Monday & Tuesday in Kauai

After such an active start to this portion of our trip, we decided to take the next day a little easier.  Just up the road from our timeshare is the town of Hanalei, which is a fairly small, but quaint town that is mostly full of outdoor things for tourists to do during their stay.  Bike rentals, boat rentals, surf lessons, snorkel rentals...its all here!

After hours and hours of driving around the Big Island last week, I couldn't wait to do a few things near where we were staying, so we hopped over to Hanalei, and rented some kayaks!  A small and lazy river connected to the bay (ie ocean), and went about 3 miles up into the island to a point in which the river got so shallow you literally couldn't go any farther. 

A scenic view of the area we kayaked through.

We started off towards the ocean bay, but quickly found out that the seas were MUCH too rough to go out very far, and turned around back up the river.  Passing a pod of people doing stand-up Paddle Boarding, we were told that upriver a little ways were some sea turtles!  (Apparently they cruise up the river a bit during turbulent seas).  We saw one peaking its head up for air, but never saw the second. 

Really enjoyed our kayak time, but we were so glad once we got back to the dock.  It was lunch time!!

View of Hanalei Bay from a scenic viewpoint.

Now that the physical part of our trip was "over", we decided to farther out and sight see.  A few miles up the road is a lighthouse and aviary preserve.  Just outside of the lighthouse entrance is a small turn off that you can get a great view of the lighthouse from far away.  While we stopped and took some pics, we forgot to look at our watches.  The entrance to the lighthouse closed at 4pm, and when we finally looked up, it was 4:08!!!!  Gah!  Missed it by a hair!

View of lighthouse from landing outside gate.

Close up view of lighthouse.

So we snapped a few more pics, and caught one of the NeNe bird, which is a protected species on the island.  They are descendants of the canadian goose, but have adapted for life on the island (mainly smaller webbing between their feet to allow walking on lava rock!). 

We tried to catch another beautiful sunset, but it wasn't in the stars for us (or should I say the sun....) colors were not spectacular tonight, and we ended up heading home for a dinner of salmon and greens! 

On Tuesday, we took a longer drive out to Wiamea Canyon, which Mark Twain dubbed "The Grand Canyon of the Pacific".  It is truly a dramatic and spectacular sight.  The canyon is 1/2 a mile deep and 10 miles long.   I think the canyon would be a little more amazing had the sun been hitting it, but all day today the sky was cloudy, overcast and drizzly.  We got a few pics, but, as you can see, other people had better luck during lighter skys.  (Hint, second picture is NOT mine...)

Our view of Wiamea Canyon.

No hiking today, since the sky was so cloudy and rain was imminent, we didn't want to risk sliding down some slope in the mud and not being able to get our way out!  So we headed to a place called Barking Sands Beach.   I forget how the sound is made, but scientists tell us that the sound is caused by an echo of footsteps walking in the sand.  (We didn't hear any.....I guess thats because we have a cat...)

Barking Sands Beach and the beginning of the NaPali Coastline.

Made a stop at one more beach before heading home (just not before having a world famous Bubba Burger at the road-side shack!).  Yes, they had a boca-burger just for me... :-)

A natural phenomenon in which water from the surf is forced through a narrow hole, creating a geyser that can shoot up to 60' in the air.

Monk seal we saw sleeping at the beach we stopped at!!

Double waterfall that we were able to see before the sun went down!!