Alright. This is my LAST Hawaii post... kinda sad, huh? It's taken me longer than I initially planned to get all of these up, but it's allowed you all to savor each experience ;)

At the start of our journey on the Hana Highway, we stopped by a colorful fruit stand where I tried my first passion fruit. You eat the seeds, like with a pomegranate, and the tart flavor is incredible. It's my favorite tropical fruit by far!

Luckily, at the fruit stand, April grabbed a map of the Hana Highway....otherwise, we wouldn't have known to stop by the bamboo forest. Besides the multitude of cars parked by the side of the road, there was no way of knowing it was there. It was amazing to walk inside the dense forest of tall, skinny bamboo -- almost surreal.

The highway was filled with tight curves, slow speed limits, and many times where we'd have to yield for cars coming in the opposite direction. Every part of it was breathtaking! This felt like the Hawaii you'd see in movies (we even came close to seeing some locations that were in Jurassic Park!). It was a beautiful way to end our adventures.

We spent the day with her friends, Laenette and Lakme.  Lakme showed us around her ranch and then we headed out to Waipio Valley where Laenette and her family have a little taro patch.

Posing in front of Laenette's home. I was pretty impressed. They run their home completely off of solar power. Pretty sweet. (L-R Laenette, Lakme, Lakme's niece, my mom, my tutu)

Checking out Lakme's garden

Do Hawaiian cows look happier than regular cows? If I was a cow, I'd want to live in Hawaii :D

Overlooking Waipio Valley

See that black thing in the bottom right corner? That's the console/grill thingy on the 4 wheeler I was riding on. And my mom was driving! I never really thought of my mom as someone who would enjoy driving a 4 wheeler, but she loved it.

The "house" next to the taro patch.

There were guava trees everywhere. We just picked the fruit off the tree and ate it. It was tasty!

Apparently a scene from some Kevin Costner movie (maybe it was Waterworld? Not a Kevin Costner fan or I would know) was filmed on this beach at the mouth of the valley. Believe it or not, the water was pretty cold.