Hawaii 2011 -- Day 4

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Blog by Greta:

Day 4: It's our first full day on Kauai. We flew out last night (after an AWESOME shirmp dinner at a teeny, little shack on Oahu) to Kauai. Upon recommendation from our personal Hawaiian local Marian McCann (who was a Dayton, MN up until a year ago), we swung by Walmart after leaving the airpoirt to pick up some snacks, milk, cereal, drinks & sunblock. We were really tired but it's a rural island, and so this was our best bet.

This morning we woke up and could actually SEE the place we are staying at (since it was dark last night). It's simply beautiful here @ Kiahuna Plantation Resort in Po'ipu - 35 acres of gardens, beach, etc. We had a presentation by the local Expecia rep right on the property who offers good deals on activities, and absolutely NO time-share offers. He talked about the island, what there is to see/do, and so on.

We were told by Marian that the winds were to build & by week's end, helicopter rides might get cancelled. Since this was recommended by numerous sources, we wanted to book that right away, but already the first opening wasn't until tomorrow @ 3 pm, so we took that. It's with Blue Hawaii, which is supposed to be the best out here, so that's good. It also seems to be a better deal than booking with them through their website, which is the exact opposite of what the travel books recommended, so yay!

Afrter their presentation, we walked the gardens a bit ,and checked out the beach, and got to see a whale breaching (jumping) over & over again a ways out. Pretty neat!

We headed up to see/hike Waimea Canyon, aka "The Grand Canyon of Hawaii". In Waimea, we stopped @ "Island Tacos". It was just a little place that had awesome food. We found it by driving past it, and then deciding it was "fate" because I opened up a "free coupon book" that I'd picked up from the Walmart lobby, and found a "free drink" offer in it. Mike had a Grilled Shrimp Taco (with Papaya, maybe?) and I had a "Seared Wasabi Ahi" Taco, and we both had a can of Passion Fruit/Orange Juice - PERFECT!

On to the canyon. It was absolutely gorgeous. The entire drive from the beach to the top of the road was interesting - red, red dirt, and very arid land near the "middle". The further up we drove, the greener & cooler it got. It was down to the high 60s at the top, and the clouds were blowing right around us! Back down a few miles, we decided upon the "Canyon Trail to Waipo'o Falls". It was about 3 miles round trip, and quite the hike for someone like me who doesn't do a lot these days. Mike has been working out on the running machine @ home w/incline, but I have not, so tonight my calves are VERY VERY tight. He also can go a lot faster than me being 9 inches taller, so on the way back, he had to stop & wait for me along the way. But it really was beautiful - almost all downhill on the way down to the waterfall, and then of course, all back uphill on the way back. I stubbed my toe NUMEROUS times, so I once again have to thank Michele for the recommendation of getting Keens (sandal-type footwear that TOTALLY protects your toes). Mike's knee started bothering him near the end, so we're happy tomorrow's "strenous" exercise will be climbing in/out of a helicopter.

On the drive back to the resort, we swung by a teeny little pharmacy for some motion-sickness meds for me for the heli ride tomorrow. The last I was on a heli ride was in Hawaii about 6 years ago, and near the end, I started to feel quesy (I hate getting old - that stuff used to NEVER bother me). Then we stopped by the "spouting horn" near our hotel. It's this place where lava flows ran into the ocean 10s of 1,000s of years ago, then the ocean dug out this hole, and the water shoots up. Legend has it that there was a dragon trapped there - and really, it sounds exactly what you'd imagine a dragon would sound like. The water spurts WAY into the air from the lava blowhole - it's pretty neat to see. The chickens that are all over the island (crowing 24 hrs a day) were hanging out in the parking lot in full force with BABY CHICKS! I haven't heard the peep, peep of baby chicks since we used to raise chickens at home in the early 80's. These are not fuzzy yellow though - they are mutli-colored with stripes/spots and soon will be as fancy looking as the adults.

We headed back to the resort, and crashed in our room for bit, then headed out to Kalapaki Joe's for a casual bite to eat. it was near our hotel, but we couldn't find it at first in the dark because we'd turned the wrong way = all the maps around here do NOT put north at the top, and it can make things very confusing. It's a Hawaiian Sports bar - Mike had a surfer burger & fries & said that the fries were really good. I had lobster tacos (lobster is different here than on the mainland, but it was fish again for me - yum) and those were awesome as well. Yes, I know I already had fish tacos once today, but I can ALWAYS eat tacos/nachoes/etc - especially when they are tasty like this. They also use cabbage instead of lettuce on the tacos, I and really prefer that, I have found. It's REALLY casual there - it's pretty much a covered porch, and things move slow there. One waiter spilled an entire ice water on one customer (I think he got a free t-shirt of that) and our waitress started to jump/scream when a bug (flying cockroach Mike thinks) landed on her. But what can you do? The windows are open, so stuff will fly in. And seriously .. I think that the entire state of Hawaii maybe has 10 moquitoes on it, so as long as the flying things don't land on me or my food, I'm good. If one DOES land on me, I may dance/scream WAY better than the gal tonight! :)

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