Almost Home

Today is our last day in Kauai. It has been a wonderful trip. The last few days the weather has continued to cooperate, and today it is cloudy and supposed to rain. We are glad to leave the island on a rainy day.

Two days ago, we spent the morning and first part of the afternoon on a Na Pali Coast boat tour. I have never been on a boat and wasn't sure how the motion would affect me, but I did fine and had a great time. We saw several animals: Hawaiian Spinner Dolphins, Giant Sea Turtles, and a whale that was way out there. We took in some spectacular views of the Na Pali Coast with all it's cliffs, beaches, sea caves, and waterfalls. We stopped to snorkel at a place called "the cemetery", which was the best snorkeling we have had yet. There were some really cool looking fish, and even a giant sea turtle swimming about 15-20 feet below us! That was really awesome!

After our boat tour, we headed west to a beach called Poli Hale State Park. This beach is 17 1/2 miles long and it is gorgeous. We got lucky because this beach has been closed for the last 5-6 months so they could repair the road, and they just opened it back up this week! Drummer Boy tried some boogie boarding, but the surf was rough and he got beat up in the waves pretty good. I just laid out on the sand and we walked along the beach some. We stayed to watch the sun set into the ocean, and then we headed back to the B&B, stopping for dinner at Waimea Brewing Co. on the way.

Yesterday was our canyon day. We drove up to Waimea Canyon and Koke'e State Park. The canyon is amazing. It's hard to describe the feeling of awe I got looking out over it. It's so expansive and so beautiful! We did a 3.5 mile hike to a waterfall, and got some breathtaking views on the way. We spent most of the day in the Canyon and State Park, getting back to the B&B just in time to clean up for our sunset dinner reservation at The Beach House. The food was excellent and the sunset was beautiful. It was the best meal of our trip.

Today we plan to do a little shopping for some souveniers, pack up, and maybe hang out at the beach one last time if the weather clears up. Our flight leaves at 7PM and we'll be back in Houston at 9:45AM. I'm ready to go home. We had a wonderful vacation, but I can't wait to see my girls!!

Keeps Getting Better

The last two days have been the best yet! The weather has been awesome (and they predicted a flash flood for this week). Small tidbit about Kauai: don't listen to the weatherman. Yesterday morning we decided to hike to the top of Sleeping Giant Mountain. The trail was 1.75 miles long and climbed about 1,000 feet. It was a little workout for me and Drummer Boy :) The trail was lined with strawberry guava trees, which are in season, so Drummer Boy and I had a nice little snack as we went along. The views from the top of the mountain were incredible. The hike was great, but the day was only going to get better.
After lunch, we went up in a helicopter and toured the island. That was so cool! Definitely the most fun thing we have done yet. We saw beaches and waterfalls that were incredible. We flew into the Wai'ale'ale crater. We flew over Waimea Canyon and Koke'e State Park. We flew around the Na Pali Coast. It was awesome. Drummer Boy took about 140 pictures!! When we were up in the air we noticed a great beach for sun and snorkeling. So, after landing we headed straight there to finish off the afternoon. On the way back around the island to our B&B we stopped off for some b-b-que at Scotty's on the Beach. Finally we arrived at our next B&B and settled in for the evening because...

Saturday morning started off with a 6:00 bike ride down Waimea Canyon. We saw the canyon in the early hours and experienced some much cooler weather. The ride down the canyon was fun and fast. It was all down hill. Very little peddling. Mostly braking.

After the ride we headed past Poipu Beach and about 5 miles down a dirt road to Mahaulepu Beach. A little more effort to get to but awesome and unspoiled (not as though any on the island are spoiled). After baking in the sun and taking in the views we headed to lunch and then back to the beach for the afternoon at Shipwreck Beach. It was very relaxing. Drummer Boy did get into the surf for a little fun. Finally we headed back to the b&b, jumped in the hot-tub to wash away the stress from the day (haha), cleaned up and headed for dinner. Great day. Hope to have a couple more just like it!

Kayaking, Coffee, and Beachcombing

Yesterday started out with a kayak trip down the Huleia River. It was a calm river and an easy trip. Our guide gave us a lot of historical tidbits about the island. We kayaked for about 2 1/2 miles up the river, and then took a short hike up to two beautiful waterfalls. We swam in the pool at the foot of "Jungle Falls". That made the trip for us!

We spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out at Kalapaki Beach, but didn't go in the water.

Then we went to the Smith's Family Luau for some good traditional Hawaiian food, all the Mai Tai's and Blue Hawaiians we could drink, and some Hawaiian dancers. I volunteered to go on stage and learn a little Hula dancing myself!! The gardens at the Luau were beautiful and I took a lot of pictures of the flowers.

             

We crashed into bed, exhausted, as soon as we got back to our Inn last night.

Today, we started out the day touring the Kauai Coffee Plantation, where we tasted several of their coffees and found one we LOVED! Kauai Peaberry Blue Mountain coffee. Of course, we bought some to bring home with us.

Then we went to Hanapepe, a small town of art galleries and shops. We went into several shops, a bookstore, and a few art galleries, and bought some fish tacos from a roadside stand that were the best fish tacos we had ever tasted! 

