Kauai

Kauai - Day 1

Lighthouse, airport as we enter port of Nawiliwili

Waking up early the next morning as we ported, my first impressions of Kauai were that of a place right out of Jurassic Park. The mountains were jagged and completely covered in green vegetation. Rather than take any scheduled tours on our first day, we decided to rent a car. This was the best decision we could make to see everything we wanted to see.

Sunrise with another cruise ship on the horizon

We weren't quite as rested as we would have liked to!

Mom and Jess as we climbed the road to Waimea

Our first destination was Waimea Canyon. We later earned the word Waimea means “reddish water” and refers to the river of the same name full of the islands infamous red dirt sediment. As we headed towards the canyon road, the rich red dirt became ever more present, covering the roads, houses, fences, everything. The other thing noticeable about the island is that it is full of wild chickens. There is actually a perfectly reasonable explanation, we later learned, but, it was a bit odd to see all these chickens and roosters running wild all over the island.

The drive up to Waimea Canyon was breath taking, peppered with stops every few turns to capture yet another amazing view with our cameras. The canyon is called the Grand Canyon of Hawaii and if you can imagine the Grand Canyon with foliage, that is exactly what is was like.

Look at all the tourists!!!

Waimea River meandering the deep canyon

Cliffs abound in tones of red, green and brown

The vibrant rich red-orange dirt.

Waimea Canyon and all its beauty

We headed back down the mountain and stopped for lunch at Burger King (yes, a bit of a cheat). As we drove towards the north side of the island, we were once again treated to the gorgeous natural landscape with wide, expansive valleys and rugged mountains covered in lush green folliage. The natural beauty was made all the better by the limited development on the island. If anyone wants a place to just relax and enjoy nature, this is the island to do it!

We had to stop at Longs and apparently Jessica just had to do the bunny ears.

Daphne, a bit of a local celebrity

The threatening clouds did dump some rain on us

One of many one lane bridges

Church, Hawaiian style

momscottbeach
You wouldn't think we'd be hit with a wave up to our waist 30 seconds later!

After a necessary stop at a small, local shopping center (a needed shopping fix for Jessica), we drove to the northern most extreme of the island (by road anyway) and took a walk along Haena Beach Park across from Maniniholo Dry Cave. We would come to find out that Kauai has the best beaches (since it is the oldest of the main islands) and they were beautiful. Large, coarse sand that was somehow softer to the feet than beach sand in California. And as my mother and I discovered, accidentally, when a few waves crashed in closer than we thought, the water was a slight bit colder than I would have imaged.

This was as close as we could get to the lighthouse as the park was closed (left); beams of sunlight hitting the beautiful Hanalei Valley (above)

What a wonderfully peaceful place to spend the afternoon

Kauai - Day 2

Day two in Kauai was a mere half day and we took a horse back riding excursion. My mom, hoping to fulfill her dream of riding a horse on a beach in Hawaii, only lived half her dream as our guide took us tantalizingly close, but, not actually on, the wind swept beach (it stung more when we later saw the other group in the surf). This was either due to the fact our tour guy sucked or because my slow horse, who had definitely seen better days, could not be coaxed, under any circumstances, to pick up his geriatric pace and slowed us down. Still, we had a really great ride.

You wouldn't think she hated that helmet

Erich stuck behind Scott's slow horse

The rich red dirt dyed this horse's white hide

groupphoto
I could barely get my horse to get in line with everyone else. What a beautiful place for a ride though

Scotty's horse doing his best to drag the line of our group (left) and make sure not to let any others by; a herd of cows pays no mind to our train of horses

Unfortunately, our day took a sour note after we left Kauai and hit the open ocean for our 400 mile, overnight trek to the Big Island. So rough was the trip, that not only did my mother and I get sick in the middle of our spa treatments, but, half the passengers were noticeably missing from the dining rooms that night. We were later informed that a lot of crew got sick as well. Luckily, with an newly emptied stomach, I was able to make it to the top of the deck to view the ruggedly beautiful (and otherwise inaccessible) Napali Coast on the northeast side of the island as we cruised by.

Stormy Kauai coast line

Our cruise ship approaching the Napali Coast

The rugged, untouched landscape

A place of beauty, best observed from afar

lanai
The reclusive, privately owned island of Lana'i

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