Day 5

Sigh, the last day.... I am still mourning the fact that our beautiful vacation is over. Till we meet again, Hawaii.

Well our trip did go out with a bang. Our flight home left late Friday night which meant we still had all of the day time on Friday to play before we had to go to the airport. We maximized our time with some really fun stuff.

First on the docket was kayaking down the Wailua River. It's supposed to be a beautiful kayak trip down the river and when you get to the end, you hike to Secret Falls. This was what wanted to do on day 2 of our trip before the flash flood warnings made us change our plans. This time, we managed to find the rental place with out humiliating slash terrifying any innocent women in gas station bathrooms.

We rented our two person kayak, got a map and headed toward the river. Dale did all the hard work while I took pictures of it.
Here's where we entered:
As we were getting in our kayak, I told Dale, "Let's make sure this doesn't end up anything like Deliverance." Then I started to sing dueling banjos. If you haven't seen the movie, never mind. I saw it on TV once but gladly, no ill fated trips for us. We had a lovely time. Except for the fact that when we started paddling we quickly realized that we were rowing into the wind. Ugh. At least for Dale. Not for me. I was too busy taking pictures. Besides, who needs to row when you have this giant powerhouse behind you?
Actually, that's not true. I did my fair share of rowing and it was HARD WORK. I think Dale kept getting irritated with me though because I kept putting my oar down to take pics. Wonderful pics like these:
That's my cheesy "I'm on a kayak" smile. We did veer off into the side of the river bank a time or two due to my lack of attention but the scenery was so beautiful I couldn't help but take pictures of it all.

Lush greenness everywhere! After about an hour of rowing into the wind (ugh) we found the place to leave our kayak and started hiking.

We had to cross some muddy and rocky streams at first to get to the trail and I guess this would be the second time in my life that I wished I had those fruity river sandals. But that's it. Anyways, I just ended up taking my shoes off and crossing barefoot. Child's play after our insane hike on Wednesday.

Once again we have a small bit of trouble finding our way on the trail. The map was vague, the trail was vague but Dale and I have a pretty good sense of direction and we ended up getting there just fine. And the hike a long the way was so beautiful. The forest in Hawaii is amazing. Once again, my pictures didn't do it justice.

The beautiful canopy:
Moss grows on everything!
These little guys were all over the place. I was told they weren't venomous. Let's hope so!
I have never seen so much life in one forest!

It was almost like things were growing right before our eyes.

If you look closely, you will see that the tree roots do crazy things. They don't know about growing deep into the ground. They are all over the place. Up, down, and sideways. They even grow right into each other.
They twist around each other to get to the top:
Kind of ruthless, those roots.

Here's Dale, flexing his muscles. Showing the trees who is boss.

There were many mini-water falls we had to cross along the way. To me, these looked so beautiful, they almost looked unreal.
We felt like the luckiest people on earth getting to see these things.

We didn't hike for very long until we reached Secret Falls:
For a minute we were the only people there and until some other hikers came along, it felt like we were the only two people on earth.


We did dip into the water and it was frigid to say the least.

I couldn't get a shot of the whole waterfall so I took 3 separate shots and put them together:

We hiked back out and settled into our kayak once again. We agreed that it would be an easy trip back because we thought we would be going with the current this time but au contraire! There is a little thing in Kauai called the trade winds. And they happened to trade while we were hiking. So once again, we rowed along into the wind, against the current, muscles aching. We made it to shore eventually and returned our kayak and went on our way to get some lunch.

Then we decided to head over and check out the secluded beaches we saw from our horseback ride earlier in the week.

As we rode along the dirt road to the ocean, I got a little sad knowing this would be our last thing we did before heading home. But I'm glad we saved it for last. Being on these beautiful beaches was a great way to say goodbye to Hawaii.

These beaches are called the Maha'ulepu Beaches. There are 3 separate areas and the first two you can drive right up to but the third can only be reached by walking to it from second beach.

We laid out on the first beach for a bit before checking out the others.
You know your trip is winding down when the sunscreen is almost gone.

After a bit, we got up and drove to the second beach. Not as sandy but the views were unbelievable! There are many cliffs made of lithified sand. We stood on a cool ledge that hung out over the ocean until we looked down and saw all the cracks in it! We quickly retreated!

The water spraying the hardened sand is what makes it turn jagged and spiky.

Then we started to walk to the 3rd beach. The scenery was incredible to see, it was really almost humbling to be there and take it all in.

I can't get over the color of that water!

Every time the water crashed on these rocks, we could see a rainbow in the sea spray:

This picture looks like nothing but it really is a cool vent that Dale found. It goes all the way through the rock down to the water. Every time a wave came in, a huge gust of air would come up though it and shoot out at us!

The view on the way to the 3rd beach:

This the place that I mentioned in and earliar post where they are supposed to be shooting Pirates of the Carribian. Sorry ladies, no Johnny sightings this time either.

The rocky ledge culred over and shaded the sand at this beach. We sat under the overhang for a while.

