Kauai--Second Try

February 2016

Mike and I spent part of a week in Kauai a few years ago, during which we experienced the equivalent of about three years of total yearly rainfall in Utah (or LA)--twelve inches one day, thirteen inches another day, and steady rain for all but a few hours every other day.  Bleh.  People said Kauai was beautiful, and we could see hints of that through the rain.  We even drove to the end of the Waimea Canyon road to try to see the "Grand Canyon of the Pacific," but all we could make out was a patch or red dirt about fifteen feet in front of us.  I've been reluctant to go back, but this year Mike had a conference in Honolulu, so we decided to tack a trip to Kauai on the end.  I told him that if it rained like last time, I would feel no obligation to ever attempt a vacation there again.  We were there from Monday afternoon to Saturday evening, and it did rain for half of one day, but the rest of the time it was just gorgeous, and we would love to go back some time.

Our days in Honolulu were pleasant, though Mike was working dawn to dusk most days.  On my own, I walked two miles from the hotel up to Diamond Head, meaning to hike to the top, but it turned out that walkers had to pay admission to the state park--one dollar, cash only.   But I caught some nice views on the way, like this:




I went again a couple of days later, after sharing one of these delicious acai bowls (frozen crushed acai berries, topped with plain yogurt, granola, coconut, fresh strawberries, blueberries and bananas, and a swirl of honey--yum!)  for breakfast with Mike:



Mike did slip away from the conference on Saturday afternoon, and we drove to the north side of the island to visit some of his BMT colleagues who had rented a beautiful house right on the beach in Kailua, the town where Pres. Obama grew up.  What a gorgeous spot, right across from a couple of islands that Dad and I kayaked to. This is the view from the back porch:





The water was shallow across the entire bay, making for good snorkeling, and our hosts said there are often turtles in the bay in the mornings.  The full moon rose over those islands while we were there.  We were out in the kayak at the time, or I would have taken pictures.  It was stunning.  Wouldn't it be fun to rent a house in a place like that?

Dad and I went to church in the Maikei ward, which met in the historic Honolulu tabernacle, built in 1941.  It was a beautiful art-deco style building.  I was intrigued by a historic marker on the grounds which listed the first LDS missionaries to come to Hawaii.  One of them was Thomas Whittle.  I wondered if that was our ancestor (the father of Olive Ann Whittle, William Whittle Hale's mother).  I checked when we got back to the hotel, and it was.  He was called on a mission to the California Gold fields in 1848, to get needed money for the church (by digging for gold, I assume).  From there, he and several others were sent to Hawaii (then called the Sandwich islands).  It was a very short mission, just a couple of months.  None of the missionaries spoke Hawaiian, and none of the caucasians on the islands were receptive, so most of the missionaries were released and sent home, including Thomas Whittle.  A couple of missionaries stayed on, learned Hawaiian, and laid the groundwork for very successful missionary work later.  In the process of confirming that Thomas Whittle was our ancestor, I learned another very interesting bit of information--he was baptized by Zera Pulsipher, Mike's 4th great grandfather (who also baptized Wilford Woodruff).  Thomas Whittle later named one of his sons Zera in honor of Zera Pulsipher.  What interesting connections we come across in family history!

Monday Mike spoke at the very last session of the conference, and I took a dollar and hiked to the top of Diamond Head, a huge volcanic crater that looms above Waikiki.  It was a fairly easy climb with some beautiful views of the island.

Here's a photo of the trail.  You can see the houses climbing all the way up the foothills in the background.  Oahu is one of the smaller islands in the Hawaiian chain, but it is centrally located and was the historical "gathering place" for the islands.  Today, seventy percent of the total state population resides there.




Here's a view of a coastal lighthouse from the top of Diamond Head.




Here's a view of Waikiki and Honolulu from the top of Diamond Head.  See the flat-topped building at the end of the brushy ridge?  That's either a fire-watch station or an old military battery.  There's still a military base within the crater, which descends to the right of the building and the ridge.  As you can see, there are a LOT of hotels in Waikiki.  It is a very busy place with tons of tourists.  I think there were more Japanese and Chinese tourists than American ones.



Even at the top of Diamond Head, it is pretty crowded:



On my walk back to the hotel, I stopped at a craft fair in the park and bought some fun souvenirs for the kids--much nicer than anything in the stores, and a chance to support local artists.  While the weather was lovely on Oahu, we were both happy to get away from the crowds on Monday and fly to Kauai.

