Tuesday December 29th

The day started out with great promise.  We were up before dawn, packed all our hiking gear, had breakfast, and were on the road by 7:30 to head to the canyon for a day of hiking.  It was a beautiful sunny morning, with puffy clouds off in the distance.  We'd picked Tuesday for the big "hike to the world's highest swamp" day due to it having the best looking forecast for the entire trip.  (I had been checking the forecast constantly for weather all over the island)  After about 45 minutes of flat highway, we began the slow 17 mile switchback drive up the mountains.  Then we saw the clouds rolling in, and thought maybe they would burn off or pass over.  About halfway up we realized we were now inside the clouds.  Every viewpoint was entirely socked in.  At the end of the road, at the highest viewpoint, we found the trail head.

We wandered around the "view" point debating about what to do.  We came prepared enough, with rain jackets and full hiking boots and poles and everything, but the trail conditions were - quite honestly - shit.  (Red dirt slick shit, to be exact)  Even with boots, we were sliding on the flat part.  Even if the clouds did clear for a view (which they never did) the first mile of the trail is not only red dirt slick shit, but it is steep red dirt slick shit, which given my "light" pack of 20 pounds of camera gear, is just a huge recipe for injury-so-bad-your-trip-is-ruined.  As we discussed our plan, we saw a hiker hit the trail holding those ice-pick looking shoe attachments (you know the kind... for climbing up the sides of icy mountains)  In his experience, they were necessary to get through this trail in wet conditions. We briefly thought about trying it another day, but the drive up and back amounts to over 3 hours of time, which I don't want to waste again, so we abandoned my planned hike.  *sigh*  With a promise that we shall attempt it sometime when we visit in the summer season.

Plus, there are plenty of hikes to be had on our side of the island, which is not only a shorter drive, but better trail conditions, so we might fit one of those in.

We made the most of what would have been our hiking time by driving back down the mountain and heading into the town of Koloa, stopping at a viewpoint along the way.

(G asked me to get this shot of her)

We were hungry for lunch, so we stopped into Pizzetta, an Italian place that smelled delicious.  They did not dissapoint.

Their mozzarella sticks consist of cheese folded into pizza dough and baked.  It's like deconstructed-reconstructed pizza.

Mele Kalikimaka, here is your pizza!

After lunch we visited a few shops, picking up a couple of Crazy Shirts (which are great quality and so comfortable!) and a couple bottles of wine from a wine shop.  The shopping area is surrounded by these huge monkeypod trees, so I spent a little time getting pictures of their canopy.

From Koloa, we headed south to Poipu Beach.  We'd brought along our bathing suits and towells, just in case we found the time and water to play in, and Poipu looked like an ideal spot to take a dip.  This is a very popular beach, given the size, the location on the "sunny end" of the island, and the relative protection from the open ocean.  I hear the snorkeling is great here, but we only had bathing suits, not our snorkel gear, so we just played in the waves for a bit.

I'm smiling through my panic.  I was honestly freaked out and clinging to D for dear life.  (Yes, people were able to walk just a few feet behind us, but it gets deep quick.  And I'm short.  And OCEAN.)

This is what I was looking at.  OCEAN.  BIG MOVING OCEAN.

We headed back to the room where G and I spent a bit of time in the pool, then hot tub, then we came in to clean up and get ready for dinner.  By that time, the locksmith had shown up.  

There are several cupboards in our condo with locks on them.  We presumed the property manager was using them for storage of cleaning supplies, so we asked if there would be room for us to store things (like beach towels, etc..) in one of the drawers so that we wouldn't have to lug so much stuff back and forth from the mainland.  It turns out that the property manager thought we were using the cupboards, as they weren't using any.  So all the locked drawers, cupboards, and closets are available to us for our own storage between visits!  However nobody seemed to have any keys.  Hence, the locksmith.

The locksmith took about an hour to change out all the necessary locks, and at that point we were unable to get a table at Sushi Bushido.  We drove into Kapa'a and checked out a few restaurants... one was a lounge with a very loungey vibe, loud live music, and only big loungey chairs to sit in... another was a fish market with a counter where you could order food, but all the tables were taken up.  We took a table at one place, but discovered the menu was far more limited than we'd thought it would be (leaving me and my allergies with very little option) so we went to Olympic Cafe.  Olympic was our favorite place for breakfast on the last trip, and does have a terrific breakfast, but while their dinner menu is Cheesecake-factory-huge... their food quality for dinner is really lacking.

 

The Mai Tai was pretty good.

G being a teenager.  "No pictures Mom"

This was my blackened ahi/shoe leather, along with the waffle fries.  I had subbed fries for the mashed potatoes, my plate originally came out with mashed potatoes, when I pointed out the error, they took my plate back, scraped off the mashed potatoes, and put the fries on.  I absolutely hate it when restaurants do that - I sub my orders due to my allergies (a lot of times restaurants put chicken stock in mashed potatoes, so I never order them) so when they goof up, the plate is contaminated. In this instance, their potatoes only have garlic and butter in them so I didn't have an allergy concern, but "scrape and send the somewhat dirty plate back out" is poor form and shows a lack of care for the food they are serving. I'm only posting a photo so that I remember not to go here for dinner again.

