Family Camp Weekend/Hiji Falls

This past weekend we enjoyed visiting with our church family up at Okuma for their annual Family Camp Weekend. In spite of the rainy, cold weather we had all last week, the weekend ended up being beautiful. It was so nice, in fact, that we were able to go on a hike of Hiji Falls. We've been wanting to do this hike for awhile, but the area was closed for renovations last time we tried to go.

There's no denying that this island has beauty all around. Mini waterfalls stand at the entrance of the trail...

...in addition to a sign warning about imminent death should one attempt to jump in the falls.

Since it had rained all week, it was extremely lush.

The hike itself is pretty short and most of it had wooden stairs or walkways, but they didn't distract from the beautiful scenery.

Here's the view looking down from the suspension bridge. There were little brooks and rivers all over the place.

I love this picture - the blue of the water is so crisp - and it's not photoshopped. It looked like this in real life! How very blue!

Overall, the hike was pretty easy, although there were a few obstacles along the way. One such obstacle was this tree that was not happy about the trail getting in the way.

Oh, and did I mention that I went on the hike with a bunch of GUYS! Apparently, the rest of the wives stayed back to stay with napping children or hang out. I guess I missed that memo. Here are my hiking buddies on the suspension bridge.

Although Hiji Falls is not huge, it is still lovely to look at and admire. The trek was worth it.

After the hike, we headed back to Okuma for some R&R and a cookout with our church family. We had a great time visiting with friends - some we've known for years, others we're just getting to know - and were surprised with a beautiful sunset on the ocean.

Yeah, it doesn't get much better than this. Thank you, Lord, for a great weekend!