We left Monday at 2 pm and arrived in Kauai less than an hour later.  We picked out a car at Alamo and drove to the north side of the island starting about 4:00.  That must be rush hour in Kauai, because we got caught in a traffic jam in Lehue that slowed us by about a half hour.  That was a surprise.  Even Kauai is pretty popular.  We stayed in a very comfortable condo in Princeville, a resort community on the north side of the island.  We ate at a funky restaurant/bar called Tiki Aniki that had quite good food.  Mike and I decided we are happiest if we split an appetizer, split a main course, and split a dessert.  Otherwise it's just too much food.  (Saves money, too.)  But I don't think it makes us terribly popular with the wait staff.  And we always order water, too (save the calories for the passion fruit cheesecake!).  But we do try to leave a good tip.

Our plan for Tuesday morning was to hike as far along the Napali Coast trail as we wanted to.  Rain was predicted to start around 11 AM, so we got up early and were on the trail shortly after nine.   Unfortunately, it was already drizzling by then, which made for a slippery trail.  It's a gorgeous trail through a rain forest, with regular views of the ocean.  We kept up the hike for a little over a mile, and then it started raining harder, so we decided to turn back.



By the time we reached the trail head the sun had come out.  Oh well.  Weather is unpredictable.  The trail began at the end of the road on the north side of the island.  The terrain is too steep after that to allow vehicles, so the only way to get around that side of the island is by hiking or by sea.  There was a pretty beach right by the trail that had a big sign on it: "Beach Closed, Keep back from the water."  The reason for the closure was fifty-foot swells--too high even for surfing. It was fun to sit on the beach and watch the huge waves come in, and see the chickens strutting around.  Kauai is covered with feral chickens.  Many of them are quite beautiful, with multi-colored feathers.  They don't seem to have any natural predators, and they are everywhere.




We were soaked through, so after we got to the condo we changed into swimsuits and sat in the hot tub for a while.  Something we enjoyed last time we were in Kauai was attending a farmer's market in Hanalei.  There was one scheduled for Tuesday afternoon, bigger than last time and relocated to a big field outside town.  It was fun looking at the crafts, prepared food, and produce.  I bought some star fruit and something called a coco (?) that was supposed to take eight years to produce.  The farmer said it tasted like cinnamon and brown sugar, which sounded good to me.  We tried it the next morning, and it tasted like a kiwi fruit with brown sugar sprinkled on it.  Interesting, but I liked the star fruit better.  They look like a yellow-green star extruded out of a play dough machine, and they taste like a crisp pear with a hint of lime.  Yum!  Someone in the local grocery store said we should sample the lasagna at one of the booths, so for lunch we bought a slice of three-cheese lasagna, with about twelve thin layers of noodles.  It was really good--probably the best lasagna I've tasted.  Then we split a slice of passionfruit cheesecake for dessert.

We met one of Mike's colleagues at the Tiki Aniki on Tuesday night for dinner.  His wife and  two young children came also.  The boy, about 9, is on a fitness craze.  He has a fitbit step tracker and has been getting about 35,000 steps a day. (I average about 5,000).  He fell asleep at the dinner table and didn't wake up until we left!

We had been hoping to go snorkeling somewhere on Wednesday morning, but the swells were still high--perhaps twenty feet.  We hiked down to a little beach called "Hideaway Beach."  It is difficult to get to, down a very steep and twisty trail, and as a result it was nearly deserted.

I was met by a couple of interesting, eerie beach sculptures:






Mike and I enjoyed sitting and watching surfers riding the waves (only 20-30 ft. swells that day), several of them doing 360s along the crests.  Such a pretty beach.  We'd love to come again sometime when it was calm enough to snorkel.



After packing up our stuff, we drove down to the dry side of the island, stopping in Koloa for lunch at a pleasant cafe with an open courtyard that let in pleasant breezes.  We stayed at the Sheraton Beach Resort in Poipou, right on the beach (although our room had a "garden view.")  It was a pleasant room, and the whole resort seemed much more quiet and relaxed that Waikiki.

Thursday morning we went diving with "Fathom Five" scuba.  We did two dives--one to a place directly in front of the Sheraton (but out from shore a quarter of a mile or so).  It was called Sheraton Caverns, named for the arches and caves about 35 feet down--home to lots and lots of sea turtles, in addition to fish and eels and nudibranchs.  My air always lasts ten minutes or so longer than everyone else's, so I got to take an extra lap through the caves with our dive master.  A really big turtle emerged from his ledge and swam alongside me--perhaps two feet away--for a while.  Nice to see him face to face.  The second dive was much deeper--75 to 80 feet, so shorter.  It was called "Ledges," named for some underwater cliffs we explored up and down.  I had forgotten how much I love scuba.  It had been over three years since our last dive, and it was great.

