Hawaii--Part 9--Helicoptering Adventure, a Blowhole, and More Good Food

Alright, alright, this was our last full day in Hawaii and it was a good one (mostly planned by Glen)!   Here's the recap:  

TUESDAY MAY 31

• First things first, we woke up and took a long overdue  50th state photo before everyone started scattering. Yes, don't mind the tired faces....we spent the last week playing hard and we were all exhausted. 😑
  
  
  
  
•  The next thing on our agenda was a quick trip back to the Lihue airport to drop off Adam for his trek home.  His FSY counselor training was originally supposed to have been a week earlier (meaning he would have had to miss our time in Oahu completely), but thankfully they opened up an alternate training week, which meant he only had to go home a day early.  I may have single-handedly prayed that alternate training week into existence. 
  
  
• After the airport run, everyone, except Lucie and I, headed out for a HELICOPTER RIDE along the Napali Coast!  Glen planned this activity and they were all beyond EXCITED!    They had an absolutely amazing time!  

• ... the views were pretty spectacular.  

• While the rest of the family was off on their grand helicopter adventure, Lucie and I hung out at the hotel.   We walked around the resort and along the beach, enjoyed lots of snuggles, had a little nap, and had the cutest giggle fest ever!  

After coming off the high of the helicopter ride, we did our last Hawaiian taste test of some It's-It ice cream sandwiches.  They were a favorite of Aunt Mika's growing up in California and we highly approved...though to be totally transparent...they were glutenous, so I didn't actually eat any...though I feel confident that I definitely would have enjoyed them too!  haha! 

•   After the taste test (our final in Hawaii),  the kids headed to the beach/pool, ate a picnic, and  Glen and I  went on walk and out for lunch to The Plantation House by Gaylord.  This lovely meal was a gift to us from the kiddos and we very much enjoyed the delicious food and time to be alone for a while!  

• Chill time at hotel (this is the view from our balcony...so even staring out the window is relaxing).  😍

• After researching one more thing to do in Kauai, we decided on Spouting Horn Beach Park...a crazy place where the incoming waves interact with some lava tubes and water spouts up like a geyser!   It was a beautiful drive to get there...
  
  
  
   and a unique place to see that "one more Hawaiian thing".  

• I'm not sure if I've mentioned all the wild chickens in previous posts, but we were struck by the wild chickens EVERYWHERE in Hawaii...but especially in Kauai.  Local lore has it that a big hurricane in the 1990's destroyed many commercial chicken coops, setting the chickens loose into the wild.  They've spent the last couple decades doing what chickens do and there are cute little chicken families wandering all over the place--in the cities, in parking lots, on the beaches, wandering under your table at restaurants with outdoor seating,  etc.   I understand that they're quite a nuisance to locals, but we found them quite endearing and wondered if there were little nests full of free eggs for people willing to look.  Probably not, since they're likely fertilized eggs ready to grow into baby chickens, but it still made for good suppositions.  haha. 

• Here's one more shot of Spouting Horn with a lovely rainbow in the spray of the blowhole!  

• After enjoying the blowhole for a while, we headed to our final Hawaiian dinner at Kalapaki Joes!  They served good burgers and the  fries may be the “best ever” ( according to a couple kids).   

• Though we weren't really hungry, we decided to get some ice cream at Skinny Mike’s—an ice cream shop right across the street from our hotel!  The sundaes were amazing and we left satisfied that we'd eaten our fill of Hawaiian goodness!  

• Thus ends our final full day in Hawaii.  Stay tuned for one more post, before venturing on to real life, which has been far more eventful than usual of late. 

Hawaii: Part 8--Kauai, Waimea Canyon, etc

When we started planning this trip, we knew we wanted to spend the bulk of our time on Oahu to see  the iconic Hawaiian sites our family had never seen before, but we also knew that we really wanted to see another island at least briefly as well.  We did a lot of research and debated about which island that would be and ultimately we opted for Kauai. We only gave ourselves a couple days here, but here is the recap of the arriving there....

Monday, May 30

• We packed up our stuff, said goodbye to the lovely home we were renting, and headed to the Honolulu airport.  We had heard stories about the inefficiency of the Honolulu Airport, so we got there nice and early...which turned out to be a good thing, since the lines were crazy long!  

• Eventually we made it through the craziness and boarded the short flight to Kauai.  We sat next to a very nice local on the plane, who gave us the rundown of the best places to visit/hike.  
  
