Kauai: Day 3 + Travel

 

Day three was our last full day on the island.

We watched the sun rise from our hotel room, then went to a breakfast diner called Kountry Kitchen.

{Ha, Hawaii and their Spam}

We then drove up to the Kuilau Ridge Trail and went for a (very muddy) jungle hike. 

{sunny one minute when we arrived at the top, rainy the next...luckily we had that shelter in the background for the minutes it lasted} 

{so many awe inspiring, giant trees}

{our feet were super muddy so we stopped by the beach to rinse before going into any buildings}

And then we were tired again. We went out and got some shaved ice and souvenirs, then came back and vegged by the pool for the rest of the day.

{this shaved ice is famous for a reason, I got POG (pineapple, orange, guava) and it's real fruit over the softest shaved ice and vanilla ice cream. Hard to describe how delicious it was. Curt got strawberry pineapple over coconut ice cream.}

{again, chickens everywhere...these little guys kept us company by the pool}

We got (expensive but good) hamburgers from the hotel food joint, and then went to bed.

The next morning we did a repeat of Kountry Kitchen, read at the hotel for a bit, then headed out to the airport.

We still were a little bit too early so we stopped for some ice cream before finishing the drive to the airport.

Took the little, 35 minute flight to Honolulu and hung out there for several hours till our overnight flight back home.

{some warm and good curry in the Honolulu airport}

{bye Hawaii}

{sleeping on the plane is always rough. Happy to get home and take a nap in our own bed.}

{These guys had a fun time while we were gone}

Kauai: Day 2

 

Our second day I have dubbed in my head 'rainbow day'. We woke up early again, refreshed after our long sleep. We hopped in the car, grabbed a drive through breakfast, and got on the road heading to the furthest northwest community on the island, Hanalei.

{overlook of a beautiful vista off the side of the road on our way}

{chickens everywhere, this is at the overlook}

Hanalei only has one road leading into it, down a mountainside to the coast. We found that there had been a landslide taking that one road into a one lane road. They had construction going on and the directions of traffic were taking turns going in and out directed by construction traffic people. 

We went to Hanalei Bay (which we had seen from the helicopter ride the day before) and had it practically to ourselves.

{we didn't create this, but I was happy to take a picture of it}

{the power of a storm required to move a tree this large kind of blows my mind}

We explored and took a walk up the beach.

{it rained on us, but that created rainbow gorgeousness}

{such intense colors, love it so much}

{this and the next picture are similar and taken like a minute apart, so I normally wouldn't include both, but I just love how the clouds and light and ocean were moving...couldn't get enough of watching it}

We got back in the car, drove around town a little bit, then figured we'd head back more towards our hotel and do something that way for a while. We had a late afternoon/evening dinner sunset cruise scheduled that would be leaving from the other side of the island and we wanted to be closer so we wouldn't be pressed for time at all, that's how we roll.

But to our dismay we found that the road out was closed.

Apparently they open it up for a couple hours in the early morning and late evening, and then just once in the afternoon to let a caravan of waiting vehicles in and out.

(There had been no signs that we ever saw to convey this information, no wonder we had the place to ourselves.)

So we headed back to explore some more.

Found a cave and a beautiful beach. There was a large sea turtle swimming in the waves that we got a couple magical glimpses of, but I didn't manage to get on camera.

{the road up the coast was fun to experience, loved seeing the houses, the views around every corner, a bunch of one lane bridges that people just take turns using, and this spot where a river just goes over the road...guess you're just out of luck getting anywhere if there's a big storm}

{got acai bowls for lunch, they were really tasty}

{begging birds, they had a sign warning not to leave your food unattended or a chicken will get it}

We popped into a couple shops, but then just went to go park and read and wait until they would let us out. Good thing we did, even though we were there over an hour before the scheduled caravan time we weren't the first ones waiting...we don't know how big the line ended up being but it was very long.

Then we rushed as fast as we could across the island (stressful because just one main road + traffic). I had called the cruise place as we got on the road to give them a heads up that we were going to be late, and they held off the boat leaving for us and a couple other people that found themselves in the same situation. Phew.

I stayed at this spot looking out the window for most of the hour+ ride out to the Na Pali Coast...somewhat high speed going against the wind and waves meant everyone was getting wet who decided to be outside.

Then we arrived and turned around and slowed down so I emerged to absorb the amazingness.

And we got another rainbow!

We slowly headed back, with the waves and wind this time so it was relatively calm.

I felt it was calm, but I guess others' stomachs disagreed and there were several who were really sea sick and throwing up at this point.

That's a really big bummer because they missed out on enjoying the stellar views and a good dinner (though the staff made to go plates for them to take with them later).

We watched the sun set from the boat and then headed back to the hotel to sleep.