Day 34 – Third Time’s the Charm

Today our plan was to get to Pila’a beach, following the local’s foot trail, not totally rock hopping as the Trailblazers book said to. We started off with papaya boats for breakfast, oh how I will miss the fresh tropical fruit once we get back East.

Today was our third attempt to get to Pila’a Beach. We made it! We took a different path down this time that was a bit steep, but well used definetly by locals.

Once we crossed the stream we were at the beach. Only one other family was there and they were fishing. We found our own tree to hang out under, put our stuff out and went for a float.

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While I enjoyed the views, Mike rock hopped over to the next little beach.

After spending a little over an hour here, we headed back, we walked the field behind the beach until we hit the stream.

We were passed on the trail by a trail runner and his little Pekingese dog. Now that hurt the ego, the dog ran right past me on his short little legs. Once we reached the top we savored the views and figured out our game plan in the back of our rental (I may or may not have taken a little snooze).

After our little beach trek, we drove around Kilauea’s neighborhood, drooling over houses for a little bit. Our next stop was SushiGirl Kauai to pick up lunch to enjoy at home.

After lunch it was laundry time and a little bit of tidying up, as the dreadful day of leaving is almost upon us. I think the island gave us a goodbye gift today, a green flash at sunset. You could hear the clapping and cheering up and down Tunnels Beach.

The third time’s a charm for Pila’a beach for us. Now that we know the way, on our next trip we will come with lunch packed and snorkel gear with us, truly a gem of a beach.

July 29, 2017 0

Day 32 – Daily Delights

I love the spontaneity of our days. We never know what little or big delight will cross our path during the day. Today we had a few delights and last the one of the day was HUGE.

The day began with a two mile beach walk at Cannon’s beach. It wasn’t the plan to walk that much, but we just kept going, until hunger pains set in and returned home to breakfast.

After our breakfast, we made the plan to hike the Moloaa Coastal Trail. While doing some research we learned that this is a disputed trail, but luckily it is still open to hike. One blogger called it the trail to nowhere. It does end at a fence line, but the views are dramatic and worth it to go “nowhere”. You have to walk to the left of the bay to access the trail. We lucked out today and had a monk seal sighting on the way to the trail head!

This was about a 1 mile walk from the car and to the end of the trail at the fence. Don’t worry, you know when you hit the end of the trail, signs inform you of it.

After our hike we jumped in the water for a quick cool off, we even tried to get the seal in our water selfie!

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This is a lovely little area and one we need to spend more time at. We had planned another adventure after this, but once again hunger pains steered us in another direction, to lunch we went.

We decided to try out The Bistro in Kilauea. Before we went there, we did have to stop by the egg place at mile marker 18 to see if they had fresh eggs. We scored, they did! Once again I got to hang out the sold out sign.

On to The Bistro we went. They had two specials, fresh caught ahi, served over soba noodles with pineapple salsa in a coconut curry sauce and a chicken sandwich (not locally caught) that had a tomato goat cheese spread with lettuce and tomatoes served with fries. To be honest Street Burger has the better fries. We decided to try both dishes and have the pineapple cobbler for dessert. Everything was delicious and yes you might say a bit pricey, but we were ok with that.

After lunch we stopped at the soap store to pick up more surfer salve soap and a few other goodies to ship back. Once we arrived at the house, I took my regular afternoon siesta and then we had dinner. Yes tonight we had the ahi the neighbor caught, served on grains with long beans.

After dinner a rain shower was passing through, so we decided to get a head start on tonight’s dessert, the bananas wrapped in limpia pastry, this time I drizzled dark chocolate on it.

Sunset tonight was wet, hazy and full of weddings.. Three different weddings, one came complete with a singer and hula dancer. We had the good fortune to be treated to the couple’s first dance, the music provided by the Ukulele player singing Iz’s rendition of Over the Rainbow. Yes, I did tear up.

When we returned home, very wet, the hughest delight was waiting for us, jackfruit. A neighbor asked if we wanted one, we said sure, next time we will ask what size before saying yes…yikes, anyone have any recipe suggestions?

We truly had a day full of all different delights. Who knows what delights tomorrow will bring us.

July 27, 2017 2

Day 30 – Skating on Thin Ice, No I Mean MUD!

Today we went skating on Sleeping Giant, I grew up ice skating in New England, however mud skating is an entirely new sport to me.

We made a quick breakfast accompanied by a morning rainbow before heading out.

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Today we hiked the east side of Sleeping Giant. 6 years ago we did the other trail up Sleeping Giant. It was humid today going up, we didn’t have any rain until we hit the picnic shelter.

I remained at the picnic area while Mike continued up on Sleeping Giant’s face. While I sat, I had sun on one side and the other side of the mountain was rain. Mike did get caught in a downpour, with the rain going sideways at one point.

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After Mike returned from hanging out on the giant’s face, we started our descent. The rains came and went as we went down. At times we were skating on the mud going down. Would have loved to have photos of it, but it just wasn’t safe to do that. At one point, Mike had to plant himself as I skated down and act as stop for me. I laughed a lot of the way down, stomping and skating on/in the mud. Was very happy to have my hiking pole with me, it helped!

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At the car, we cleaned up with jugs of water and Action Wipes, best things to clean up with.

