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 29 – Rainy Day on the North Shore

Note: Just go to the end, skip reading and look at the beautiful sunset photos!

We felt the effects of Fernanda today on the North Shore. We woke to rain, some thunder and lightning. Manoa Falls which we can see from the house was raging down, at one point the water turned brown. It was a perfect morning to do some book purchasing for my school library. I knew I would have to do some work here and was putting it off. I had no more excuses not to do it with all this rain.

While I worked Mike made me a little bright drink, papaya with red dragon fruit juice on top.

However the falls became a distraction and I only did 3/4 quarters of a book order, oh well.

After the heaviest rains diminished we went out for a bit. First stop was the transfer station to drop off the recycling. Makes me appreciated my curbside recycling pick up at home. However as I was putting the can returns in the bin, the workers offered me a freshly picked hand of bananas, right off the trees! Such a small gesture made me so happy and with curbside pick up you don’t get free bananas.

a piece of island life, Mike is laughing because he just sees me walking with a hand of bananas not knowing yet how I got them.

We decided to chance going to Moloaa Bay, thinking we could get parking due to the gray skies. I needed to go to snap a few photos for a teacher friend, who always sings a “line up” song to her prek class to the tune of Gilligan’s Island theme. We could get parking with this weather!

After our brief walk, we headed back into Hanalei for lunch at the Dolphin. Yup, we had our usual of house salad and fish tacos. Works for us, fills us up and tastes yummy!

Our next stop was a little shop we like in Hanalei. Glad we decided to stop in because the parking provided us a lovely view of the waterfalls.

After driving past Waipa, we noticed how brown the water was in Hanalei Bay area. Going slow I was able to take a few pictures.

On our way home we stopped at SushiGirl to pick up dinner for tonight. Mike ordered the special and I choose the “Action” poke bowl.

We really needed a beach walk after sitting around the house and car this morning. So we dropped the goods off at the house and headed to Cannons to do a small beach walk. Of course it started to rain, but it didn’t matter to us.

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After our brief jaunt, we spent the rest of the late afternoon catching up with the world and having dinner.

Sunset tonight after all this rain was spectacular. Truly worth all the rain today!

July 24, 2017 0

Day 25 – A Simple Day

It really was a simple day; two beaches, a little dessert making, meals, running errands, an exchange of goods with a neighbor, dinner and a sunset.

After a morning beach walk at Hanalei Bay, we plopped down on the sand to enjoy coffee and croissants. Chatted with a couple from Colorado for a bit also.

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At home we made a full breakfast of papaya boats.

Then we made a mousse parfait with the sapotes and juiced the over-abundance of papayas, mangoes and pineapple we had.

the most amazing dessert, sapote mousse with layers of whipped cream and Kauai Kookie shortbread mac nut cookies

Finishing up that task we decided a little time reading and floating at Tunnels was called for. Today we spent about an hour and half on the beach.

fullsizeoutput_1908 — This was about 11:15 am. by the time we left a little before 1 p.m. it had started to fill in

fullsizeoutput_1909 — the view from my beach chair

fullsizeoutput_190a — taking in the views

We went home to lunch on SushiGirl Kauai leftovers. We still had one plate left over from last night. It was perfect to split for lunch.

Running into Princeville and Kilauea was our next stop. We had a few more aloha boxes to fill and ship out. While in Kilauea we stopped again at Kauai Juice Company. We each had a free shot of algae. It was a thing to do, but if offered that algae again, I’ll politely decline. This time I picked my juice based on color.

Once we arrived home, we needed to bring some of my frozen mango cheesecake to our neighbor/friend Mel. In exchange she offered us fresh ahi and pineapple. I think we made out better than she did! Thanks Mel!

Dinner was teriyaki ahi (from the other neighbor) over my taro-slaw. I accompanied my meal with our papaya juice mixed with seltzer.

“Cloud TV” was very entertaining tonight at sunset, especially with live commentary by our friend! All of these things made for a simple day, but yet a perfect day!

July 20, 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 20 – Welcome “Home” Gifts

Well, as you know, we did pop over to Maui on Thursday night and had planned to stay until Monday. Maui just didn’t feel right and I think at our age, we’ve learned, if we are not happy, change the situation. So we did. I really think Maui was telling us to go from the moment we landed at the rental house. We didn’t sleep the two nights we were there. WHY? Dogs, lots of them howling and barking at all hours and they loved the hours of midnight through 4 a.m. On our second night there, I ended up with an upset stomach and I took it as a sign that we made the right decision to leave.

We did manage to make some coffee and I had three bites of a croissant, all I could take, before we headed to the airport.

We had a direct flight to Lihue, landed early, and were able to swing by the Farmer’s Market at the community college to restock up on fruit. As soon as we picked up our car, our shoulders relaxed and we had our smiles back and going to the farmers market brought our world back in order.

The next stop was Costco. As we walked into Costco, I joking said to Mike “I wonder if they have cans of Maui Brewing Mango, Hefeweizen?” I had it fresh last night at Maui Brewing Company and it was excellent. His reply was, “I don’t think they canned that one.” We went in, heading towards the back. I stopped to look at something and came around the beer corner, seeing Mike with a smirk on his face. Sweet Lord, cases and cases of that beer. Kauai Island was welcoming us back, providing us with a great welcome “home” gift.

We also picked up pineapple, can’t beat the price. I can live with eating Maui pineapples, just can’t live in Maui.

After Costco we made our way back. I love the drive past Hanalei Bay and snapped a few photos.

Our final stop before reaching the house was SushiGirl Kauai. They are starting to recognize Mike and I as regulars. Well we do have to get our fill while we can.

After we ate lunch at the house, I desperately needed a nap, so down for naptime I went. We did stop at Foodland on our way back to pick up some fried chicken for dinner and tomorrow’s lunch, part of our tradition while here, two meals of fried chicken.

During dinner our friend popped over telling us the neighbor behind us had fresh caught ono for sale. Off Mike went to receive our second welcome home gift of the day.

After dinner and clean up it was time for sunset views. We missed sunset the last two nights, so we were jonesing for one.

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At the farmer’s market we picked up the nicest dragon fruit for dessert. Once again thank you Kauai for giving us this welcome home gift.

I really think you don’t pick the island, it picks you. With the welcome home gifts that were bestowed on us, I think Kauai picked us.

July 15, 2017 0

Day 18 A Vacation Within a Vacation

We hopped over to Maui late afternoon today. First our day started with morning showers and rainbows.

We decided before housecleaning, packing and eating to go for a walk at Hanalei Bay. I even ran a mile at the beach today, what is happening to me?

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After a refreshing float, back to the house we went. I made a breakfast of french toast with fruit.

Lunch was a stop at SushiGirl Kauai and then it was time to head to the airport. We stopped in Oahu first, then on to Maui for a few days to visit with friends.

We missed sunset, only caught the beginning of it, as we landed in Maui.

We are here to have a vacation within a vacation. This is our first trip to Maui. Already the pace seems faster than Kauai.

July 13, 2017 0