After hiking in the mud on Wednesday, the Husband and I decided to go shopping up north in Hanalei. Hanalei is pronounced “ha-na-lay” not “ha-na-lee” as in “Puff the Magic dragon who lived in Honah Lee.” And while Puff the Magic Dragon is an excellent song, it’s not one you want to hear repetedly in your head as you drive up to Hanalei. Just sayin’.

Really, there wasn’t much else that we did that day. After wandering around the small shopping area and finding what I believe is the only knitting store on the island, because I am nothing if not obsessed, we followed the road north to it’s end. We checked out where another hike we wanted to try later started and stopped at a beach.

All photos for our drive can be found at flickr.

…to show you some snow. Not that I’m really doing much updating on Kaua’i, but I do plan on getting back to it eventually. Especially now that I have the snorkelling photos.

Our area had a very special Valentine’s Day. One where mother nature said, “You know what, I think we all should just stay home with our loved ones this year.” and then she let the snow out. It wasn’t over 100 inches like some areas have received but it was a nice little pile. So of course I had to go out and get some photos of the snow.

We only received around 2-3 feet of snow and did not lose power, so it was a good storm. Any time you can keep your heat, it’s a good storm. Despite trying to kill my back shovelling it was good to finally get some snow on the ground this year, something that has been horribly lacking recently.

A few days after the storm.

A closeup of the bench out front so you can see how much snow we have.

Google Map of Kauai…

On Wednesday we woke up early but still managed a late start due to a breakfast buffet and a sunny balcony on our room. After rolling off the chairs we made our way in our little Ford Mustang that could to the base of Waimea canyon. The drive out to the canyon was about an hour. All we knew about the canyon, aside from being one of wetest spots on earth, was that we could buy a trail map at the something or other museum. According to the map it wasn’t that far.

This is about where god or the universe or something begins laughing at the funny little dumb mortals.

The ride up isn’t long in theory. It’s a short distance. However, it’s a narrow road with a drop on one side or the other and it gives new meaning to “winding.” How that little Mustang made it up the mountain without careening off the edge with Mr. Vertigo driving I am still amazed.

The nice thing about the canyon for you wimpy non-hikers is the abundance of lookout points. We of course stopped at every one and I took way to many pictures. I’m quite manic that way.

At each stop we found roosters, the seemingly king of the island.

One of the stops let you view Ni’ihau, The Forbidden Island. It’s home to over 200 Hawaiians which makes it the largest colony of Hawaiians left on the island. It’s privately owned and no one is allowed on the island unless invited.

Once we found the museum we purchased a map and asked the cashier for the best hike. The poor woman must go through the spiel about 23,983,321 times a day, but she is very knowledgable on the subject.

We ended up on a beautiful hike that was mostly shrouded in fog and covered in mud, but the occasional glimpses of the view were enough. Once done and covered in abundant amounts of red mud, we wearily drove home and enjoyed the view of the ocean. I do admit that we slept very well that night.

All Waimea Canyon photos can be found here. (Well almost all…I took a lot)

We’re back from our trip last week to Kaua’i. I’ve been slowly organizing the photos and getting them up and out. I’ve been debating how to handle the vacation write up here. For Ireland I did a day by day journal but I had more photos then. I’ve decided to go with a day-by-day entry again but days will be merged together or skipped when necessary.

Day 1: The Flight Out

At 3am we woke up and groggily made our way to the Airport for a 6am flight. After a lovely psudo-winter filled with little snow and 60 degree weather mother nature decided to thwart us with a slim layer of snow on the ground. Our flight wasn’t going to go out in the current conditions. Of course, they had already let us board the craft and made us sit there while did dances to the math gods to determine how our little airplane that coudn’t could. Turns out, after their math samba, we had to lose 4 passengers or lose the luggage and they were looking for volunteers.

An hour later, 4 or 6 passengers fewer, and one de-icing later we were off. We made it into Chicago with five minutes to spare. I’ve never run through an airport before, but since they airport gods decided that our first flight and second flight needed to be as far away from each other as possible without actually being on opposite sides of the airport, we ran and just made it to spare.

Nine hours later we where in Honolulu.

The Honolulu airport is amazing–most of it is open to the outside and you have access to little sitting areas. We enjoyed some outdoor space until I was tired and then waited for our last flight to Lihu’e, Kawa’i.

In Lihu’e airport, we heard people talking about a car accident and horrible backed-up traffic but were reassured by our welcomer that it was north of our hotel and not to worry. We pulled out of the airport for our 5 minute drive to the hotel. One hour later we made it to the Hilton Resort. For most of that hour we were in a parking lot watching roosters wander by.

All Honolulu airport photos can be found here.
All Hotel view photos can be found here.

We decided to take day two easy. After waking up we wandered the beach outside our hotel then drove our little rented Ford Mustang to Lihu’e and north to Kapa’a for shopping. That’s about it. Dull but there you go.

I don’t have beach photos ready yet. They’ll be up again later because I am quite mean.