our trip to kauai: day 2

Day two started early. Reeeaaalllyyyy early. 3am early. Christian is a champion sleeper. Sleeps through the night for eleven hours, no problems. At home, in his crib. This jank crib we were using at the hotel wasn't cutting it and I don't really blame him. It was more of a mini-crib. Anyway, he woke up, wondered where the heck he was, cried, and us in an effort to not wake the entire floor, put him in the bed hoping he'd go back to sleep. HA. HA. HA. That is so funny we thought that. Anyway... so that's how our day started. In the middle of the night.

But we did get to see this very pretty sunrise!

We decided that we weren't going to pay $20 a person for the buffet breakfast and went to check out a local restaurant in the town of Kapa'a that had good Yelp reviews. On the way there, Christian fell asleep in the car. Breakfast was now Starbucks in the parking lot. Just as well.

After "breakfast," we meandered up to the North Shore towards Hanalei Bay.

We stopped off on the side of the row, and the above pictures were what we saw. Green, green, green. The surf was huge at the bay, and Rob said it's one of the best surf spots in Hawaii. The town of Hanalei was fantastic. Everything I'd picture a Hawaiian surf town to be. You may recognize it if you've ever seen Elvis's Blue Hawaii. 

Hanalei also has many one-lane bridges. (Some are kinda sketchy... like the "two part" one lane bridge above.)

Pit stop at a campground for lunch/diaper change/coral picking/sand throwing/being happy before we hiked Kalahau Trail along the Na Pali coast.

Taro field. Taro is a root vegetable and what they make poi out of. I am convinced that you have to have been raised eating poi to actually really appreciate it. I don't know. But I'm not a huge fan of it myself. Looks like purple soupy I don't know. 

This hike - the Kalahau Trail - is probably the most beautiful anything I've ever seen. The trees, the cliffs, the ocean, everything. I didn't want to stop! And well, the hike is 11 miles, so I probably could have gone on for a while. However, with the little one, we were just going to play it by ear. Our "goal" was to make it to the beach, which was said to be 2 miles in. Well, we hiked for an hour and a half, and never saw the beach. At the hour and a half mark, we asked someone on the way out how close we were, they said halfway there. Yikes. So we just decided to turn around. (Although, I think we were MUCH closer than halfway there. We passed a mile marker at the 1/2 mile point and that was A LONG TIME AGO. Oh well.) But, Christian was solid. He left a trail of Cheerios, which many a passerby commented on. "OH! So YOU'RE where the Cheerios came from!" "We figured there must have a been a little person on the trail - we saw the Cheerios!" It was pretty funny. We just explained that we were leaving a trail for the way out.  

We also passed by Bethany Hamilton while on the hike! You know, Soul Surfer, Bethany Hamilton. Had her arm bitten off by a 15-foot tiger shark, but was back out surfing A MONTH LATER. Her faith in God is amazing. She had her arm bitten off by a shark, and yet, she continued to trust God... and surf. Ah-mazing. What a positive woman, and someone to be admired. I was very, very excited to see her. Unfortunately, this was the only picture I got, as she was on her way down while we were on the way up. 

So after writing all that about Bethany Hamilton, I feel kinda lame talking about how tired we were after hiking... but after three hours of hiking, we were pretty tired. We complained about our knees a lot too. 

We drove back into Hanalei Town to look for lunch... um, we found some. At Foodland. Yes, the grocery store. I know I know. WHY didn't we eat at Tahiti Nui, the famous bar that George Clooney went to in The Descendants? Or WHY didn't we go to one of the other wonderful restaurants in town. We tried. We really did. The waits were long, and we were tired and not in the mood to wait. Christian had been strapped in for three hours and the last thing he wanted to do was sit in a high chair. And I don't blame him. So we went to Foodland, took turns eating while Christian ran around the outside (there were lots of little shops... and cats to chase.) And then we had ice cream, yum! 

After leaving Hanalei, Christian passed out. I wanted to go to the Kiluea Lighthouse and look for our friend's "brick." Our beautiful friends Jayme and Joel used to live on Kauai (jealous!) and when they got married, they had a brick laid at the lighthouse with their wedding date on it. My mission was to find this brick, lay down beside it, and take a picture. Since Christian was asleep, and you never wake a sleeping baby, I was on this mission alone. Unfortunately, the lighthouse was under major renovation and their brick was covered up. When I texted the sad news to Jayme, her response was, "our brick is paying for that renovation, this is good news!" Or something along those lines! ;) Always the optimist that girl. 

