Sunday, June 6, 2010

Hawaii Post IIa: Kauai

Sorry for the delayed Hawaii posts, but I'm going to make an attempt to get all caught up here on a Sunday afternoon.

We left off of the tales of the trip to Hawaii with our first stop, Oahu, so here's the catch up for the last 2 islands we visited. Kauai was a second stop of our trip, and everyone had told us the wonders of the islands and the stray chickens that we were going to encounter. The island did not disappoint (tremendous views and lots of stray chickens).

After a lot of research we decided to stay at the Marriott in Lihue, as it was a fine balance between the expensive north side of the island and the dry part of the south shore. For us it was the perfect location. The first afternoon we headed down to Poipu State Beach, which had been named by the Travel Channel as one of the best beaches in the United States. We got there just at the right time, because an endangered Monk Seal was taking a little nap in the middle of the beach. Monk Seal's are protected by the state, and volunteers are called each time a seal comes to lay on the beach. These volunteers rope off the seal so that won't be disturbed by tourists.
The next day we headed north to check out the east shore and north shore. On the east shore the highlight of our trip was at Larsen's beach where we got to see a Monk Seal mother teaching its baby how to swim. We were able to get a little bit of video to share with everyone.




As we made it to the north shore we visited Kilauea Wildlife Refuge, where there was this incredible view
We were officially on the north shore and had heard that there was great snorkeling in the area, but what we didn't realize was how rough the surf was this time of year. We visited many beaches, but there were a few that really stood out to us. The first area that stood out wasn't really a beach, rather a cliff of lava rocks that formed beautiful pools. The area is called Queen's Bath, and the trail head is tucked back in a ritzy neighborhood in Princeville. Patrick wasn't too sure we were going the right direction, since it looked more like a country club than an entrance to lava pools. He let me follow the guide book, and we made it. It was such a beautiful and relaxing viewThe next couple of beaches had some great potential for snorkeling, but we didn't take our snorkel gear out of the Jeep. This was a big mistake because in between Queen's Bath and the Kee beach (last picture), our snorkel gear, hotel towels, extra pair of sandals, and my wind breaker were stolen out of our Jeep. Luckily for us we had all of the cameras with us, so the only thing of value that was taken was the snorkel gear.

1 comment:

Breck said...

Now don't think that all of these posts with beautiful pictures can make up for your infrequent posts!! (wink,wink) Looks like you guys had a blast, so jealous!