We reluctantly decided we'd better go if we wanted time to clean up and eat dinner before our flight left. We began our slow walk back to where we parked. I may or may not have had tears in my eyes as we were heading to the car. I'm silly, I know.

Here's another sad moment, the putting on of the watch. One thing I LOVED about Hawaii was running on island time. It never mattered what hour it was. There was no such thing as early or late. You got there when you got there. I can't remember one time that we were in a rush. I wish I could live like that at home.
Here are some of my other favorite things about our trip:

I loved waking up every morning before the sun came up. Crazy, I know. At home when I have to wake up before the sunrise, I'm the most miserable person on earth. But every morning we would wake up super early and head down to breakfast. We would sit on the porch and watch the sunrise while we ate the most delicious breakfast buffet in the whole wide world. The hotel would always be playing Jack Johnson music softly in the background too. It seems like a lovely and perfect dream now.

Here's a picture I took of our view while we were eating one morning:

Another thing I loved about Hawaii was that every where you looked was a picture. I took so many while looking out the car window:

Another favorite were these beautiful trees covered in red flowers:

But the thing I loved the very most about Hawaii was sharing it with this guy:
Thank you so much baby for earning this trip for us and taking me away to paradise! I love you!

Day 4

Okay now we are on to day 4. One more day to go after this post. As I get to the end of blogging about Hawaii, I get a bit sad. It makes the finality of the trip set in. I know we've been home for a few weeks now but blogging about it helped me cope with the sad fact that we are no longer there. Bummer. One day we will go back. I swear it.

So day four involved spotting dolphins and whales, a face full of sea spray and puking. That's right, a boat ride! Dale and I along with a bunch of friends from our group chartered a boat in the morning to take us up the Na Pali coastline. The scenery is famous and has been in many movies, namely Jurassic Park. Seeing it in person was pretty dang awesome.

Unfortunately, due to the choppy water (more like giant tidal waves, if you ask me) we couldn't make it all the way up the coast so we had to turn around at one point. But we did get to see a good portion of it.

It's a good thing we turned around though. There were seriously about 5 people puking off the side of the boat at one point while several others were on the verge. Poor Dale was one of those unlucky souls. He never threw up but felt green almost the whole time. The boat was a'tossin' and if you start throwing a big guy like that around, he's bound to get sick.

Before we turned around, we got to stand at the very front of the boat and watch the huge waves come at us. It felt like we were on a roller coaster. The best part was when the front of the boat dropped and for a moment we would be in the air before our feet touched the deck. Kinda like jumping in an elevator. It was great until Captain Ruin All The Fun made us go in the back of the boat. So it's his job to make sure we get back to shore safely, big deal.

And along the way, we did see spinner dolphins and whales. One giant sperm whale jumped halfway out of the water but of course, I didn't have my camera ready. They don't like the boats so it was really hard to see one.

Here's the happy couple:
Leaving the shore of Kauai:
The sun rising over the water:

By the time we got to where the Na Pali coastline started, the water was so choppy and my camera lens was covered in salty sea mist and fog. As soon as I would try to wipe it off, it would get fogged right up again so I'm very disappointed not to be able to have pics that truly show off how beautiful it was. One of the most beautiful things I've ever seen, really. These pictures are hazy and blurry but hopefully you will be able to get a sense of the majestic scenery.



Here are some dolphins making an appearance. There were so many of them under the water right up by the boat. Unlike the whales, they like the attention and love to do tricks while we clap for them. So fun.
Right by the boat!
A whale and her calf off in the distance. We were all jealous of that boat getting to be so close. Jerks.

Even though this picture isn't funny it makes me laugh. This is the first time in almost our 9 year marriage that we have been on a boat together. When we first got married I quickly learned that Dale talks in his sleep. Over the years he has said some great things in the middle of the night but my most favorite thing ever was one night when he sat straight up and said "Alright, everybody on the boat is getting punched!" So epic. Now when I see this pic of Dale on a boat, I snicker because it makes me think of that. Luckily, there were no situations that occurred on the boat that required anybody to get punched.

Before we went back to shore, we got to snorkel. It was lots of fun and I saw some beautiful fish and coral but it was so COLD. I knew it was time to be done when I was shivering in the water.

After the boat trip, we went back to our hotel room where we took our one and only legitimate nap during the whole trip. Poor Dale, he was so tired. I kept saying how he was going to need a vacation from me after this trip because I wouldn't let him sit for a minute.

Later that night Dale's work hosted a private luau and award ceremony in the hotel gardens for us. Here is Dale getting his award. His plaque said "Mr. Midnight" on it due to how the trip came about for him.
Hey, nice plaque. Except HIS LAST NAME IS SPELLED WRONG ON IT!!! That's okay though. Dale said they can call him whatever they want as long as they send him to Hawaii.
The luau part of the night was so fun!
I forget what this guy was called but he was hilarious.
Fire feet:
That concludes day 4. Just need to post day 5 and then I will have to move on with my life!