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Friday, November 20, 2015

Our Hawaiian adventure continues...
To read the first 2 parts click here for days 1-3 & here for days 4-5

Thursday Day 6: I could get used to this life, waking up on the east side of the island and seeing this, I could definitely do this everyday!

We went over to the southwest side of the island and found the most absolute perfect spot for swimming, snorkeling and soaking up the sun, Salt Pond Beach.

All that's missing is a hammock :)

We brought our GoPro and had some fun a while we were snorkeling.

We drove around and finally found glass beach in Port Allen, and to our surprise it was also a black sand beach! This beach used to covered with broken polished glass pieces from shipwrecks, but now there is just a little bit left because beachcombers just can't leave it alone.

Next we drove to Kauai Coffee and enjoyed free samples of delicious coffee. Kauai is home to the largest coffee farm in the United States with over 4 million coffee trees on 3,100 acres.

Coffee Beans

Touring the plantation

Then we stopped in a little town called Kekaha and got some yummy shave ice, it was completely acceptable to have at least one shave ice a day, sometimes two lol! These are not your average 'snocones', these are fluffy and soft and not icy at all...mmm my mouth is watering.

Banana trees, but we didn't see any monkeys around ;)

We drove back to Salt Pond to watch the sunset and it was beautiful. This island is picture perfect!

Friday Day 7: We decided to have an extremely low key day and I didn't even bring my nice camera, just the iPhone. We booked a beach side couples massage and it was fantastic! 80 minutes of pure bliss, plus a complimentary coconut oil scalp massage, ahhhh! We went with KauaiCouplesMassage.com, you can see their website here. Tiffany & Victoria were wonderful!

Our view from the cabana, The Coconut Coast, although I just looked at the backsides of my eyelids ;)

We spent the rest of the day lounging on the beach, swimming, and then we went to Haena on the north side, and watched the sky turn to pastel sherbet as the sun went down.

Saturday Day 8: Our last day, boo hoo hoo! We had to checkout of our condo at 10am, so the rest of the day was spent driving around, eating, and hanging out at the beach. We didn't fly out until 11pm so we had all day to just relax and soak in every last drop of paradise. We had a nice little picnic lunch on the east side of the island in Kapaa at Lydegate Beach Park.

These hibiscus were awesome!

The next thing we did was go to Kilohana and check out Koloa Rum Co. They offer free rum tasting and they make their rum for sugar cane and rainwater, according to Alan, it is amazing ;)

Then we went to Poipu on the south side of the island. We spent some time at Shipwreck Beach under the palm trees.

Coconut Trees. Be careful there are more deaths caused by falling coconuts than by shark attacks!

Then we drove a few miles down the beach to Spouting Horn, a blowhole that erupts continuously.

I was craving one last shave ice so we stopped at a little shopping center with restaurants and fun little shops in Poipu. I got my shave ice and enjoyed the last of the beautiful tropical flowers, and Alan had Hawaii's official drink, a Mai Tai.

It's our Hawaiian tradition to find a tiki man and snap a picture with it :)

We had dinner at Brennecke's Beachfront Restaurant in Poipu and watched the last sunset of our vacation, sigh...aloha Hawaii. We left ~~crying, kicking and screaming~~ Poipu and returned our car and waited for that red-eye flight back home.

I'm not entirely sure how long I could stay in paradise and not get homesick. I love this place! Alan and I even found a little piece of heaven that was for sale while we were there. We dreamed, and imagined not ever leaving and just staying there in paradise. But that little slice of land was a little out of our budget, but only by a million or so dollars lol!

Until we meet again Aloha Kauai...
Somewhere over the rainbow, way up high...

Our magical vacation to Kauai continues here...

Tuesday Day 4: Mornings are getting better but we're still up before the sun, about 5:45. At least we are greated with beautiful sunrises :)

We booked a helicopter tour of the island at 11am, fingers crossed that the engine didn't go out and that we'd actually get to see that Na Pali coast ;) We booked with Island Helicopters and something that sets them apart from all the other helicopter tours is that they are the only company that has the rights to land at Manawaiopuna Falls, otherwise known as Jurassic Falls. This is the waterfall that the helicopter landed at on the first Jurassic Park movie 20+ years ago! And let me tell you, it did not disappoint. After a short flight from the heliport we landed in the jungle at this beauty...

It was absolutely breathtaking! We stayed there about 20 minutes, took pics and learned a little bit of history about the waterfall from the pilot, and then boarded the helicopter again to finish the 85 minute island tour.

Waimea Canyon, the Grand Canyon of the Pacific

Finally! That unbelievable Na Pali coast!

After the tour we spent some time at Anini Beach, its on the north side of the island. It may look calm and peaceful, but a big rogue wave came up and we both lost our flip flops! LOL! It can happen fast so always be on the lookout.

This was only about 1/4 mile away from Anini Beach, the waves were rolling in and the surf was getting rough!

We drove to the nearest town, Princeville, to buy some new flip flops and then we drove into Hanalei to eat dinner. This wasn't too bad view from our table. Man I love open air dining. Kalypso had awesome food!

After dinner we found a nice little spot on top of a cliff in Princeville to watch the sunset over Bali Hai. This was such an amazing day, from sunrise to sunset!

Wednesday Day 5: We are officially on Hawaiian time, we woke up at 6am and saw another pretty sunrise :)

Surprise, surprise, we decided to have another beach day and enjoy soaking up that warm 87 degree Hawaiian sun. I could do that every single day for the rest of my life and not get tired of it. We started our day at Tunnel's Beach, again :)

Then we drove through the jungle a little ways and ended up a a dead end road with a secluded bay at the end of it, Kalihiwai Bay. We laid around and watched surfers until it was time to head back to our room to get ready for our Luau!