Here's the lowdown on our April trip to Hawaii!
Alooooha! Freeman and I just spent 7 lovely days in Kauai. It was an adventure packed week! We stayed at the lovely Kauai Marriott resort, right on Kalapaki bay. The ambiance and pool can’t be beat, and it was soooo nice to have our favorite restaurant in the whole world (Duke’s), a beautiful beach, and our room, all on the same grounds! We could have never left the property and been perfectly content.
But leave we did. Sunday we enjoyed going to the Lihu’e ward church services, then spent the rest of the day driving to see the beautiful sights of Kauai and relaxing in our room.
On Monday morning we joined the local chapter of the Sierra club for a hike to 2 waterfalls. We enjoyed their friendly company and good advice about what not to miss in Kauai. We enjoyed getting to know a surfer from California, a Christian, who told us his conversion story and gave us some great Kauai tips.
The following day we rented a two man Kayak and paddled two rivers, Kahiliwai and Wailua. The first is more secluded, we didn’t see a soul the entire paddle! And halfway up we encountered dead boar in the middle of the river! Yikes. Needless to say, we were a little skiddish about getting out and hiking, considering the evidence of wild boars in the very near vicinity. The Wailua was a much larger river, we paddled it after the crowd had come and gone in the morning, and it, too, was tranquil. At the end of the paddle we hiked a mile into secret falls, where Freeman was one of two tourists out of 30 there to dare to jump into that cold water. Brrr! I got in long enough for a picture. We paddled back, priding ourselves on our speed as we went, agreeing to ourselves that being young is wonderful.
All that pride came crashing down the next day when we hiked the Na Pali coast. If you’ve never seen a photo of the Na Pali coast, stop reading NOW and google it. Arguably one of the most beautiful natural scenes on the Earth. There is an 11 mile hike along the coast that ends at a semi-secluded beach. We opted to not go the entire 11 miles, but rather only 4 to a huge waterfall along the way. We were glad we did the shorter trip as the trail was muddy and technically very difficult. In certain stretches it was like hiking over a pile of rocks, smothered in peanut butter. In Tevas. We were filthy by the end! And sore. We looked like 80-year-olds hobbling back to our car. I’ve never had so much pain in my calves in my life, and both of our knees were giving out on us! Wow. Immediate repentence for the pride of the prior day. Interestingly, we chatted with a couple at the parking lot who had gone the whole way, camped, and hiked back out. They had been disappointed to find a colony of hippy-ish folks inhabiting the “secluded” beach at the end. They saw a couple dozen of them, and were told they lived on the wild goats and flora and fauna of the area. The lack of showers and facilities on the beach was evident! We were glad we hadn’t gone the whole way.
At that point our adventurous spirits began to wane. The resort looked like paradise upon our return (though TRULY, Na Pali coast is a magical paradise! A hippie-inhabited paradise!) The following couple days we slept in, read on the beach, went exploring in some of the nearby towns. We did make the drive out to Polihale, a 17 mile stretch of beach on the south side of the Na Pali coast that requires some dirt road navigation. Unfortunately, it was cold when we visited this beach, but it was spectacular. 17 miles of white sand, turquoise waters, a sunset, and we only saw 2 other couples on the ENTIRE stretch. Unbelievable. We walked bare footed in the sand and gathered shells. The calves didn’t like that either, but well worth the effort.
Duke’s (the restaurant on Marriott’s grounds) deserves it own paragraph. Imagine the softest, flakiest, most moist and delicate white fish you’ve ever had, rolled in butter and macadamia nuts, sautéed, and served with a lemon beurre blanc and a perfect salad bar. HEAVEN. I do love good fish. And hula pie for dessert. Ahhhh.
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