Oh Kauai how I miss you already! I think I'll go back. With my kids this time!
Remember how Chad sweetly surprised me with a trip back in December for my birthday? Well February finally came and we got to go! I can't thank Chad's parents enough for their generosity in making it possible. They arrived on the 12th mid trip to head out for their 2 year mission in Nauvoo, and stopped to take care of our kids for 9 days on their way! Seriously, so incredible of them.
Our flights were originally scheduled for the afternoon of the 15th but the airline felt the need to get us there sooner, moving our flight up to 8 am. So we headed out the evening of the 14th (Happy Valentine's Day kids... see ya later!) and stayed in a hotel in SLC that night. We flew all day and were starving by the end! I was grumbling that the airline was supposed to feed us on such a long flight and then realized they had probably tried but we were sleeping! LOL
We landed just in time to check in on youtube for the Youth Standard's Night Stake Youth Choir performance I had prepared the choir for. They sang We Will Trust in the Lord which is the youth theme this year. I was so glad I got to at least listen to all their hard work pay off! And I did it as we collected our luggage from baggage claim. LOL. We then collected our rental car and grabbed groceries and dinner from Costco (grossest and greasiest pizza ever!) and head up the coast to our AirBNB in Princeville. It was dark by the time we arrived so we didn't do much exploring. But first thing the next morning we went for a run... we were really in need of stretching our legs, and look what we found on our run! We ran 3 miles and walked back 2... we just didn't want to quit going, everything was so beautiful!
Kinda fun that you can unintentionally come across such views on something as simple as a run.
Turns out we didn't need to log the miles on the run as we decided to hike the Okolehao Trail for just over 4 miles. This was a tad muddy and slippery and very steep... think mud stairs. It wasn't my favorite hike for views but it did have some pretty ones.
Afterward we headed back to town to check out the Golf course Bazaar which ended up being teeny tiny and very pricey. Not something we will have to repeat. But it was nice to appreciate the incredible talents of the jewelry makers and photographers.
We watched the sun set at Hideaway Beach which I didn't get any great pictures of. The access to the beach was hilarious and actually quite well hidden. Stairs forever that wrapped through what I think was a resort before approaching the sand.
Thursday we headed out for our kayak adventure. We hit up this hidden gem, I don't even know what beach it was, for lunch. The wind blew my salad all over the place, but I got some great pix!
I love to get the contrast of the rocks with the sand and color contrasts of the blues and greens.
And of course... proof that we were there! See the palm trees? LOL
Idyllic little lunch spot, is it not?
We met our group just after lunch and headed to the Wailua River. It took us a hot minute to figure out the steering and propelling but don't worry, your A-team pulled through!
We kayaked up river for 2 miles before taking a 2 mile "hike" which was really a long walk riddled with lots of stops that lead up to a waterfall. Chad and I are not a good fit for guided tours, we've decided. But we did learn a lot that we would not have had we been on our own. AND we did not get lost. Which is a bonus.
Our guide had many friends along the trail.
And we got to witness the magic of the Hela Hela plant known for its shyness. Kinda reminds me of the moon lilies from the Grand Canyon. One shies from touch, the other from light. Nature is amazing.
We hiked up to the waterfall which fell into a fun little freezing cold swimming hole. But come on. Of course we had to play! We even went up and behind the falls. But our guide never sent us the pictures he took of us. Probably because we didn't tip him 😆
We then went to Tiki Tacos for their famous fish tacos and had dinner with a friendly rooster. We had our tacos with ono and roast veggies in Kapa'a and they were delicious!
On the drive home we found this beauty...
And this beauty...
Anini Beach
Turns out Jaedyn had a little taste of Hawaii back home in Idaho as part of Hope Week! Here she is with friends: Jaxten, Kade, Aiden, Eldon, Karson, Addie and Jaedyn.
The Beach was Beautiful! I didn't even care that it was crowded.
The snorkeling here was so fun as the beach had a little enclosed bay so the water was smooth. The fish were the large, flat, tropical variety. There were schools of hundreds in some areas with large colorful one scattered randomly throughout. And some mini swordfish looking ones skimming just under the surface.
And guess what was sleeping on the beach when we got there?
I am so glad we didn't spend 4 hours at the other beach with the hopes of seeing some! LOL
And bonus, a couple seals swam in to play on our beach while we were there!
We spent a few hours there before grabbing a Pukadog and some shave ice. The Pukadog had come highly recommended and it was good, for a hotdog. But it was still just a hotdog LOL.
Sunday we slept in again but still felt so tired when we got up! We hit church in Kapa'a and after church we decided to take a nap in the car before doing anything else cuz we were having a hard time even keeping our eyes open. We slept for an hour! We had a small picnic and then headed to Kuilau Ridge Trail to watch the sunset. We hiked a total of 6 miles and headed back in the dark. There were frogs all over the trail once it got dark and we had to be careful so as not to step on any!
My mom texted me to ask how our trip was mid-hike so I snapped a quick photo to answer her. "A picture is worth a thousand words."
We enjoyed this trail and weren't able to do the waterfall trail in Haena park because they are now requiring permits so we returned to do the whole trail on Monday. We hiked 9 miles, and it turns out we had already done the beautiful parts of the trail, the last little bit was mostly just a dirt road, but we enjoyed the views once again.
Tuesday we wanted to head over to the other side of the island and hit up Wailea Canyon before flying out at 10pm. So we picked what looked like a short 5 mile hike on the Kukui Trail and figured it would be a perfect little jaunt. Um, we did not go into this trail well informed at all. We had just looked it up on the road while heading to the canyon and we were having issues with internet so we were only able to see names of hikes and distance on a map app I use. It was 2.5 miles straight down the canyon. With loose gravel overlying the rock so it was very slick. So slick, that it took us longer to get down than it did to get up!
I'm planning to do a Rim to Rim in the Grand Canyon this fall and was thinking I had a lot of work to do after I did this hike. Then I looked up the stats. We ascended 2162 feet in 2.5 miles on this trail. The Grand Canyon South Rim ascends 4460 feet in 7.8 miles. I think I'll be just fine. LOL
It's funny cuz we weren't planning on doing anything that exerting since we were flying out that evening.
At the base, this beauty awaited us. We were so sad we were limited on time and didn't have our suits because we could have spent hours at this playground!
We decided that apples are the perfect mid hike snack. So yummy and refreshing!
It took 1 hr 25 minutes to get down to the river. Chad death marched us up and out in 1 hr 20 minutes. I was literally DRIPPING.
Beautiful sunset on a beautiful trip!
The trip out was an interesting one... We could NOT find a gas station for the life of us and remember we were having internet problems? We finally found a Circle K... and it didn't sell gas! Then we found a Texaco and they were out of gas! What are the chances?! I finally put a call in to T-mobile and they fixed our issue, we found the gas station, filled up the rental, returned it, and got to the airport with time to spare. Which is a good thing because apparently my protein powder that I flew in with was offensive on the way out. I had to be patted down multiple times and then they pulled us to the side while they performed multiple tests on our very sweet smelling "explosive" powder. (insert eyeroll). I'm glad we had plenty of time because the situation just ended up being hilarious instead of stressful. We boarded, took off, zonked... and missed the inflight service meal again!
