I will start by saying that things got off to a rocky start. At dinner the night before, a group of our friends said they were signed up to go on a zip line tour and they said we should come along with them. Well, Tuesday morning rolls around and we call the zip line place and they are all booked up which meant we were on our own for the day. No big deal, I had plenty of things in mind to do. It had been a rainy morning but Dale and Alys Morris won't be stopped by silly things like rain. So we decided that doing a kayak trip down the Wailua River would be fun to try. So we get in our car and drive about 30 minutes to the place the map says to go. When we get there, we can't find it. Grrrr. We drive around the area, ask people, get out and walk around. No dice.
Finally, we see a sign advertising kayak rentals right in front of a gas station. There was no one by the sign so we go inside and ask the cashier where to rent them. He just points his finger to where we just were and says "out front." So we go back still no one there but a sign and a table. We were getting agitated and saying "Where is this guy?" Dale is getting really angry because he knows how much this trip means to me and then we both look and see the gas station restroom right next to the supposed kayak stand and we both look at each other and say "I wonder if he is in there?" Dale in all of his fury yanks the door open which was locked. He pulled on it so hard it broke the lock. The door flies open and exposes a lady in there who is shocked beyond words. Imagine being in a bathroom all by yourself and suddenly the door is yanked open and there is a raging bull outside. Yeah, not good. Dale quickly says "Oh, sorry!" and we quickly head back to our vehicle. When we begin to pull away, I am laughing hysterically about what just happened and Dale is beginning to come down off his anger high. Why were we even thinking that the kayak guy would be in the bathroom? Like that was his office or something!
We drive just a little bit back down the road and spot the kayak place. Turned out, they just moved locations and we didn't have a new map. Anyway, we get out and ask the guy if we can rent kayaks. He said he will rent them to us but it's probably not a good idea to go up the river. The mountains got a ton of rain and there were flash flood warnings all morning. He said if we got stuck, they would have to come rescue us. We were up for an adventure but we know better than to go traipsing down the river during a flash flood warning.
So now our second idea is shot down. Fine. We decided to try ATV riding. It might even be really fun because of all the mud from the rains. Turns out the ATV rental place is RIGHT BY OUR HOTEL. So we drive the 30 mins right back to where we came from. We get to where the map says the place is and you guessed it. No longer there. I'm not afraid to admit that at this point I started to cry. It was irrational and lame but I couldn't help it. I kept saying, "This is not how Hawaii is supposed to be!!!" Now I'm laughing at it but in the moment, it was pretty much the end of the world. Poor Dale, who had to endure this break down, just remains quiet until I come to my senses.
Since we got an early start on the day, it was only about 9:30 at this point and we decide snorkeling might be fun to try. It wasn't to keen on it, but now I'm thinking "whatever, let's do anything." So we go to good old Snorkel Bob's and rent us some gear and head to a close beach and snorkel. It ends up being a blast! Seriously, we saw some crazy looking fish. Dale really wanted to see a shark. Why? I don't know. Maybe he wanted to do battle with it.
Anyway, the beach we snorkeled at was called Poipu Beach. It was a really pretty beach and a great one for the kids to play at because there were some shallow lagoon areas. I saw a little girly snorkeling and it made me sad for a moment because I thought of how much Tabby would love it.
Here's some pics of the area. Sorry no pics of me in my snorkel gear. It was definitely not cute.
A lot of the beaches we went to had sleeping Monk Seals on them. Apparently they like to climb on to shore and snooze. It's illegal to touch them and it is even some person's job to travel around and rope off the area that the seal is sleeping in and post signs. I would like that job please.
I like how the sign says not to harass the seal. Luckily my seal harassment days are long behind me so this big fellow was able to rest easy.Let's play where's the crab:
I have to post this picture of this rooster on here. Wild chickens ended up being a big part of our trip. When you are outside in Kauai, you can't turn in a full circle with out seeing one of these guys. They mosey out in front of your car and take their sweet time getting out of the way. You can't go 5 seconds without hearing a rooster crow. Night and day people. And heaven help you if you dare open up some food outside. I guess cock fighting used to be a big thing on the islands and they had a bad hurricane once and it spread all the chickens from one side of the islands to the other. Also, they have no predators. Hence, ridiculous chicken infestation. They say if you catch a wild chicken, the way to eat it is cook it over some rocks, throw the chicken away and eat the rocks.
