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....