In our infinite wisdom we had chosen the 6 am flight out of Philadelphia. Adela and I independently set our alarms for 4:10 am. After resorting to some rather extreme measures I was able to get Adela out of bed and we made it to the terminal to check our bags on time. We stopped by the lounge for some bagels and coffee before boarding our plane flight to Los Angeles. The flight was blissfully uneventful. I think I fell asleep for a little while… mostly because my audiobook suddenly stopped making any sense.
The mid-flight meal consisted of a cookie so our first stop in LAX was to get some grab-n-go cute lunch boxes. Except it was 8 am Los Angeles time so the chicken wrap and potato chips made for a delicious breakfast. We successfully managed to switch seats on the flight to Lihue in order to sit next to each other. I read an entire book during the flight! It was almost weird to read a book that had 290 pages instead of 1280… Anyway, the flight went by really fast and in no time we were through the rigorous security checkpoints of the airport. Only to wait in line for an hour for our rental car. Considering I had read reports of people just straight up not getting cars I felt pretty good about it. The fact that we kinda broke the rules by waiting in the slightly wrong line is of no consequence.
Waiting for the car had us a little hot, hangry and haggard. I added haggard only because it fit the alliteration, not because we looked like we needed naps. We checked in to our room and were told we needed to go to the bar to get a few drinks while our room was prepared. We suffered through a couple of rum and pineapple cocktails before heading back to get our room key. Sensing a photo op, I took a photo of the resort as seen from the lobby of the hotel. What I did not realize was that my photo-op sensing skills were too fine tuned, because this turned into an impromptu photo session… I don’t think either of us knew how to make it stop. The pictures only got more and more awkward…
After some serious caffeination we took a stroll down to the beach. The resort is “beach near” – so we had a nice little stroll to the beach. After getting our feet wet we decided that we needed some pool time. On the way back we made a new friend! A bird which has learned that people walking by the hedges make the lizards move. The bird trailed us by about a foot. Keeping up with us the whole time. I saw this bird eat five little lizards just while he was walking with us! I figure he must’ve realized that the people walking by spook the lizards in to moving a little. Anyway, pool time meant swim suits and sunscreen. We will need to re-learn our sunscreen application technique since zinc oxide sunscreen needs to be applied slightly differently. The main exhibit will be the Paul’s back sized splotch of sunscreen by the pool. In my defense, I did not apply the sunscreen to my own back.
We fell asleep at the ripe time of 8:30… and woke up at around 6 am the next day. It was already pretty much full sun so we slowly got dressed, drank some coffee, then headed out for Waimea Canyon. On the way Adela found us a sweet little breakfast joint. I got some avocado toast like the Millennial I am and Adela got some eggs, potatoes and turkey. Our first stop after breakfast (and the death defying drive up) was at the Waimea Canyon scenic viewpoint. We were in luck cuz the weather was cooperating and we had a sweet view. We stopped at another viewpoint before making our way to the trailhead for the Canyon Trail. It wasn’t quite walk-in-the-vineyards level, but it was a pretty tough 1.8 mile (3.6 round trip) hike.
What made it extra tough was the mud. Slippy slippy mud. I don’t think I needed sunscreen on the back of my legs after a little while. Okay, that’s being a little dramatic, there were only a few patches where it was really muddy. The hike went up and down and up and down and eventually ended at the top of Waipo’o falls. We had some really good scenic views of canyon, and the waterfall has a couple of pre-waterfalls that add to the scenery. Here we got our first re-introduction into how wonderful people are when someone bodyblocked Adela’s picture of the valley. We just love people all the time. The hike back was a little more intense than the hike out, turns out mud is still slippery no matter which direction you walk on it.
We stopped at a couple more scenic overlooks to get some views then headed back to the resort. On the way back we needed to sate our hunger so we grabbed some poke/tempura at the Kauai Poke Co. food truck. In Hawaii it appears poke specifically means ahi tuna. And boy was it delicious. Along with the poke we both got some papaya orange guava juice which was to die for. Once we finally made it back to the resort we suited up and ventured out to Poipu beach for some snorkeling. I don’t know how much coral was actually still alive, but we saw enough fish for it to be worth it. Online said it was “beginner” snorkeling which I would agree with. Except for the constant waves that pushed you all around. Dinner was shrimp and veggies cooked on one of the resort grills and another early night!