But honestly, we've always enjoyed their breakfasts (though keep in mind, I only ever order oatmeal.  G seems to love their pancakes, so I guess one could say they do simple food well.)

So the day was bookended with some disappointment, but it's all in paradise so no big whoop, right?

Monday December 28th

Monday started with coffee and breakfast in the room, along with a meandering walk down the path to the far end of the beach on the resort property.  There is a longer jetty on that end which borders a creek, so D headed out there to play with long exposures while G splashed in the waves.  I grabbed a few lenses and headed out to join them.

The end of the beach, looking back towards the jetty by our condo.

Shot with the edge 80.  This might be my favorite beach pic of G ever.

On the way back to the room, this cattle egret was kind enough to pose for me.  They like to walk on the top of the hedge to hunt for lizards.

With no real plan for the day, we decided to grab an early lunch and look around in a few shops for some beach gear.  We found a little hole-in-the-wall place called Tiki Tacos, which had great reviews and more than a few people had told me about it, so we stopped in there.  I've had some great food on this island, but this is by far one of my most favorite lunches.

The local chickens have no problem walking directly under your seat looking for crumbs.

This is my order... 2 tacos with grilled Mahi, cabbage, salsa, and queso fresco (I go without the crema because sometimes it is made with mayo)  I could barely finish these monsters.  We're coming back to this place for sure.

After lunch, and after a good deal of walking around in shops, G was very happy to get some ice cream!

We made a brief stop back in the room to pack up some beach gear, then drove up the street to Lydgate Park, which promised easy-going protected snorkeling in their "tide pools" (designed to keep the waves out, but some fish in)  I did attempt to snorkel without a vest, however the center of the pond gets deep enough to make me uncomfortable (read: panic) especially with one hand holding the underwater camera, so it was vest time for me.

The largest fish in the pond were these yellowfin surgeonfish, which are easily 2 feet long each.  This school circled around the pond.  A lot of people followed them around (which kicked up sand, making it hard to see) but we found that if we just floated on the surface they would zoom right underneath us.  Often surprising us.  I might have accidentally hit one with my foot at one point.

We saw several other fish, including this stripey guy (called a convict something-or-other, I'll look the name up later) and a puffer fish.

Selfies with snorkel gear are not easy to get.  

Upon getting sufficiently waterlogged, we headed back to the room to clean up and consider dinner options.

I thought I should include an afternoon/evening view from our lanai looking out towards the water.  I love being able to just walk out to the lawn.

This night, we decided to stay on the property and have dinner at Oasis on the Beach.  They still make my favorite Mai Tai on the island, with their special almond flavored syrup that makes it more flavorful without being as sweet as the other places.

Cheers!

My salad is "beets 5 ways".  VERY yummy

D's caprese salad and our shared order of calamari.  This is the ONLY fried calamari I've ever enjoyed, the texture was perfect.

Dinner was grilled ahi served with wing beans and kabocha pumpkin mash.  The beans are sort of a cross between green beans and okra, shaped like X-wing fighters, and the pumpkin is a type of squash very similar in flavor to butternut squash. 

On the path outside our porch we noticed one of the many frogs who hop around the grounds at night.  While this photo is not great, I snapped it anyway to show the relative size of these froggy monsters.  D seems to be creeped out that they "sit up like dogs begging for food".

Sunday December 27th - a southern exploration day

This morning we were up for the sunrise, then enjoyed a bit of coffee and wandering around the grounds.  G quickly discovered some teeny tiny crabs digging holes in the sand, so we spent some time sitting and watching them.

Checking for predators... 

Throwing sand at me

We had breakfast in the room while we gathered up our photography gear and debated about where to go.  Since we drove north yesterday, we decided to head south today and see if any sites looked interesting.  We headed to Poipu where we looked around at a few shops, then decided to stop for an early lunch.  We grabbed a table at the Dolphin right as they opened.

G is checking out her camera.

While we loved the Dolphin in Hanalei last year, we do feel that this Dolphin is a little lacking in menu items, though the service was great and once again my allergies were addressed well by our waiter.  I had the fish of the day, which was striped marlin, simply grilled on a salad.

G was happy with her burger, however D would have preferred cabbage on his fish tacos rather than the same peppery/bitter lettuce I had for my salad.

After lunch, we stopped off to see what the lighting looked like at Spouting Horn.  This is a spot where the holes in the lava cliff create a spout for the waves to crash through, creating a mini-Old-Faithful effect.  With the high surf, the Spouting Horn was an impressive site today.

Look!  I'll actually be *in* our family photo album!

I took this shot of the entire cliff to show the horn, along with the cauldron-looking hole behind it.

I shot this one with my edge 80 optic.

