Moore's Hawaiian Adventure: Pt. 10 - NaPali!

First stop in this excursion was the Waimea Canyon.

It is dubbed the Grand Canyon of the Pacific.

It is beautiful, in a tropical desert sort of way.

Waimea Canyon.

Keaton, Keirstin and Preston.

Tom and I looking out over the canyon.

Winston looking over the edge.

That's a long way down!

 

After looking at the canyon, we headed for the NaPali Coast Trail.

Tom, Paul, Amber, Keirstin and our boys all decided to hike it.

Marcia and I stayed behind and took pictures.

Starting down the trail!

It's a pretty rough hike.  It goes along the crest of the mountains, so it's a sheer drop-off on both sides in a lot of parts of this trail.  Some spots are really steep climbing.  But it's worth it for the gorgeous veiw.

Hiking along.

 

A view from the starting point.

Ahhhhhhhhh!

Parts of it are jungle-forest paths.

Keaton and Paul, being crazy silly.

Marcia, taking pictures of the canyon side.

One of the steep parts.

Keaton, tries to step up the pace to the end.

Tom and boys at lookout.

Paul, pointing at the starting point, where Marcia and I were waiting.

The NaPali Coast Trail is one of my favorite parts of Kauai.

Moore's Hawaiian Adventure: Pt. 9 - Beaches!

One of the best beaches on Kauai (Besides Hanalei Beach of course) is Ke'e Beach.  It's kind of in an end-of-the-road location.  Drive as far as you can go north, then west and you'll dead-end here.  The thing that's so nice about this beach is there's something for everyone here.  There's a nice sandy, shallow spot for even the smallest of children to play in the gentle waves.  Then there are underwater rocks and coral reefs that are close to land where you can snorkel and explore.  There's a trail that leads off to the left of the beach, going up into the mountains and down onto beaches that can only be reached by hike or boat.  The trail extends pretty far into the NaPali Coastline.

 

Ke'e Beach from the trail.

Tom's testing the waters.

Winston, in the midst of building one of his many castles.

 Preston tries his hand at castle building too.

Keaton gets ready to float out on the boogie-board.

 Marcia is exploring around the rocks, looking for fish.

There were a lot of fish swimming around the rocks, really close to the beach.  Some of them were pretty big.  Winston's favorite was a school of fish that were each about three inches long, and silvery grey.  He enjoyed going after them with the snorkel mask.

 I even did a bit of snorkeling!

(Such a lovely picture)

 

Tom and I snorkeling around.

 

 Keaton, standing on some rocks below the trail.

 Preston, heading back to the beach

Tom, on the trail to somewhere.

Another favorite beach was Poipu Beach.  The only problem was that this beach had some narly waves.  They would throw you around if you weren't careful.  But it also had a really nice big sandbar that was popular with the kids.  At high tide the sandbar would get hit by waves on both sides, creating a huge splash effect.  Winston had fun boogie-boarding in it.  I wish I had gotten pictures of it. 

Part of Poipu Beach, behind the Marriott.

On the day Tom and I were there (while everyone else went on a catamaran ride) we saw a BIG turtle sunning on the beach.  I got as close as I dared and snapped a quick picture of it.  I didn't get too close because the life guards were yelling at everyone to 'STEP AWAY FROM THE TURTLE'! 

This was the only picture I got of (part) of the sand bar.  It actually stretches out, beyond this picture, to the left and goes out into the reef.  You can see some pretty big waves on the other side of those rocks.  There were quite a few people surfing out there.  Winston and I enjoyed 'Jumping' the waves in this little cove. 

My very own TOTALLY AWESOME surfer dude!

Moore's Hawaiian Adventure: Pt. 8 - Hanalei

There is only one airport on Kauai, in Leihue (Pronounced Lee-hu-ay... although the airport automated recorded voice called it Lee-hoo-ee).  We were staying in Princeville, which was on the complete opposite side of the island, so by the time we got our rental car it was pretty late when we got in.  When we woke the next morning, we were reminded why this is our favorite island.  Kauai is absolutely beautiful.  A veritable Garden of Eden.  And we were staying on the loveliest side of it, near Hanalei.

 

The taro fields of Hanalei.

 

Taro is a staple food used by the Hawaiians.  It's a starchy root vegetable, kind of like a potato.  They pound it down and make poi out of it.  Poi tastes like... well, kinda like nothing.

 

Beautiful Hanalei. 

Fields next to Hanalei Bay.

Our Condo.

We were actually staying in  Princeville, which is just a couple of miles to the east of Hanalei, but we could see the town and bay from near here.  Paul & family were staying a couple of doors down.

Breakfast with the family.

Get that cuppa drank Uncle Paul,

you look like you're falling back asleep!

This is the view we had from our patio.  Beautiful!

And again, sounds of roosters everywhere!

Some of the crew overlooking the bay.

Tom, Preston, Winston, Amber and Keirstin.

Winston and Marcia.

What a cone-head!

Winston vegging out on the sofa.

He enjoyed getting to watch cartoons.  Imagine, coming all the way to Hawaii and wanting to sit and watch cartoons!

Playing dominoes on the patio.

Keaton took some fish pictures.

This is the Humuhumunukunukuapua'a... (say that three times fast!)

...also known as the Hawaiian State Fish.

Mr. Crabbs!

Hanalei Bay at sunset.

 

Preston, sitting out on the grass, talking to Rachael on the phone.

Another Hanalei Bay sunset shot.

Princeville golf course - one of the top rated courses in the U.S.

Preston near the sand trap.

Tom watching the sunset.

Beautiful Hanalei.

We feel very fortunate to have been able to stay here.