In the meantime, its time for my trip recap. It’s a long trip, but less involved than, say, my Midwest baseball trip…so one post should be fine. Away we go!
Saturday morning we awoke early, caught a ride to SFO, and boarded a plane for Honolulu. Five hours (of decadent first class flying) later, we were in Hawaii! And oh man, was is so nice and warm. So amazing. When I step off the plane in Hawaii for the first time, the warm, humid air greets me like a hug, welcoming me home.
And Honolulu International Airport would be my home for the next 3 and a half hours or so, waiting for my inter-island connection to Kauai. My parents were on a flight an hour earlier, so they got there before me, grabbed all the bags and got the car. So, by the time I got there, they pulled up, I jumped in, and off we went! Per usual, we were staying up in Princeville, on the north shore of Kauai (aka, the more beautiful side of Kauai). This is about 30 minutes away from the airport. Not a bad drive, and I enjoyed being back on the island.
Got to the house around dinner time, and wow, what a view! It was right on the 6th green, overlooking the Bali Hai view and the Pacific Ocean. So gorgeous. It was also a very interesting property; very long and thin from the street back to the golf course. The grounds were landscaped so well, with tons of tropical flowers and plants. It had a nice lap pool for swimming. All in all, just an awesome house.
Dinner was early that night, and then off to bed. Sunday, it was looking like rain. But we were able to get off to the driving range in the morning before the rain hit. As we were walking off the driving range, the skies opened up, and it just poured rain; pretty much for the rest of the day. We went and got some fish at the fish market for dinner and the grocery store for some supplies and had a pretty chill day.
Monday was another day we were expecting rain, so we planned on making it a shopping day. I wanted to pick up some Aloha shirts, some Crazy Shirts, and a new pair of sandals. My mom likes to shop. My dad needed some sandals (and a Crazy Shirt). So we headed down to Kapa’a and Waipouli to do some shopping. First we ate lunch at Brick Oven Pizza…one of our favorite pizza joints anywhere. Then it was off to Coconut Plantation. I got 3 new Aloha shirts, 2 new Crazy Shirts, and a nice pair of Reef sandals. So, yes, the day was a success. Then we went back to the north shore, dropped our stuff off, and headed to The Dolphin in Hanalei for dinner.
OK, tangent time. It turns out that I pretty much love sashimi. Love it. At the Dolphin, we had the best Ahi sashimi ever. My dad, who is a big sashimi fan, said it was among the best he’d ever had. So that’s high praise. It was very, very good. Between the sashimi and the grilled fish…I think I ate fish every day except one. Oh so good!
Tuesday was our first golfing day. We weren’t golfing until after noon, so we chilled out in the morning, and then headed out for the golf course. It was somewhat cloudy, and a little crowded, but the weather is always nice in Hawaii, and the Princeville Makai Course is a really pretty course. I shot ok…had 6 pars, which is good for me. Don’t think I’d ever had that many pars in a single round. But I had some bad holes. Shot a 91 (only 2 strokes worse than my all time best, so not too bad). We all seemed to have a good time.
On Wednesday, we planned on going to the beach for some snorkeling. But then we get to the beach, and its closed to snorkeling. Apparently the north shore of Kauai has some gnarly currents and waves that make snorkeling too treacherous for the less talented…so they close it to everyone. Sad times. I really wanted to swim with the fishies. But anyways, we ended up holing up at a beach just past Hanalei Bay and chilled for a bit. It was a very pretty beach, with some lava around and crashing waves. Very nice.
After the beach, we went into Hanalei for lunch, then we went home and I did some swimming in the lap pool, and we had some drinks, and saw just some of the most outrageous clouds for a sunset ever. There were thunderstorms in the area, and those big, tall clouds led to some amazing sunset photos.
Pretty unreal. Of course, those thunderclouds invaded the Island that night for an epic electrical light show. At one point, in the pitch black of the outside, we were getting a lightning flash every 2 seconds…for like an hour. And a constant low rumble of thunder. Then it died down and I went to bed. Until 1:30, when BOOM! Thunder was directly overhead, and it was the loudest I had ever heard. The entire house shook and it woke me up from a dead sleep. Kind of ridiculous. Needless to say, I didn’t get much sleep that night.