Mike and I generally do very little lounging, but we decided to read by the side of the pool Thursday afternoon, and it was very pleasant.

Friday we drove up to the Lehue area again to kayak up the Waimea River.



The weather was lovely, not too hot, and it was good exercise paddling about two and a half miles in to a trailhead, where our guide led us about 3/4 mile in to "Secret Falls."  Our guide was a very chill young guy who played the ukulele as he walked along.  He identified plants and trees, and told us some Kauaian history.



Here are the falls.



We wore our swimsuits under our clothes, so we had to jump in.  It was cold!





After completing our kayak trip back, we stopped by a restored Hawaiian village our guide had pointed out along the riverbank.  It had a dozen or so traditional houses, with placards explaining their functions.  I enjoyed learning about the culture, but it made me very glad I did not live in Hawaii two hundred years ago.  There were separate men's and women's dining halls, because women were considered unclean and not allowed to eat with men.  In addition, there were a number of foods, such as bananas, that were reserved only for men because they were "too good" for women. Grrrr.

I guess conditions weren't that good for doctors either:



We ate at Brenneke's Seafood Grill that night.  There was quite a crowd, so they gave us a buzzer and told us we could wait out on the beach and watch the sunset--something we hadn't managed to do yet in Hawaii.  It was worth the wait:



Saturday morning I got up early to attend a yoga class on the lawn just in front of the beach.  Now I know why they play recordings of ocean waves at yoga classes.  It was very conducive to a zenlike reverie.  After that, I was determined to get in one more good snorkel.  (I snorkeled a bit in Oahu--not so great--and once just after we arrived in Poipou--OK, but the water was rough in the afternoon).  This time I went at 10 in the morning, and the water was calmer than before, and I had a wonderful time.  No sea turtles, but I saw some wonderful fish--lots of humuhumunukunukuapua'as (Hawaii's state fish, the reef trigger fish), Moorish idols, and several Christmas wrasses, as well as unicorn fish, threadfin butterfly, blue stripe butterfly, and the little black fish with tiny white dots that I love but don't know the name of.  I was most excited to see my first Picasso trigger fish--similar to the reef trigger fish, but with gorgeous modern art-like markings, and a really big yellow trumpet fish, probably at least three feet long, which I swam above for several minutes.  Such fun!

Our plan for the rest of Saturday was to explore Waimea Canyon--the "Grand Canyon of the Pacific," which he had tried to see our first trip to Kauai, but it was completely obscured by fog and rain.  We stopped in Koloa for lunch, eating at the same little cafe as we had on our way to Poipou.  This time I ordered the Poke bowl--a cake of furukake seasoned rice topped with chopped raw ahi and a mound of seaweed, with artistically placed pools of sauce for dipping on the side.  Oh my goodness!  It was sooooo good!  This little gecko stuck by us for most of the meal:



Mike had looked up some good hikes, and we found the trailhead without trouble.  We stopped at a viewpoint along the way, where you could catch stunning views of the gorge and the waterfall, to which the trail led.  See it off in the distance to the left?  Kauai's soil is really red, as you can see.  It's where they make the red dirt shirts they sell all over Hawaii.






The trail was an easy four miles or so, mostly dry with a few muddy spots.  Here's Mike just before we reached the top of the waterfall.  See the tiny arch formation on the ridge to the left?  We debated whether it and the stacks of rocks below were caused by erosion or manmade.  Tempting place to set up a temple, no?



Just beyond this point, the trail split, one half leading to the top of the falls, here:



The other half led to a small waterfall and pool, so perfectly framed by rocks and greenery that they looked like some landscape architect had planted them there.



The hike to reach it meant there were far fewer people there, and the water was much colder at 3500 ft. elevation.  We jumped in anyway.



Brrrr!  We decided it was even colder than Calf Creek, though how that is possible I don't know.  On our way down the mountain we stopped a couple times to photograph the ocean at twilight.  That island off in the distance is Nihau, called "the forbidden island" because it has been privately owned for over a century.  Can you see the glimmer in the middle? It's a lake, sometimes dry, but clearly full in this rainy season:



A lovely day to end our trip.  We had a wonderful time and are now happy to let Kauai keep company with Maui on our list of favorite places to vacation.