Saturday February 7

Saturday dawned as another relaxed pace morning. I woke shortly before sunrise, made a pot of coffee, and meandered down to the water's edge to watch the sun come up. Since the sky was lightening, I thought the sun had already risen behind the clouds, so I pointed my camera towards the water and played with long exposures.

Then the sun broke the horizon.

We ate a quick breakfast of cereal in the room and then packed our “not sure what the day has in store, so pack a bunch of stuff” bags and piled into the car. We drove up the road just a bit into the town of Kapa'a, parked, and shopped around a bit. 

Where would you like to go today?

 I had to keep reminding G that this was our first look at stores, so don't be anxious to buy everything right away... it is good to get an idea of who has what. After shopping and meandering, we all felt like lunch was in order, so we stopped into a place which was located upstairs above the shops (I think it was called Olympic Cafe, but I neglected to take photos – too busy reading tour books)

After a satisfying lunch of Mexican/Hawaiian fusion food (kalua pork quesadilla which was larger than my head!) we jumped in the car and continued north along the coast, stopping here and there to see viewpoints and take side roads to beach parks.

Along the way we took a side road which leads to Anini Beach. We didn't even make it all the way to the beach park because we were distracted by a tiny beach off the road where a seal decided to take a nap.

We backtracked to the highway and continued on, following along the coast up to the town of Hanalei. We stopped into a shopping center there and poked around the stores a bit. G finally got her first taste of a Hawaiian Shaved Ice.

This is no “snow cone” from my days at the zoo... this dessert is complete with ice cream on the bottom, shaved ice on top, flavored syrup, condensed milk, and I think coconut sprinkles. (I didn't pay a lot of attention to how it was made because I can't eat it anyway, and I was chasing birds around the park for photos)

Continuing along the highway, the road eventually narrows to a neighborhood street which runs along the base of a sheer cliff. Then the Napali Coast cliffs are suddenly directly above your head. Here we stopped at a beach park with the intention of taking photos of waves, but I was distracted by my first sighting of a cardinal.

And a massive cave behind us.

Dan convinced Gayle to walk further into the cave.  It is actually quite dark, this is a 5 second exposure... I had to tell them to hold very still.

Continuing on just a little ways past the park and the road simply ends... this is as far as one can drive around the island in this direction. We spent some time at the beach park on the end of the road, taking a few photos of the amazing trees, and then piled back into the car to head south and find dinner.

We all felt a bit dried out from the sun and being in the car all day, so when we passed by the Dolphin restaurant, with outdoor seating by a river, we felt that was the right atmosphere. The menu out by the river is limited to a bar menu of “pupus” (appetizers) and sushi snacks, but I was able to find a dish I'm not allergic to, so we stuck to the outside seating.

I was standing slightly downhill from Gayle, but yeah... she is just about taller than me now.

My dinner was the Hamachi Kama, which is grilled yellowtail cheek. I've seen fish cheeks on Food Network and I pictured a medallion of tender white meat... what arrived was a whole jawbone.

I really don't get to eat “exotic” food much, so this was an interesting and tasty treat for me :)

With dinner done and us all exhausted, we drove straight back to the condo thinking about maybe hitting the hot tubs downstairs. Unfortunately the tubs were filled to capacity by the time we arrived, so D and I walked down to the adjacent restaurant to buy me a glass of wine instead, then we went back to the room where I soaked in a hot bath. I think I was in bed and solidly asleep by 9:15.