We meandered further along the coast and made a stop at Glass Beach, which was a place I'd missed on our last trip.  The beach is so named for the abundance of wave-smoothed glass found on the shore.  The glass washes up right there due to the dump/recycling plant located on the cliff right above it.  The drive there is not pretty (in between huge, dirty, industrial smokestack looking buildings, follow the dirt road to the water).  The beach itself is rather small and, given the surroundings, feels a bit dirty, however the view through the zoom lens makes for sparkly photos.

We circled back toward the highway and made a quick stop at the Kauai Coffee plant, where we taste-tested a few blends.  As we walked out onto the grounds, I spotted a rainbow off in the distance, and I scooted to the edge of the property to get a shot.

My camera bag was in the car, so I only had my edge 80 optic on me at that moment.

On our way back around to the condo, we decided to stop off and check out Lydgate Beach.  This is a place I'd researched before this trip as a potential snorkeling location that is close to the condo, yet protected from big waves.  The beach does not disappoint... here are G and I standing in the "tide pool", a huge protected swimming area complete with fish, and very protected from the high surf beyond.

As soon as the storms pass, we'll be spending a whole day here.

After my grand adventure at trying nigiri last night, D really wanted to go to a sushi restaurant for dinner again so that I could continue my eating adventures.  We stopped off at a couple of places that had good reviews, but it turns out they were closed on Sundays, so we ended up picking a regular restaurant to try for dinner in Kapa'a.  We had to drive around the block to park, then as we got out of the car another rain shower began to pick up energy.  We ducked into a doorway, which happened to be the door to Sushi Bushido.  D's wish came true!

The tables were held for reservations, so we were seated at the sushi counter.  This turned out to be excellent as the head sushi chef worked directly in front of me, and I was able to ask him ingredient questions throughout our dinner.  They were very careful to keep egg stuff away from the food they prepared for us.

Large orders of edemame are LARGE.  And the Mai Tais come in pints!

Our shared plate of nigiri.  Yes, that is octopus on the left.  No, I did not eat it.  D did, and said it "wasn't bad, just a bit rubbery".  Gross.  (The ebi next to it was my piece for that order)  Nigiri is supposed to be a single bite of food, but each one of these pieces took two bites for me to finish.

I had simply grilled ahi for my main dinner plate. 

G opted for tempura shrimp.

After dinner, my early mornings caught up to me... I think I was in bed sound asleep by about 8:45.

Saturday December 26th - travel recovery and exploring

1. To spite our long Christmas day and late night, I woke at 7:30 a.m. on the 26th too excited to sleep any longer.  As I peeked out the curtains, I saw a cattle egret stalking not 3 feet from our sliding glass door.  I watched him slink across the grass and through the bushes into the grounds, on the hunt for his breakfast. I tiptoed around the condo making myself some coffee while D and G caught up on some much needed sleep, then slipped out the door to walk down to the beach and watch the waves for a bit.  D and G were still sleeping when I came back, so I picked up my camera and walked the grounds looking for creatures.  There are an abundance of golden plovers, doves, and mynars on the grounds in the morning.  On my way back to the condo I found this zebra dove perched just outside our bedroom door.

After a slow morning of snacking and a bit of unpacking, we decided to head towards the north end of the island to reacquaint ourselves with the lay of the land.  We were approaching lunch time, so we decided to stop at a place D's friend recommended, Bubba's Burgers.  The menu is simple, not much more than any fast food place, but better quality while just as fast.  (Plus, when I asked about the ingredients of the hamburger buns, the lady handed me the entire wrapper to read myself, which gets huge points from me)

After lunch, we continued up the highway enjoying the views, and turned towards the Kilauea Lighthouse on the northern end of the island.  We didn't go all the way to the lighthouse itself this time, we just stopped to check watch a few birds soaring over the cliffs.

Just outside of the parking lot, I noticed a Nene, the state bird of Hawaii.  This goose is endemic to the island and was on my bucket list on our last trip.  

On our last trip these birds were difficult to spot, possibly because of nesting season, however there were an overabundance of these geese on this trip... to the point where they were blocking traffic in the parking lot (I had to get out of the car and shoo the goose off to the side to keep the bugger safe)  It is great to see an endangered bird make such a strong presence.

As we continued north, we drove through a few big rain showers and poked through a few shopping areas in Princeville and Hanalei.  We felt like having an early dinner, so we decided to try a place called Bouchons.

Bouchons is on the second floor of a building, and has a nice open-wall view of the mountains off in the distance.

The Bouchon Mai Tai... a little sweet for my taste, but it came with an umbrella

My dinner: seared Ahi (medium rare) with roasted potatoes and veggies

Dan indulged in sushi, and after many years of avoiding the entire category due to my allergies, I decided to give the nigiri a shot... because we're on an island, so where else are you going to get fresher fish?  I tried half of one of each of the nigiri here, 3 different tunas and a white fish.  I actually really enjoyed all of them, though the ahi was probably my favorite.

After dinner we headed back to the room, where my west coast time clock kicked in and I was ready to drop by 9 p.m.