Mike was greeted by this uninvited and unintentional guest this morning in the kitchen sink. Welcome to Hawaii friends, where spiders the size of your hand just drop in. Happily I didn’t see this guest, but on our morning beach walk, Mike provided me with a play by play of how he killed it before it killed him. Good thing our beach walk was relaxing, just wanted he needed after the battle.
After our jaunt, we went back to the house, gingerly approaching the kitchen just in case a counter attack had been planned while we were out. Phew, we were safe. This allowed us to make breakfast of naan pizzas and fruit.
Over breakfast we decided on our day. As usual we had to plan it around a farmer’s market, we were out of papayas. The closest market to us was the one in Kappa at 3 p.m. We decided to visit some falls, stop at the Keahua Arboretum, go out to lunch and then hit the farmer’s market.
The first official touristy spot was stopping at the Hanalei Overlook.
Our first non touristy stop was the egg place by mile marker 18. Every time we go by in the afternoon the sold out sign is out. Today we scored, I was able to grab the last dozen eggs and hang out the sold sign!
The next official touristy stop was the Opaeka’a Falls.
Our next destination was the Arboretum. One of our books described a one mile loop trail. We didn’t find that, but we did enjoy kids jumping in the water.
We wanted to stretch our legs a little more after not finding the 1 mile loop, so we decided to take a little hike, very unanticipated. We weren’t totally prepared the way I like to be to hike any distance. On the Kuilau Ridge Trail we set off on. Due to this being unanticipated we only hiked the 1.5 miles to the little picnic shelter. This was not planned, but once again, we just kept going.
We spent more time here than we thought, so we skipped our second falls visit and went straight to lunch at Kauai Beer Company.
Finally it was 3 p.m. and we could attend the farmer’s market. Mike spied his favorite vendor from years ago, the lady with the red pickup truck. She always gave Mike a good deal and would add in freebies for him. Some things never change.
After a long day it was nice to arrive “home”, unload and rest. The day tired all of us out, more than expected. A note greeted us at our doorstep, from our friend Cheri, her night blooming cactus might bloom tonight and she wanted to make sure we witnessed it. What a great unexpected note to come “home” to.
Dinner was quick and light. Mike seared up the fresh ahi from the neighbor and we placed it on greens.
After clean up we hustled to the beach for the boys nightly swim and sunset viewing.
We capped off our night, waiting for the cactus to bloom.
So today was a day full of “uns” , not welcomed, not anticipated and not planned. We just let island life happen.
CTHikergal Travels 
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