From there, we went to Glass Beach and collected several peices of tumbled sea glass. That was a neat place that one of the art gallery owners told us about. 

Then we drove around awhile and happened upon another beautiful beach where we snorkelled, swam, and searched for shells for the rest of the afternoon. 

We stopped off at Bubba's Burgers for dinner (YUM!) and Cold Stone Creamery for dessert. Now we are back in our room, watching a video called "Extreme Kauai".

A sunny beach!

Drummer Boy and I were determined to have a really fun day, and we did! We went tubing down irrigation ditches in an old sugar cane plantation. The water was "refreshing" (some might say it was cold) and the tour guides were a lot of fun. There was a group of about 20 of us, and I felt like I knew everyone by the end of the tour. We don't have any pictures yet, because we took them all with a waterproof 35mm camera.

Then, we headed south in search for some sunshine, and we found it!!! We stopped at Poipu Beach, went snorkeling and laid out in the sun for a couple of hours. It felt so good!! We saw some neat looking fish in the water, one that looked like Rainbow Sherbert. I know Princess would have loved it. We also saw a monk seal asleep on the beach.

After the beach, we checked into our second B&B (which it turns out is only a Bed, not a Breakfast) in Kapa'a, cleaned up, and went to dinner at a little Thai restaurant that had delicious food. It was probably my favorite meal as of yet. Drummer Boy is still claiming the pizza we had at Tiki Man in Hanalei.

Rainy Day in Kauai

Okay, I changed yesterday's post's title to "Rainy Hike in Kauai" because I didn't know yet what a Rainy Day in Kauai was. Yesterday, the day started out with another beautiful sunrise over the ocean.

 Our plan for the day included snorkeling at two beaches and going to see the Kilauea lighthouse and wildlife refuge. We rented some snorkeling equipment in the morning and then headed to Anini Beach. Just as we got there, we noticed that it looked like we were about to get a storm. We thought it was probably a little system that would pass quickly, so we decided to go to the lighthouse while we waited for the rain to pass. The lighthouse was great. There were some beautiful views of the coastline, and a ton of native birds flying around. 

The rain started as we were leaving the lighthouse.

We continued to wait for the rain to pass as we went shopping and had lunch in the town of Kilauea. Then we continued to wait for the rain to pass as we rested in our B&B. Then finally we thought the rain had passed, so we went to Tunnels Beach to see if we could actually use our snorkeling equipment that we had rented. But the water was too rough for snorkeling, and then it started raining again. So we continued to wait for the rain to pass while we returned the snorkeling equipment that we never used (they graciously didn't charge us), shopped some more, and ate dinner at a great sushi restaurant. This morning, I woke up and it is still raining. :( Hopefully, it won't be another all day rainy day.

Rainy hike in Kauai

Yesterday started out very early in the morning. Drummer Boy and I went down to the beach and unexpectedly caught the sun rising over the ocean. (We didn't think we would be able to see the sun rise because of our location on the island.) Anyway, it was a nice suprise. We are going back again with a camera this morning.

After breakfast, which was delicious, we went on a gorgeous 4 mile hike along the Na Pali coast to Hanakapiai Beach and back. The weather was perfect when we started the hike, and we got some awesome views of the coast and mountains, but it quickly changed at about the 2 mile mark to rain. It rained on us the whole way back. We were drenched and exhausted, but had a great time. And met some friendly people during the experience.

It was a pretty difficult hike, with multiple warnings to stay on the trail and wear proper footwear. Yet, we passed several "dudes" barefoot, carrying surfboards. Of course, it stopped raining as soon as our hike was over.

After we cleaned up and rested a bit, we went snorkeling at Ke'e Beach. I saw a school of about 100 shiny little fish, which was awesome! We finished off the day with some yummy pizza, a Mai Tai, and dessert. We piddled around the town shops of Hanalei and Drummer Boy bought a Hawaiian shirt, of which the button broke when we got back to the room.

Aloha Kauai

We are finally here!! Drummer Boy and I started planning this trip to Hawaii to celebrate our 10-year anniversary about a year ago. After reading through travel books and internet tourism sites, talking to anyone we could find who had been to Kauai, making reservations for flights, rooms, and activities, and making arrangements for our children to be looked after while we are gone, I can't believe it has finally come. We are here and it is beautiful!!

We arrived after an 8 hour flight to Honolulu and then a 40 minute flight to Lihue, Kauai. We left Houston at 9:30AM and arrived in Kauai 11 hours later at 3:30 Kauai time. We rented a red convertible mustang and drove from the SE corner of the island to the NW corner of the island to our bed and breakfast, Hale Ho'o Maha. It is great! The room is beautiful. The bed is comfy, and the hosts are gracious.

We went to dinner at a great restaurant on the beach called Mediterranean Gourmet, and then went for a quick walk along the beach as the sun was setting. A great first day!

Since we are still on "Texas time" we tried to stay up as late as we could and ended up going to bed at 9:30 local time, only to wake up at around 3AM, unable to go back to sleep. So here I am at 4AM posting pictures on my blog.