Hawaii- Kauai Day 4

 On day four we hiked the Na Pali coast. We got a late start, but we managed to do the whole hike (8 miles) with little rest. This is the start of the trail. They have a sign with one way mileage, and lots of warning signs.

 The Na Pali coast hike starts you hiking up a mountain and then over and through other mountains. It is a steep trail with lots of loose rocks, tree roots and boulders to climb over. But the views are spectacular. 

 Here you are up high and you can see the trail on the next mountain.

 The guys hiking. Pierson got the red dirt all over the back of his shorts, lol.

 We had to cross lots of streams, some of them shallow like this and some deep, but all were very slippery.

 Halfway to the waterfall there is a beautiful little beach.

 They had all these little rocks stacked up like trail markers.

 When you reach the beach, you have to go into the mountain to get to the first waterfall. If you want to do the entire hike, you have to bring camping gear and camp on the mountain because there isn't enough time in one day to hike the whole thing.

 The jungle hiking was the hardest. Pierson and Jen brought Blake, their 5 year old son. He is a trooper, but they didn't make it all the way to the waterfall. Jason and I went the rest of the way and it was worth the hike. It was breathtaking, pictures don't do it justice. 

 This is a waterfall that you can actually swim in. Jason got in first so I could take some pictures of him.

 After taking some pictures, I got in the water. The rocks were slippery so rather than fall and hurt myself, I jumped in. I am a very good swimmer and I have never been scared in the water. But this time, I thought I might die. The water was between 25-30 degrees and my body immediately went into shock. My muscles seized up and I started sinking. On top of that, my lungs felt frozen and it was hard to breathe. Knowing that panicking is the worst thing, I kept a float and made my way to cave behind the waterfall where Jason was. The water was coming down so hard and splashing me in my face and I thought I lost one of my contacts, but the water coming down was warmer than in the pool and I eventually made it over. It was much warmer behind the waterfall and it was neat behind the cave. Jason swam ahead to take some pictures of me with the waterfall and this is what he got, super lame picture Jace. 

Swimming back was no problem, but then it was a long hike back! We got back ate some dinner, watched a movie and went to bed. We were all exhausted.

Hawaii- Kauai Day 3

On our third day on Kauai we went to a beach near our condo. We were back with Jason's family. To get to this beach you have to go through the St Regis Hotel, which was beautiful. This is the view of the beach from the hotel.

The mountains have waterfalls almost everywhere you look.

After a while, Jason and I were both done with the sun so we went under the shade of a tree to read. Jen snapped this picture of us.

We left the beach and got some lunch and then went to play miniature golf. Jason's family is very competitive so tensions ran high, but Jason's mom won:)

Jen did my hair really cute. You can't really tell here, but we all loved it.

For dinner we ate at this Mexican place in the Princeville shopping center. It was SOOO good. It was authentic Mexican food with all natural and organic ingredients. Jason is not as enthusiastic with food as I am, but almost ever bite he took was followed by an "mmmm, that's good".  Another great day.
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Hawaii- Kauai Day 2

 Our second day in Kauai started off great. Our hosts at the bed and breakfast made macadamia nut and blueberry waffles served with a dozen different syrups including pineapple, passion fruit, guava, mango, and coconut. I tried them all, but passion fruit was my favorite. After breakfast, we packed up and left the bed and breakfast. 


The best part of the day was that we finally got to go scuba diving! Diving on the North Side is only done in the summer so we were a week too early (they start the first dives up there in May) so we had to drive down to the south side. Our dive wasn't until the afternoon, but we decided to go up early and go to Poipu Beach. Kauai is Jason's favorite island and this was his fourth trip. He was amazed at how much they have built on Kauai. Poipu used to be a secluded beach that monk seals would come up to rest on. They are chased by sharks in the water constantly and they come to the beach to sleep. But they have built 5-7 new resorts right on the beach front and now the seals rarely come up there any more. I was disappointed not to see one, but got lucky later that afternoon. We laid out on the beach for a while and then went to lunch at Bubba's Burgers, a place Jason liked from his previous stays. Then we met at the dive shop for our afternoon dive. It was so fun being on a boat again; I was giddy.

