Visit to Byodo In and Waimea Valley

Today sure was long! We went to Byodo In Temple on the Windward side first, then had lunch, then headed up to the North Shore to visit Waimea Valley.

Byodo In is a Buddhist temple here in Hawaii that's located in the Valley of the Temples. It's a beautiful structure that's modeled after a temple in (I believe) Kyoto, Japan. I've read that there are no nails in the entire building.

It's really a peaceful, tranquil place. There's a koi pond with swans and some very unfriendly peacocks.

The drive up to the North Shore took a little bit, but we headed up past (Historic!) Haleiwa. We got stuck in traffic right next to Waimea Bay (yep, the one the Beach Boys sang about.) It was pretty amazing because as we looked over the bay, we could see a pod of dolphins. We weren't sure they were dolphins at first since they weren't spinning, but swimmers were trying to get close, so we were reasonably sure (hopeful) that they weren't sharks. They started jumping around and splashing and that's when we realized they were really dolphins.

I've lived here for almost three years and never seen a dolphin in the wild. It was a pretty neat thing to see. (Just in case any one was curious, the lifeguards made the people get away, thankfully. In Hawaii, it's a crime to approach wild dolphins or sea turtles.)

Since we were in a moving car, I didn't get any pictures of the dolphins, but I did get a fairly decent shot of the waterfall at the top of Waimea Valley.

People were swimming all over the pool and hanging out at the bottom of the waterfall, but I managed to snap that photo.

All in all, it was a tiring day, but lots of fun. It was awesome to hang out with Lyndsey, who is just learning how to photograph. I don't think I captured anything truly amazing, but it was still a great day.