One fascinating thing about the Kiluea Lighthouse is all the birds! Yes, really! I didn't realize this, but Jayme told me that Kauai has the largest population of exotic and endangered birds, and most all of them can be found nesting and flying around on the cliffs by the lighthouse. I really wish I had brought my bigger lens to capture all the Red-footed Boobies hanging out. There were hundreds! 

All those little white dots are Red-footed Boobies.

After the lighthouse we headed back to the hotel. The concierge mentioned a little spot called The Fish Hut, so we went there for dinner. It did not disappoint. And it was located in a huge outdoor shopping mall, where everything was closed, so Christian had lots of room to run around. 

We had a busy, but wonderful second day in Kauai. I would love to give that hike another go... and maybe not do the entire eleven miles, but definitely make it to the beach or the waterfall next time. 

Aloha!

aloha friday!

Happy Friday, y'all! :)

I hope everyone has a fabulous weekend. Rob is off to spend the weekend in New York City. Ok, so maybe it's not quite as glamourous as it sounds. He said it's supposed to be cold and rainy. Well, guess what I'm doing at this moment... typing this blog, under a blanket, in a sweatshirt... while it's raining outside. Cold and rainy in Hawaii? I do think so. Yes yes, I KNOW it's 77 degrees outside, but I'm still cold. I guess you could say I'm "acclimated."

This weekend there's the Kaneohe Bay Airshow, that I'd love to go see. Blue Angels, and everything! I really really wish Rob was going to be home this weekend.

But really, no plans. Just have a relaxing weekend just me and the little guy. I think we're going to try out a different class at WeePlay. We stopped going because he outgrew the "baby class" (sniff sniff) and he's still taking two solid naps a day. No other class times really worked, but I think we're going to try and work something out.

Have a beautiful weekend!

PS - more about our trip to Kauai coming soon!

our trip to kauai: day 1

This past weekend we took a short trip to Kauai. Wow. Usually, Rob and I would have just thrown some stuff in a backpack and be gone... but with a toddler, it's a bit more complicated. We still managed to keep it simple taking our new Kelty backpack that Christian could ride in, his car seat, one backpack for us, and a suitcase. Ok... maybe not so simple. But the plane ride was quick (25 minutes) and I am SO happy we decided to just go one island over, instead of Sydney, Japan, or California (all places we considered). Although, California would have been awesome because we could have visited family, thus making it worth the plane ride! But Christian did really well, and for the most part loved looking out the window. Take-off was his favorite part. ;)

Oh, another favorite part of the airport? The moving sidewalks. We're now considering getting a treadmill for our home. (Kidding...)

When we arrived in Kauai, Christian was pooped. He had already missed his morning nap, and we knew he'd probably crash once we got him situated in the car. We were right. So we decided to drive clear across the other side of the island and check out Waimea Canyon State Park. We read some Yelp reviews about a stop along the way in the town of Hanapepe where you could get some delicious taro chips and sweet potato chips. We stopped, Rob slammed the door in sheer excitement ;), Christian was now awake... and cranky. Oh well. We all needed to eat lunch anyway, so picked up a plate lunch nearby. 

Hanapepe was an interesting little town... with an interesting history. It means "Crushed Bay" because of all the landslides, and it was the inspiration for the hometown of the main characters in Lilo & Stitch. (All info from Wikipedia.)

We continued from Hanapepe to Waimea Canyon, also known as The Grand Canyon of the Pacific, which is said to have been dubbed that name by Mark Twain. I think I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. When you see the Grand Canyon, it just kinda takes your breath away. And also like the Grand Canyon, pictures never do it justice. When I see something so beautiful, there is just no doubt in my mind that God exists. It's just amazing, beautiful, spectacular, breathtaking, ok, you get the picture...

Overlooking the town of Waimea. That is " the forbidden isle" you see in the background, Ni'ihau. It has such an interesting story. Of the 160 people that live there, they all live in the exact part of the island where you can't see Kauai. Well, humph. 

Oh, those chickens. Kauai has A LOT of chickens running around. We have some here on Oahu... but Kauai has... a lot. Christian wanted that chicken. Or any one of them would have been fine. 