Thursday we were supposed to get up early and head out to a beach. But with the lack of sleep, we slept in a little bit instead. We did golf 9 holes at the Princeville Makai’s Woods Course that afternoon, though. The Princeville Makai course used to be 3 9 hole courses, and when you would come in to play, they would assign you two of them. However, this time it was changed, and they had turned the Ocean and Lakes courses into the Makai Course, an 18 hole course. And then they kept the Woods course around as a cheap 9 hole alternative. However, the Woods course was pretty poorly maintained. Kind of frustrating. It was definitely my worst golfing round of the trip. But it was still nice to be out golfing in the nice weather.
After golf we got some ice cream, and then we went back to eat some spaghetti and watch the whales out in the ocean. Because, yes, it is whale season in Hawaii. And this afternoon, they were in full display. They were spouting their horns, and splashing their flippers, and even leaping around with some full breaches. We could see them from the porch of the house, even better with binoculars. It was a little too far out to get some great camera shots of it, but this was the best one.
So, yeah, that was pretty cool to see. Also, that night was yet another epic sunset. This sunset was probably my favorite because it was dotted with little puffy clouds and it just lead to a very pretty view.
Very pretty. My dad likes Wednesday night’s sunset better. I think I’m partial to Thursday night’s. But either way, both were amazing! Without thunder waking us up, we got plenty of sleep Thursday night, which is a good thing, because Friday morning, we were right back out on the golf course!
Friday’s round was very sunny and warm, and very pretty on the ocean holes. And I played ok. Much better on the back nine than the front nine…and ended up shooting the same score as I had on Tuesday. Hooray for consistency, I guess! BQ played some epic golf, though, and smoked us all.
After golf and a shower, we hiked down to Queens’s Bath. Queen’s bath is a giant tide pool (probably the best way to describe it) in the lava at the base of the cliffs in Princeville. Its big enough to swim in. And there’s fish in it, and its very warm and nice and interesting. The waves trickle into the pool to feed it. I don’t think I’d ever been down there before (or at least not since I was a wee small child), but it was very interesting.
After another shower, we headed out to the St. Regis resort hotel to have drinks and dinner. It’s a pretty classy place. Then home for one final night in Hawaii.
Saturday was leaving day, but not until a Red Eye flight that night. So we had all day for one last hurrah in the Island. We used this day to head out to the more touristy things on the far side of the Island, which we had avoided until now because it is quite a drive from the North Shore. First stop was Wailua Falls, probably my favorite waterfall on the island.
Then it was off to Brick Oven Pizza for lunch, and then the long ass drive up to the Waimea Canyon and the Kalalau Valley look out. The Canyon is called the Grand Canyon of the Pacific, because it is so massive. And the coloring is gorgeous, with the red volcanic dirt playing with the green foliage of Kauai…it makes for quite a sight.
After seeing the canyon, you keep driving up the road, and eventually you get to the Kalalau Valley lookout point. The Kalalau Valley is a very picturesque valley on the Na Pali Coast of Kauai. The Na Pali Coast is a very rugged and beautiful coastline that is off limits to cars. There are no roads down on the coastline. You can see it by boat, by hiking, or from the top, where we were. The lookout is at 4000 feet elevation, which drops off dramatically to the ocean, just a short distance away.
Pictures don’t really do this place justice. Is really is a stunning view. Its hard to catch too, as it tends to suck the clouds right into it, and many times you can make the drive all the way up there, and see nothing but gray. But we got lucky. After that, it was back down to the coast, and we headed over to one final sight, Spouting Horn. Spouting Horn is at a place where lava meets the coast. In the lava there are tunnels and then vents in the top of the lava. When the waves go into the tunnels, it builds up pressure, and shoots water out of the vent, like so:
Its kinda cool. I enjoy it, anyways. And its down in Poip’u, which is the main resort/tourist area of the island. So it can get crowded. My mom always likes shopping at the little local vendors who have set up shop there as well. After that it was off to Duke’s in Lihue for one final meal and then to the airport for the red eye flight home.
All in all, it was a phenomenal vacation. It was amazing to get back to Kauai after many, many years, and very nice spending time with my parents, who I don’t see much of anymore. I literally cannot wait to go back.
So, I only posted a few photos here in the recap. While they are some of the best, I posted a lot more on Facebook. Here is a link to the album (http://on.fb.me/fodJfP), if you haven’t seen it yet. You don’t even have to be on Facebook to see the album, so check em out!
Aloha, and mahalo for reading!
1 comment:
It was a fabulous trip and we are glad you were with us.
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