Honeymoon Blog: Day 7 - The End...

Saturday 7/2

Today was our last full day of paradise. We have mixed emotions. We could stay here forever but we miss home, normality, family, and most importantly, Otto.

We started the day off with breakfast, and what Connor claims to be a failed snorkeling trip. Elise had told him the night before that she wanted to snorkel but knew that come morning she would be too cold to go in the water so he would have to make her. He didn’t so we did not end up snorkeling… we failed. So we came and lounged around the hotel for a bit before heading, once again, up to the North Shore. 

On our way to the North shore we made a pit stop at Costco. We ran in to get genuine Hawaiian Rum and macadamia nuts! 

From there we coasted on farther North to stop at the Kilahuea Lighthouse. It was not worth the $10 but cool to see. We both agreed that seeing the migrating humpback whales in winter would be a much better use of our money. 

Our last stop, Hanalei we found to be much too touristy. We were there to get on our Catamaran tour, but being the early birds we are, we arrived an hour early. We looked around a little and grabbed a double Bubba burger and chili rice at Bubba’s Burgers. It was pretty good and allowed for some good people watching. 

The Catamaran Tour was fabulous. We took a 16 person Catamaran on a 4 hour tour (we sang the Gilligan’s Island theme song a lot today…) along the Na’Pali coast. We saw all the places we had hiked this week! It was great to be able to see the beautiful coastline from both angles. We were able to enter a few sea caves, see a few sea turtles, and snorkel along the coast. It was a great way to spend our last full day in Kauai. We returned home to eat our Tidepools leftovers, pack some, and pass out. Tomorrow we leave at 2 p.m. Kauai time for KS.

*We would like to note, due to some concern, that the entry that mentioned a “marriage ending hike” was merely a joke. No serious fights or interactions have occurred while on this fabulous vacation.

**Another note, we apologize for Connor’s Frisbee tan lines… ;)

Honeymoon Blog: Day 6

Friday 7/1

We woke up today and had a little change in the morning breakfast routine.  Instead of eating the complimentary breakfast at the Sheraton, we drove up to a highly recommended breakfast spot in Kalaheo.  Elise got the Hawaiian French toast covered with pineapple and Macadamia nuts while Connor got the Bonza burrito.  It was another excellent meal!  

After breakfast, we checked out the historic town of Hanapepe…meh

We then went to the southern tip of the island to visit the Kauai Coffee Company, the largest single coffee estate in the US.  We tried 10+ different varieties of coffee and went on the self guided tour through their coffee fields and processing plant.  We left with a few souvenirs and a caffeine buzz!

This was just the beginning of the shopping spree.  We headed east back to the main town of Lihue where we both got some “Red Dirt T-Shirts” dyed with the red soil native to Kauai (as seen on Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe).  We then bought some more fun coffee and macadamia nut souvenirs at a local coffee shop (where we got the last six bags of Royal Kona gold coffee).  We finished off the spree in the little town of Koloa (just north of the hotel) where we bought Elise this very colorful and elegant sarong (pictured above!).  OW OW!   

*Elise would like to note that Connor is writing this entry.  

After exhausting the travel piggy bank, Elise insisted on getting one more purchase, a Puka Dog!  A hot dog wrapped completely with a bun covered in a fruity Hawaiian relish.  Although Connor was skeptical, the Pineapple relish Puka Dog was actually quite good.

*Elise wants to note that she finally got her nap in at this point, after days and days of hiking and snorkeling.

 

Just East of the hotel along the coast are some fantastic lithified cliffs that have been eroded by wind and wave for millions of years.  The result is a beautiful twisted coastline of cliffs called the Maha’ulepu beaches and cliffs (a local treasure judging by all of the local fishermen and campers).  Unfortunately, no sea turtles (in Hawaiian they are called Honu) or Monk seals (called “Dogs running in the rough seas”) were spotted.  

After cleaning up, we headed to a nice romantic dinner at the Grand Hyatt’s Tidepools restaurant.  The food and atmosphere (not to mention the company) were amazing.  Elise had the Hawaiian Opah with crab and avocado stuffed shrimp while Connor had the macadamia crusted Mahimahi.  Lava chocolate cake finished off a wonderful night.  

We also made a last stop to get a nice piece of artwork for our house, a sea turtle engraving in a beautiful piece of native Hawaiian Koa wood. 

Honeymoon Blog: Day 5

Thursday 6/30

After a quick breakfast, we headed back to the North Side of the Island to hike the famous Na Pali Coast. We figured we should get the inside view before we take the catamaran on Saturday! We arrived and found a spot relatively easily. We started the hike on the Kalalau trail and were instantly rewarded with breathtaking views of ocean, the beaches below, and the coast line. After 2 miles, and exactly an hour, we made it to the first stop,  the Hanakapi’ai Beach. We had brought our snorkel gear, but after seeing a sign the said “Do not go near the water, the unseen current has taken many visitors lives” which also had over 40 tallys to indicate these deaths, we decided to stay close to shore, though other people were not as smart. We had a quick lunch here then headed up the mountain for another 2 mile hike to the Hanakapi’ai Falls. 

The trail to the falls was nothing like the trail to the beach. We had to cross 4 streams, trek through mud, and dodge low trees along the way. This took us about and hour and fifteen minutes. Elise’s boots, needless to say, are thoroughly broken in. Once we reached the falls, it was totally worth it! They were beautiful. Connor even swam in the pool the falls had created. It was not as secluded as our previous hikes, but we were able to say aloha to everyone we passed and saw along the way. We ended up flying back, making it back to our car in less than 2 hours total (dropping about a half our off our time to get there). 

The trail head, nicely enough, was right by the best snorkeling beach in Kauai! The Ke’e Beach. We ran  (and by ran I mean barely walked) to our car, grabbed our snorkel gear, and headed out to the reef! We snorkeled over the reef with a clearance of about 5 inches between us and the coral and fish. Once we reached the other side, which we probably should not have gone out that far, we saw two ENORMOUS sea turtles! We could hardly stand it. They bounced along in the waves and current, close enough to touch. After about thirty seconds, they moved on, and we decided it best to head to shore. 

After our excitement of seeing the turtles, we thought we should start the 2 hour long drive back to the hotel, but not until after we stopped at HOT MAMA’s Burritos. We each got a chicken burrito and could not have been happier. 

We arrived back to the hotel, cleaned up, then headed down to the bar to obtain our complimentary champagne. We also decided another Hawaiian pizza was in order, being that we are in Hawaii. After scrounging up a table (hard to come by) and ordering, Con ran back to the room to get Elise a jacket, of course. And being her father’s daughter, Elise saw a couple looking for a table and invited them to join. Bev and Ken were probably about 60 and on their honeymoon as well. It made for great conversation. The pizza was later complementary after a 45 minute wait and the champagne remained free, making it a relaxing night after a solid day of hiking and adventure!