After snorkeling, we enjoyed a delicious lunch at Puka Dog's and came back to the hotel. Here are some random hotel shots that I thought were pretty.Here's a view from a porch on the way to our room:
This bird sits in the lobby. He screams "aloha" at you and uses his perch for a slide:
When we went back to our hotel, we asked the concierge about what we could do in the afternoon. He said we should try horseback riding. It sounded great to me and after my "scene" that morning, Dale wasn't about to disagree with me. The ranch was right down the road from our hotel so we went back to our room to get ready and went right out again.The ranch was right by some cliffs that overlooked the ocean.
Beautiful!
This poor horse. They didn't even have it penned up. Too old to go anywhere. I gave him a scratch and talked to him and he didn't even move. The very meaning of "out to pasture."
Here's Dale, rearing to go. Look at that cut on his knee. He bashed it on some coral while snorkeling. Looks rugged, no?
Before we were able to start riding, the guide advised us not to let the horses eat the plants along the trail. The said to give a quick jerk of the rains if they try. All my horse wanted to do was feast on all the delicious grasses and flowers. I did what they told me to do and he learned that I was boss. Which is what I thought until I realized that my horse had just wised up. He realized that whenever I was taking pictures, I couldn't jerk my reins and stop him from eating. Every time he heard me turn my camera on he would start looking around for food and eat whatever he could find. I took tons of pics so I'm sure he was full by the time we got back.
Here we are setting off. They told Dale his horse should be in front and my horse quickly vetoed that decision. My horse let Dale's horse know that by "riding his bumper" until he got his way and went in front. My horse was named Primo, Dale's horse was named Mouku. Primo wanted to go go go, Mouku wanted to drop dead. I think Dale could have gone down the trail faster if he walked on foot. Dale is not at all a little guy so I think if we ever do this again, we will make sure they give him a horse that's a bit more "sturdy."
They showed us some amazing things along the trail. Here is the actual cave used in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Can you imagine Indy running out of there with a huge boulder following him?
We rode with beautiful valleys on one side and ocean on the other.
As we were riding along some cliffs, we rode along some that overlooked beautiful secluded beaches. These beaches are where they are filming the next Pirates of the Caribbean. Our guide said that they were going to start production soon and he had seen set up crews coming and going. We were all hoping that you-know-who was down there but there were no signs of Johnny. There were two single ladies in our group and they were really excited about it. I think they would have about ran him down on their horses if he was there.
After riding along the cliffs and valleys, we went through what looked to be like forest areas as we headed down to the beach. Dale and I both thought that the scenery looked a lot like Northern AZ but then I realized that the ground we were on was made out of sand not dirt.
We came out of the forest and ended up on the beach. Breathtaking!
Meet our guide, Russell.
Poor Russell had a funny moment. Right after I took this pic we rounded a corner and laying there for all to see was a "washed up mermaid" a.k.a naked female sunbather. Russell saw her first and instantly got quiet. He was kind of a shy kid, bless him. I saw her next and laughed. Dale couldn't figure out what I was laughing at. Then he spotted her and instantly put his head down and turned the other way. He was so embarrassed! The other two ladies in our group thought it was pretty hilarious too. At least she was front side down!After our beautiful horseback ride, we still had a few hours we wanted to burn before heading back to our hotel. We got some food and headed toward Spouting Horn. Lots of people told us to go there saying it was a really amazing thing that we needed to see. It was supposed to be a blow hole. You know the kind where there is a hole in the rock and the waves come through it and water comes shooting out? We were told that it was going to be awesome. Well awesome it was not. Maybe we hit it at the wrong time? Because water didn't come shooting out. It more or less fizzled out. It did shoot out a few times and I managed to catch it with my camera. It was maybe about 5 feet high. But it wasn't a huge let down because even though the blow hole didn't entertain us the girl in the teensy swim suit trying to impress her boyfriend by jumping off the sharp lava rocks in to the waves that were crashing up against those sharp rocks was certainly entertaining. She actually chickened out which is what I and the crowd of people that had gathered was hoping she would do. But fun to watch nonetheless. Ahhh, young love.
Here she is, debating while her boyfriend stands there. Some hero he was.
So, the day up being great after all. We headed back home, victorious in turning what started out to be a bad day, into an adventure.Here are some more random hotel shots that I took on the way to our room. This black swan would honk at you for food every time you walked by him.
Wouldn't be a Hawaii trip without a picture of a Hibiscus!
A waterfall in the front garden area.
After we showered, I sat on our hotel room porch, put my feet up, and watched the sun set as I felt the tropical breeze on my toes.