  
• WE arrived several hours too early to check-in to the hotel, so we decided to start off with a drive to Waimea Valley.   
  
  
• We got hungry...perhaps even a little hangry....along the way and stopped for lunch in the town of Waimea.   Kauai is much more rural than Oahu, so we didn't have great cell coverage there, so we just stopped at the first place that looked good...which was a place called Island Taco.  It was surprisingly delicious  and I definitely recommend it if you ever find yourself hungry and wandering around Kauai!    

• After lunch we decided to try a shaved ice place called Coconut Corner, which was right across the street from Island Taco.   Although we just happened across this place without reading any reviews, we once again were very impressed.  Waimea for the high quality restaurant wins!    

• After refueling with the good food, we continued on our journey to Waimea Canyon.  Waimea Canyon was described to us as "The Grand Canyon of  the Pacific" and we were excited to see it in real life.  It's 14-miles long, 1 mile wide,  3600 feet deep, and the nickname is well-earned!       As we drove from sea level to the overlooks, we started  to get a glimpse of the Valley!   The "official" overlooks have bathrooms, ample parking, and great views, but they also charge a per car AND per person fee.   Luckily it's a one-time fee that gets you entrance to all the overlooks along the drive, so we did we were happy to pay it.  

I don't remember which pictures came from which overlooks, but here's an overload of a whole bunch of photos....

• After thoroughly enjoying the drive and overlooks and unsuccessfully attempting a hike, we headed back to Lihue, where we could finally check into our hotel.   Apparently we were staying in someone's unused timeshare, so the check-in process was obnoxiously long (almost an hour long).  The Marriott resort was lovely though and, other the the inconvenience of not being together, we enjoyed our stay here.  While we got checked-in, the other cohort got us some pizza from Scorpacciata Neapolitan Pizza, we checked out the pool and beach access, and thus began our grand Kauaian adventures....
  
  
  
  

Hawaii: Part 7 -- Church, Kahuku Farms, Waimea Falls, etc.

You'll be happy to know that the Hawaii blog-fest is coming to a close soon...just a couple more now!   This was our last full day on Oahu and we used it as a day to eat up our leftovers, pack up, and get a couple more things crossed off our list.   

SUNDAY, MAY 29

• Since it was our last day on Oahu, we were trying to use up our food and ended up eating leftovers for breakfast.  😋
  
  
• We got dressed up in our Sunday best and went to church at the Kahuku 4th ward.   Jan Newman of the General SS presidency was there and gave a talk.  His talk was good, but one of the other random speakers gave one of the best talks I'd heard in a very long time.  😀
  
  
• My friend, Wendy Richards, highly recommended eating at Kahuku Farms while we were in Oahu, so it was top on my list of places to try.  Unfortunately,  it is only open limited hours and wasn't super close to many of the other activities we were doing, so it never fit into our schedule until today!  It was worth the wait though!    It was absolutely DELICIOUS, super gluten friendly, farm fresh, and my only regret was that we didn't try it earlier, because we totally would have come back again!  

• After thoroughly enjoying the deliciousness of Kahuku Farms, we headed back to the house, changed out of our Sunday clothes, packed up our stuff, and played some pickleball

• Only about 5ish minutes from the house we were renting, we'd been driving by signs for Waimea Falls all week long without ever stopping.   Today was the day though!   We finally had some open space in our schedule, so off we went to explore for the low low price of only $20/person (only $16 for students).  😒 

With all wide, paved trails and only small hills along the way, the hike itself wasn't very challenging. And it was hard not to laugh at the fact that they required life preservers if you wanted to swim in the water at the base of the waterfall.  😂

But what was worth the money and hype was all the amazing flora and fauna  along the side trails along the way!   Seriously....GORGEOUS!!! 

 I took a gazillion pictures along the way and couldn't believe all the unique and beautiful variety of 

• After the hike we got back to our car and were greeted by this gorgeous fellow, looking like he was standing guard for us!  

• After the Falls, we headed to Pupakea Beach...also very near the house...and just had fun swimming, boogie boarding, collecting shells, and soaking up the Hawaii sun (with sunblock on...of course).    

• After the beach, we headed back to the house for our last night of pickle ball, a dinner of leftovers, and a rousing game of Dixit. 
  
  
  STAY TUNED FOR A COUPLE MORE DAYS ON A NEW ISLAND....
  
  
  

STAY TUNED FOR THE LAST COUPLE HAWAIIAN POSTS....