Mike was thoughtful enough to bring fresh fruit for our after hike snack. Going downhill in the mud is tiring and this natural sugar boost helped restore some energy.

We had to run to Costco for gas and some mac nuts. Then we went to lunch at Street Burger again. This time we shared a burger and a salad.

We came home and were exhausted. We cleaned off shoes/socks and had to run a load of laundry after that hike. While we were preparing dinner we got the neighborly notification that Jason had fresh caught ahi. Off Mike went to purchase 2 and 1/2 lbs of fresh ahi. Can’t wait for Wednesday’s dinner.

Sunset wasn’t as dramatic as last night, but still to watch sunset on the beach is a treat and tonight I had friend, Grady watch with me.

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July 25, 2017 0

Day 24 – A Hiking Day

5 a.m. came early today and having to set an alarm seemed a bit alien to us, but we did it. We were hiking the Awa’awapuhi trail (Mike did this trail 6 years ago) over in Kokee State Park, about a two hour drive from our house. Boots hit the trail around 8:20 a.m. and made it back to the car around 12:30. Books say the trail is 3.25 miles, taking 2.5 hours one way. According to our gps we it was 5.7 miles taking us 3 hours 45 mins. that doesn’t include a snack, water or photo breaks.

The trail was a leg burner, especially coming out because it is basically uphill. Was it worth it? You bet!

to get where Mike and girls were you had to come down this first. I remained in the safe area

Mike told me we reached the .5 miles left to go sign

I loved that sign, it was hard work getting back

Beautiful orange at the end of the trail

After we emerged from the trail, we had a few stops to make before lunch. Had to stop at Big Save because a friend had requested different spam flavors. Next was a stop at this post office that sits all alone out in a field, basically.

We then headed to Kauai Island Brewery. As luck would have it, our spider fearing brewery worker was sitting at the bar enjoying some down time. We pulled up two stools next to him and had the best hour of chatting with him. Come to find out his mom is from Connecticut, small world. He did give us the biggest complement, which was “how long have you lived on Kauai?”

After a lunch of a salad, fish sandwich and beers we headed to our side of the island. We picked up dinner at SushiGirl Kauai, two specials please!

We didn’t have much down time at home because of the long drive. So after eating only one plate we wobbled down to sunset (our legs were hurting).

What a day from hiking boots to sandy feet, our legs are tired and tomorrow is a well earned rest the legs day!

July 19, 2017 0

Day 22 – All in All a Good Day

Rainbows to start, a Kalalau hike to follow, late breakfast, a bit of downtime to read and nap, a trip into Hanalei, a delicious dinner and a sunset. Yup, not a bad day at all.

We hit the Kalalau trail at 7 a.m., had permits to go beyond the beach, so that was the plan. The trail was dry, the trail was muddy, the trail was busy but we kept our legs moving along.

this was an accidental picture, the camera was on the wrong setting, but I kind of like it

Returning from the hike, we jumped in the water at Kee to cool off, then headed back to the house for a late breakfast, early lunch. Afterwards, I read and napped, while Mike looked for new things for us to do tomorrow, that won’t require much effort. He was distracted by the dragonfly weathervane he noticed on the palm tree.

Late afternoon we drove into Hanalei to do some touristy shopping.

Dinner was the last of the fresh ono, encrusted in mac nuts served on a bed of taro slaw with pineapple, mango salsa. Followed by dessert of frozen yogurt, dragonfruit, pineapple, banana and papaya topped with lilikoi and mac nuts.

As we laid our towel out for sunset on Tunnels Beach, we noticed a rainbow arch in the sky.

The sun hit a cloud bank as it set. Seems to be the trend for the last week or so. However the after sunset cloud viewing was lovely.

I would say today counted as a pretty good day!

July 17, 2017 2

Day 12 – Celebrating!

Today we celebrated our 27th wedding anniversary. Where is the best place for us to start the celebration? O the Kalalau Trail, of course.

We hit the trail at 6:40 a.m. and parking today, as opposed to July 4th, was available.

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After the .25 mile marker the rains started and stopped for the remainder of the hike.

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But rain means rainbows and at our turn around spot, a rainbow appeared, making it for the perfect photo op for our 27th wedding anniversary!

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We didn’t make it to the beach today, our nephew is new to hiking and the slippery rocks were causing some concern for his feet. Always better to be safe on the trail, so we turned around and headed back. Not to worry, Mike and I still have time left on the island, so we will return!

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Once home it was time for a proper breakfast of papaya boats, toast and coffee.

Our next adventure out was to the Kilauea Wildlife Refuge to check out the birds.

Following this we had a little gift shopping to do and grocery shopping. We did make a quick stop at Hanalei Dolphin to pick up some Opa for dinner. After all of this we were famished and it was time for a celebratory anniversary lunch from SushiGirl Kauai. I had their special and Mike ordered the Spicy T Maki Roll and we shared a side of Seaweed Salad. I hate seaweed back home, but here, I devoured it.

All this hiking, shopping and eating zapped my energy, so off to napland I headed. After a nap, some writing, and reading, dinner was created. Simple fish with rice and a side of asparagus.

As per the routine, after dinner it was time for the night-time show of the sunset. Tonight our celebration of our anniversary ended with a green flash! Sadly we didn’t capture it on film, but it was there!

July 7, 2017 0