight before I got home.

Anyway, we tried to calculate how far we walked, and the consensus is that we walked about 8.5 miles. Whew! By the way, it didn't do much more than drizzle during our hike. Yeah!