Aloha and farewell....

Well, Thursday we saw some sun, so we hightailed it to the beach in Kapa'a, but wouldn't you know it, the winds everywhere on the island were so high that we just ended up getting "exfoliated" (more like sandblasted), so we gave up "laying out" on the beach and decided to shake the sand out of our ears and walk around through the town instead...

We did manage to finish the kitty puzzle during our seclusion during the storms...

And we were treated to beautiful, momentarily rain free, sunset from our lanai during our final night...

I'd still do it all again even with the uncooperative weather, rather than to not have come at all.... and i think we did a good job making lemonade out of lemons, aside from a brief meltdown i had on friday after we were rained in again for the day...  i defintely had anticipated being alot more active on this trip (snorkeling, swimming, kayaking, more hiking...) but i'm still happy with what we did and feel grateful it wasn't worse... this vacay is going in the WIN column...  now, packing for the red-eye home!!  can't wait to snuggle my kitties and see everyone!

38 inches of rain later....

well, that bit of rain that started on Saturday at the Farmer's Market turned into a deluge that dumped 38 inches on our poor little saturated island! 

 I feel so fortunate that i happened to pick a place up on a hillside on the side of a cliff, so that if anything was going to happen to us, we'd just slide off into the ocean :) 

So today we drove all the way around the island (as far as the road goes anyways) and headed up into the spectacular Waimea Canyon...

the dirt is so red here, i just had to get a photo, 'cause i thought it looked cool...

We even spotted a feral goat down on the ridge!  (impossible to see in the photo)

Chris decided to show us the signs :)

When we reached the Kalalau Lookout and Pu'u o Kila Lookout at the top of Koke'e State Park, it was completely whited out with fog and a chilly drizzle of rain, so we decided to do our hiking lower where it was still sunny and warmer...

And we were treated to the lovely sight of a beautiful band rainbow stretched across the canyon...  can you see it above the falls?

Of course we had to reward ourselves with the best shaved ice on the island... Jojo's in Waimea! 

 I can totally relate to this sign :) ....

We then proceed to drive the rest of the way up the west side, just so we could say we did it! After braving spine realignment along a jarring 5 miles of an extremely rutted dirt road to Polihale Beach, we were treated to the beautiful remote vistas of the southern tip of the Na'a Pali Coast

The lovely sunset soothed us as we made our way back home....



I tried to capture the breathtaking full moon as it rose over the ridge, but this was as good as i could get...

We slept well after this big day!

Rest Day ~ Hanalei Farmers' Market, Pu'u Poa Beach & skip bo!

Today, we recuperated our sore muscles (which was perfect since it decided to rain pretty much all day here) with a trip to the Farmers' Market in Hanalei where dad went nuts... he was like a kid in a candy store picking all the unique and funky looking fruits he could find!  And we had to pick up our dinner (ono/wahoo) from the fish market... here's our bounty...

 Dad was very excited in particular to hack into and drink from his fresh coconut...

"This is way better than any milk I've ever had!!"

He also was excited to show me the monkey face on the older coconut he found at a beach yesterday... so which one is the monkey face? :)

Chris and i then proceeded to take a commanding lead in our Skip-bo tournament...

After we gave them such a beating, it was time to stretch our legs with a walk/rappel/climb down to Pu'u Poa beach below our condo...

Did i mention i'm starting to see a pattern here with steep and muddy?

We had the beach to ourselves and enjoyed watching some surfers...

The Chicken Whisperer....

That's all for now, it's time for dinner!



Aloha beautiful Kauai! ~ Kalalau Trail & Hanakapi'ai Falls

So we began the 1st of our 10 days Thursday morning flying TUS-LAX-LIH on American Airlines (no complaints, we and our bags all arrived safe and sound) and settled into our gorgeous condo in Princeville after a trip to Costco ... here's a link, for anyone interested in renting it, check out both the indoor and outdoor photos...it's amazing!

http://www.vrbo.com/global/siteFrame.aspx?l=26097&k=1

Yesterday, we awoke to sunny skies and decided we were ready to tackle the Kalalau Trail... at least as far as we were allowed to go without permits... which was 2 miles in to Hanakapi'ai Beach...

The first half mile of the hike was steep... but every step was absolutely worth it and we were rewarded with spectacular views as well as humpback whale sightings all along the way! 

 The rest of the trail terrain alternated between steep and fairly level but pretty technical the whole way...  especially when it got muddy!

The weather held nicely until we reached the beach where we were treated to a downpour while we ate our lunch under the canopy of tropical trees... the temperature was still quite pleasant and being the desert rats that we are, we didn't mind the rain one bit!

I also loved seeing the adorable little feral kitties that populated the beach... we wondered what they lived on until we saw a little rat farther along the trail that i wasn't quick enough to get a picture of...

 After our lunch we were energized enough to try our hand at getting to the falls, another 2 miles in... which was made even more fun (and challenging) by the slick mud from the rain...

 

 We crossed the river several times  (and nobody fell in! although i made a pretty good attempt at one point :) 

As we came into view of the falls, the music from Jurassic Park totally started playing in my head, even though it wasn't the same falls from the movie...

 

We thought our helicopter pilot friend James would appreciate a photo of the landing spot we came across :)

What we could see of the gorgeous beginnings of the Napali Coast was so breathtaking that I have absolutely resolved to come back and hike the entire Kalalau trail... we passed some other hikers that were going and coming from the experience and it just motivated me even more... especially after a story from one guy on his way out who couldn't seem to remember how many days he'd been "out in the wild", the wild boar he'd run into that probably warranted a change of shorts for him :), the crazy hippies at the end of the trail, and the overabundance of wild fruit growing everywhere!

 

 We were exhausted but happy by the days end, and mom won the prize for most visible badge of honor from falling on her forearm.... (giant bruise, scrape and knot all at once! )