Kauai 2017 Day 2

Today we hiked the Kalalau Trail to Hanakapi'ai Beach.  We arrived at the overflow parking lot at 8:30 am and there was still parking spots available. (When we left cars were parked all along the road from the parking lot to Kee Beach wherever there was a wide spot) I'm glad we got up early and went when we did.  It is not overly difficult but yes it gets pretty slippery and steep in spots.  We managed with no problem in our Keens.  We talked about going to the waterfall but I knew that I wouldn't have been able to do it very comfortably.  It was worth the hike.  The scenery was amazing.  There is nothing that I have seen to compare to the Napali Coast. 

After getting back to the car we were starving.  Stopped at Foodland and picked up lunch.  Fried chicken, spam masubi, and poke.  Good stuff! By this time we were stiffening up and we hit the hot tub and pool and enjoyed the libations from the pool bar.  Rain storm came through and drove us back to the room.  I decided that I wanted new charms for my Pandora bracelet and found a couple that I really liked in the Savage gift shop.  I couldn't choose between the 2 so I bought them both.

We decided on Dolphin Sushi Lounge in Hanalei for dinner.  Amazing food and great service. I would highly recommend this restaurant if you are a sushi fan.

This brings us to the end of Day 2.  A busy day in beautiful Kauai.

Kauai 2017 Day 1

Our travel day was pretty uneventful. We set out on our first leg YWL to YVR at 12:30 in the afternoon.

At The Airport

The next leg YVR to LIH left Vancouver at 6:00 and was a smooth ride landing at shortly after 10.  I hopped on the Alamo Shuttle while Kelly and Evan waited for the bags.  I had already checked in and done the skip the kiosk online so I headed straight to the lot, grabbed a camaro and was back at the terminal before Kelly had even finished his cigarette.  We hit the road and arrived at Safeway with 5 minutes to spare to grab some beer so it was considered a successful arrival.  The ride to Hanalei Bay Resort went smoothly and I'm glad we knew where we were going as it is very very dark here at night.  We checked in and got to our room, had a couple of bevies to unwind and hit the hay exhausted from travel day.

Cheers!

We woke up and were able to see the view from our window.  We are in 9221.  The clouds were burning off and we could see it was going to be very nice out.

Good Morning Princeville

We were hungry so headed into Hanalei for breakfast.  We went to Hanalei Wake Up Cafe.  Good food but kind of overpriced.  Then we went to Pedal and Paddle for some snorkel gear.  A stop at Walking in Paradise for hiking sandals for Evan and some supplies at Foodland and we headed back to HBR.  The sun was in full glory now and it was getting hot.

Looking at St Regis from firepit at HBR

We changed into swimwear and headed down to Puu Poa Beach to play for awhile.  The water was on the rougher side and the snorkeling wasn't great but we had some fun for an hour or so.

We figured that the pool would be a good way to spend the afternoon so grabbed some drinks and settled in. 

After a couple of hours and a couple of cocktails in the heat we decided that if we didn't want to get overly intoxicated before dinner then maybe we should go for a walk.  We changed our clothes and decided to try and find the path to Hideaway Beach.  Holy cow those stairs behind the St Regis almost did me in.  Of course my son was sprinting up them telling me that stair running is a great workout!  We found the path down to the beach and wow I wouldn't want to attempt that if it was wet.

View from top of path to Hideaway Beach

We made it down without falling and man what a pretty spot.  The surf was pretty high and no way would I attempt to swim in it but a couple of brave souls were in the water.  We settled for watching the surfers.  I'd love to come back here on a calm day it's a beautiful peaceful place.

We made it back to the resort for our dinner reservations at Happy Talk.  Good food, good drinks, and some great live music,

Happy Talk Lounge

That was it for our first day. A great start to our vacation. 

Kauai 2015 Last Day

This was our last full day of vacation. After going for breakfast at Hanalei Wake Up Cafe we spent the entire morning just lazing at the pool. We found that this half of our vacation we turned into homebodies, spending most of our time on our lanai or at the pool. Part of me felt we should be out exploring the island but a bigger part said nope this is great right here. Hanalei Bay Resort is a really great place to stay if you can get past the roosters crowing from 3 am onwards. After some lunch we ventured to Queens Bath. Kelly wanted to see it and it was really close. We had no intentions of swimming but it was very calm and lots of people were jumping in. I can see from the colours on the rocks though just how big the surf could get though.

We spent the rest of our day poolside. Here's pictures of the pool area so you can see why we spent so much time there.

Dinner was going to be Tikiman pizza. I phoned in the order then spent the time taking flower pictures. HBR has beautiful grounds and each day it seemed like new flowers bloomed.

We picked up our pizza which was very good and got packed. We are out of here at 10 am today. Our flight isn't until 9:45 but we plan on golf at noon at Wailua and exploring Kapaa a bit. We return our car at 7:30 and then it's wait for our flight. Aloha Kauai and mahalo for your hospitality. We will be back!