 Our friends from the bed and breakfast, Jeanette and Ed, were on the dive with us. 

 Our first dive was at Brennekes Ledge. It is known for its beautiful coral and for sharks. Luckily we didn't see any sharks, but I have never seen coral so rich in color. They also had black coral, which is extremely rare. It is a deep dive, and for some reason, my ears didn't handle it well. I have never had problems with my ears or pressure before, but I didn't think I was going to be able to dive because I was in so much pain. I had just decided to go back to the surface when my ears finally popped. It still hurt some, but I was able to dive. I hadn't been diving in 5 years, so it took me a minute, but then everything came back to me. We saw an eel, fish and the coral, it was pretty, but we didn't see anything amazing.

 Our second dive site was at Sheraton Caverns. I really liked this dive. It had lots of lava tubes and caverns that we swam through and I saw 13 sea turtles. They were everywhere. Most of them were sleeping in the caverns. We saw another eel and even an octopus. The octopus was cool because I had never seen one in the ocean before. It kept changing colors, which was awesome. On our way back to the harbor we saw the Spouting Horn, which is a blowhole, and a popular tourist destination. It was cool to see it from the water.

 On drive back to the dive shop, we spotted this monk seal on a little strip of a beach. I made the drive instructor stop. He probably thought I was really lame, but whatever, I am glad because the seal was so cute and I got some good pictures. These poor things are almost extinct. There are fewer than 2,000 left.

 After the dive we got some shave ice. I got pineapple and coconut flavored shave ice with macadamia nut ice cream on the bottom. So good.

 I haven't shown any pictures of the beautiful hibiscus flowers yet so here it is. I saw these while we were eating shave ice. The hibiscus in Hawaii are so colorful. 

After shave ice we went to Kohala where we met up with Ed and Jeanette for dinner. It was great getting to know them better. It was a wonderful day!

Hawaii- Kauai Day 1

The first two days on Kauai Jason and I ventured off on our own. We stayed at this amazing bed and breakfast called Hale Ho'o Maha. 

They have 4 rooms that each have their own tropical theme. We stayed in the Pineapple room. 

The house was gorgeous and our room was great. They had a huge kitchen and dining room, a flat screen tv, movies, wifi, macbook, printer, and the best hot tub I have ever been in. 

Each morning they had plates of fresh fruit and also made us a hot breakfast.

Oh, and the house was on stilts like most houses in the area, but it had an elevator. And not only did they have an elevator, but they had a painted mural all the way up. It was so nice not to have to drag all of our luggage up two flights of stairs.

  It was really close to the beach, which was good because we didn't have a car the first day. 


We decided to go to Tunnels Beach, which is a great beach for snorkeling. It was a little over a mile away, but it was a nice walk. We walked part of it on the beach, and at one point, the water over the reef was ankle deep about a mile into the ocean. It was full of tide pools and I saw lots of fish and even an eel. 

The snorkeling was great, we saw lots of fish, coral and a sea turtle. The beach itself was sunny but there were these dark clouds over the mountains and it was pouring further out in the ocean as well. 

For lunch we went to a restaurant called Mediterranean Gourmet. It was right on the beach and the windows were open so you could see and hear the waves. It was beautiful. The food was ok, but the dessert was phenomenal.  It was called a Mac Nut Tart and it was so amazing that we devoured it in seconds. We decided immediately afterwords that we would have to come back and each order our own. 


After lunch we went back to the bed and breakfast and met another couple staying there and hung out for a while. They gave us a ride into Hanalei and we walked around the shops and had dinner at Kalypso. 

They were out of the Huli chicken that I wanted so I went with the Nacho appetizer and this is what I got! It was huge. I think I ate a quarter of it. But my drink was amazing! It was a virgin mango coloda and I had three. Seriously delicious.