From Waimea Canyon we continued on to just about the North Shore... but the road doesn't connect. Meaning, you can't circumnavigate the island. So we eventually hit the end of the road... and this is what we saw:

And more chickens. 

At this point we decided to go to the hotel. We stayed at the Kauai Beach Resort, which was centrally located in Lihue. Easy drive to the North and South shores, and over to the Westside. Lihue sits on the Eastside of the island. The waterfalls at the pool were also a big hit. For dinner we wanted to try out a pizza place... we plugged it into the GPS... and were taken TEN MILES out of the way. Which means, TWENTY miles of needless driving... with a tired one year old in the car seat... and hungry, mildly grumpy parents up front. Anyway, we finally found it, filled our bellies, and went back to the hotel for some sleep. At 8:30pm. We were exhausted! 

aloha friday!

Happy aloha Friday! :)

source

We're going to Kauai ("The Garden Isle") this weekend! I am very very excited about this. It's just the quick trip I need to satisfy my craving to travel. We'll be staying in Lihue so we'll have easy access to the north and south shores. Truth be told I haven't looked too much into it, and as soon as I'm done writing this, that's what I'm going to do. We have a book on Hawaii in general that touches on Kauai, and Rob is going to swing by the library to see what he can find. We'll have three full days and two nights on the island. We're even all set-up with an ocean view room. :)

Here is a little more info on the beautiful island of Kauai. From what I know about Kauai, it is very country, as they say here. I'm very much looking forward to some hiking, exploring, waterfalls, and maybe even a little time by the pool.

Have a wonderful weekend!

a little hike: wailupe trail loop

There's this little hike back into Aina Haina valley that we tried out the other day. We'd been eyeing some Kelty backpacks (for hiking with baby) and finally picked one up. Christian just was not loving life hiking in the Ergo. This one is so nice! It's collapsable, about the size of a normal backpack, and Christian kind of sits up in it and can see over Rob's (or mine) shoulder giving him a full view ahead.

We didn't go too far because we were mainly just giving the backpack a trial run, but we definitely want to go back farther in the valley next time. There's supposedly an old heiau (Hawaiian temple) back there with an... interesting... story... involving coconut trees... and human sacrifice. Whoa.

Setting out for our hike! The trailhead was on the next street over, so we just walked the half-mile to get there. 

Looking back towards the ocean. 

Some very very scary barking dogs. I was certain they were going to jump the fence and eat us.

At the trailhead.

What we did was fairly easy. We gained some elevation, but the path was for the most part well defined.

Except for when it was all roots...

Uluhe Ferns. According to this website, ancient Hawaiians would soak the fern in water and drink the liquid as a cure for constipation. Well alright then!

Not exactly sure what these trees are, but they had very small trunks. There were also many Strawberry Guava trees, but none with fruit. Maybe out of season? 

"Hey Ma! Check out my Kukui nut!!"

Coming out of the valley.

Kukui nut in one hand...

...Cheerios in the other. Happy boy.

Snapped a few pictures of plants and flowers as we were walking home. 

Rob and I couldn't figure out what this interesting looking fruit was, so I texted a picture of it to my good friend, Jayme. She is a horticulturalist for the University, and I knew she would be able to tell me all about it. And wow, she did! This is basically what she told me. It's called Noni - a Hawaiian medicinal plant. She said if you smell the fruit it smells like "bad cheese that's been under wet smelly socks for too long." Well, thank goodness I didn't smell it!!! She also said it's touted as an anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer super fruit. Locals will set the fruit in the jar, place it in the sun for two weeks to let the juice ferment, take a swig a day to keep the doctor away. CAN YOU EVEN IMAGINE WHAT THAT WOULD TASTE LIKE?!? The leaves can also be used for sore or bruised bones. I'm telling you, if you're going on a hike, Jayme is the gal you want by your side. Thanks Jayme!! 

So that was our hike. We eventually stopped when came to a split in the trail. Christian was getting hungry... heck, we were too. So, we headed home! We definitely want to go back and do it again with a little bit better planning. I've read online the entire loop is six miles. Probably not something we'd want to do with Christian. He was getting a little antsy after an hour. BUT... since we're going to Kauai this weekend (!!!), there will definitely be more hiking in our near future.