A Playground for All Ages

This is where we jumped off the waterfall....so fun!

A Day of Rest

Yesterday, we rested mostly... spent a little time at the beach, then went over to the mall for lunch. A local recommended this little place called Sone's, and we tried it the other day. It was SO good that we went back. It was really hot here mid-day (for the first time since we got here), so after lunch, we went to the new Terminator movie. When we came out, it had rained and cooled off. We went back over to the mall where they were having a farmer's market in the parking lot. We picked up all kinds of interesting vegetables (some of them weren't what we thought they were!) and brought them back to our hotel for a stir fry. It was delicious!

On the way home, we stopped at Wialua Falls (which up until this moment we thought was Opaeka'a Falls again, just from the other side of the canyon). They were very pretty and the lookout was quite close. I think it's hard to tell how much water was moving over the waterfall.

Another Day of Hiking

What a hike! We took the Kalalau Trail on the North Shore today. This is the part of the island that you can't get to by car. If you want to see it, you have to hike or pay for a helicopter ride ($250 per person). We opted to do the damage to our bodies. Even so, the trail is a whopping 11 miles long, so we didn't see all there was to see. In fact, if you want to go past a certain point on the trail, you have to have a permit to camp...it's that far (and difficult).

Two miles in, we arrived at Hanakapi'ai Beach, and all along the trail just before the beach are signs saying "Don't swim!" and "Dangerous Undercurrents!" Another sign said, "Be careful! This many people have died on this beach!" followed by dozens of slash marks and room for more. You get the point...

Of course, Ryan went swimming. I stood on the edge of the surf and still got knocked on my butt.

After a rest at the beach, we headed up to the Hanakapi'ai Waterfalls, which was a gruelling hike over boulders and sliding along the side of cliffs (well, maybe not quite that bad), but it was worth it. It started to rain about a quarter of the way up, which made the trail and the rocks super slick.

We ate lunch right next to the falls, then headed back to the beach for a swim in the rain. (That's the beautiful thing about the weather here: even if it's raining, it's so warm that the rain is more of an annoyance than anything. Sometimes it comes at just the right moment, when you're sweating and just need to cool off.)

6 hours later, we were back at the car and didn't even have the energy to go out to dinner like we had planned. Still, so worth it.

I know it looks like Daddy drowned, but he's just fine, I promise. :0)

A Visit to the Plantation

Today, we went to the plantation and took the train ride. It was a pretty low-key day; we were tired and moving slowly. The train ride was okay, but it made me miss Emily and Matt, as they would have really enjoyed it. We rode around the plantation, looking at the trees and plants, and stopped at the pig pen to feed the pigs. They are the wild kind. The guide said there are thousands and thousands (28,000 is the number that comes to mind) of wild pigs on the island, and people can hunt them any time. If someone finds a baby pig, they can take it home and keep it for a pet. I can't imagine that happens very often, but we DID see a guy with a tiny baby pig at a park yesterday.







After the train ride, we went to the beach for a while, then over to "Kalapaki Joe's" where they were showing the UFC fight. Steven met us there to watch it. It was good.

These are banana plants.

This is the mansion on the plantation. It doesn't look like much, but the cloak room (aka closet) is bigger than our new living room. The house is 16,000 square feet. By comparison, our house is 1,800. My question is...how do you keep a place like that clean? (With a full-time maid, of course!)

Ryan and Steven at the fight.

Diving and Secret Places

Today we went diving, then spent the day on the north side, which is even more tropical than the rest of the island. Diving took most of the day, but we managed to see a few other things. One of them was Secret Beach, which is right next to the Secret Lava Pools. I don't think either one is much of a secret anymore, but they were still beautiful. Here is a cave we visited...

This is called the "LOVE rock" because it's shaped like a heart. :0)

We took it easy today...did some shopping and some local sight-seeing. We just got back from dinner at this place called Kaua'i Pasta and, well, WOW it was good. I had pesto pasta and Ryan had the house pasta. We had caprese for an appetizer, and a German import beer. Yumyumyumyumyum. I feel like my belly will burst any minute.

Here are some pictures of the things we saw today. After visiting the Opaeka'a Waterfalls, we wandered through the Kamokila Hawaiian village and learned about Kaua'i's culture. Finally, we went to Lydgate State Park and did some snorkeling. It was a good day.

Luau

Last night we went to a luau at a tropical garden. It was pretty cool...

Day 4, Beach and Canyon

Here is the beach we went to today; the waves were huge...so big that we couldn't really go out in the water for fear of being swept away! Some guys came out to surf just before we left, so we got a quick video of one guy. They were pretty good...

On the last leg of our trip today, we went to Waimea Canyon. It has been called the Grand Canyon of the Pacific. It's pretty spectacular! The road up is windy, and the temperature is about 10 degrees colder than down by the ocean.

Day 3, Tunnels Hike

Here we are on our "tunnels hike." What an adventure. We started hiking at 9:20 a.m. and finally finished at 6 p.m. We are pooped! What a great day, though. The tunnels are cool--kind of spooky. The longest one is a mile long...a whole mile! It took about 1/2 hour to walk through that tunnel. The next tunnel had a very low ceiling, and at the end, we had to crawl through a tiny hole to get out of it. There was water in the bottom of the tunnels, and in some places, the water was up to our thighs...it was tough to move through the water, let alone walk. At the end of all of the tunnels, we came upon "Beautiful waterfall," and it was really amazing. We enjoyed it there for a while, but had to head back because the hike was so long, we knew we would be getting back late.

We made it back safely: no dinosaurs, and no injuries. I'm thinking we might have some pretty sore muscles tomorrow, though!

Day 2, Diving

This video is from yesterday. This morning, we went diving and spent two WHOLE hours under the water. We did two dives with a surface interval in between; you come out of the water and rest, snack, and drink (and use the rest room because diving really brings THAT out in a person--they don't tell you that during your certification) for about 45 minutes, then go back in.

A ray and a sea turtle. That's us hanging out, too. Ryan is so good, he doesn't even need air. ;0)

Kaua'i: Our Hotel