Kauai
It’s hard to take in the beauty of Kauai with only two eyes, let alone capture it on film (or whatever we call it in this digital age). From the moment we arrived, I felt like just driving along the road was a sight-seeing experience. The plants and trees are so lush and beautiful, the clouds are always changing from glory to glory. Here is a small selection of images, a glimpse of the island.
Arrival. Our westward journey was quite grueling… it was like my nightmare-day, a endless morning with no lunch in sight. BN and I got up at 4am in Portland for our 6am flight, met up with my family in SFO, and arrived in Kauai in the early afternoon.
First day, at Ke’e beach. We snorkeled. BN and RC built a sand-cube.
Hanalei: the countryside surrounding the location we stayed (Princeville.) We could see this double-tipped mountain and nearby waterfall from our condo dining room.
Waimea, the “Grand Canyon” of Hawaii. We watched helicopters taking people on tours, swooping near the waterfall.
Our hike near the misty Kalalau valley.
Parts of the trail were very steep, and the muddy portions were very slippery. Glad it didn’t rain on us because that might have made it impossible. Ferns and moss, lush and green like Oregon… but so hot!
More snorkeling… “Tunnels” beach was a lot more challenging than our first day. It was easy to get lost and end up on shallow reefs. I scraped my knee…
Our big day, hiking the Na Pali coastline. Lots of interesting plants and trees, breathtaking views… and a picnic near a creek that fed into the sea. The waves were too dangerous for swimming.
Hanging out at the condo – our home sweet home for 10 days. BN and my dad found and booked a posh pad for us, on a golf course – it was pretty luxurious. We lived like the wealthy as far as accommodations, but we couldn’t dine like the wealthy – groceries are twice the price in Hawaii, let alone restaurants. We cooked almost all of our meals, which was fine with me since I love cooking for my family and they like my food! We enjoyed the fresh pineapple and coconut. BN provided the board games.
Lots of beautiful plants around the complex.
We hiked to the top of “the Sleeping Giant” for a great view of the east edge of the island.
The only place to get cheap food on Kauai – Costco! We ended up going there about 4 times because it was near the airport and the hospital. $10 for a huge pizza, ice cream treats for under $2. And chickens! Can’t beat that.
Lithified Dunes – really cool wave-sculpted rocks. Careful not to step too close to the edge, you can’t tell how far under they are cut. We saw people horseback riding on the beach and some horses hanging out, rolling on the grass back at the ranch, near where we parked the car. We also checked out the Blow Hole, where water spurts out of the rocks through underground channels.
On our last full day we wanted to find a good beach for body-surfing. The first place we tried had huge waves crashing against a steep beach – only BN and RC were brave enough to enjoy that. We found a place that was tamer and it was so fun to be out in the water as long as we liked, playing in the waves without teeth chattering (like all my previous beach experiences…)
Wonderful pictures providing wonderful memories Katie! I’m so glad I was there for most of it!
I’m sure glad you were there, too!
KT, thanks for sharing the wonderful photos. What kind of board game did you guys play? Is it better than Settlers of Catan?
The game with the colorful figurines is called Carcassonne and it has some similarities to Settlers, though they are so different I wouldn’t say one is better than the other. Both are fun. Carcassonne is simpler, you just place tiles to build the landscape and strategically place your “men” to earn points in different amounts depending on what shows on the nearby tiles.
The game in the other picture, not shown close-up, is Acquire, and it’s a stock trading game. It’s actually more similar to Settlers in the sense that you buy and sell, trade, and establish property on the board. It’s also a really fun game.