Okay. It appears that I failed to publish some blog posts from our recent trip to Hawaii. Rather than just hit the delete button, I’m going to post them — aren’t you all lucky?
From memory, and by checking my last post, I left you on Oahu. This post picks up with our travels to Kauai, The Garden Island.
One thing to note about Lahui Airport, it’s small. After a fantastic view approaching the island, and a beautiful sunny landing, where we were asked to wave to the Air Traffic Controllers, Chad and Brian. They waved back! It was quite amusing to hear people on the plane get excited about seeing someone wave back to them.
After arriving at the airport, getting our car, and getting packed … it rained. It’s was a good tropical rain though, so we enjoyed a casual drive up the road until we got to Kapa’a where Chris’s mom (“CMom”) pointed out this cafe called Olympic Cafe. It being lunch, we stopped, and WOW! Try the pig quesadilla or the fish tacos — unbelievably good.
As we continued our drive to our accommodation, we stopped at Anini Beach Park. It was a small park, but the water was clear and warm, and it was very nice to be able to just stop for a short time and check our mail. It was actually kind of funny, as both of us were texting friends to let them how beautiful it was. We did get to visit this beach again for a longer time later in the week, and dream about what it must be like to wake up to that view every day. Do you think one would get bored with it, and just take it for granted?
Later that day after settling into our “home” away from home, we decided to take a trip over the Ke’e Beach (Haena State Park) for the sunset, and along the way (actually just around the corner) we found the Hanalei Valley Overlook which is home to migratory birds throughout the year. During the trip we drove through Hanalei, and found a great restaurant called Kalypso’s Cafe. Awesome food! We ate there twice – two nights in a row. The first night I had probably the best Calimari I have ever eaten. It was just perfectly cooked in a fine tempura-esque batter. I followed it up with Fish and Chip, and to this day these would be the best I’ve ever had (which is actually saying something). Of course, it was made with Ono (also called Wahoo) which is just a delicious fish. The second night, I ordered a Penne Pasta Pesto with Ono and followed it up with a Grasshopper Pie. A further triumph! Thank the heavens we were walking everywhere.
We did manage to get to Hanalei Bay Beach for some sunset shots (this one is the one I use on my desktop). This was probably the prettiest place that we saw the sunset during our trip.
Our last full day was spent driving all over the place, and visited Opaeka Falls, Wailea Falls, Po’ipu Beach; the Tunnel of trees (all eucalypts); spouting horn; and Waimea Canyon.
One the way back, we stopped at the memorial for Captain James Cook (for those not in the know, the [re-]discoverer of Australia).