Kauai

So, after a weekend in Kauai, a mere three hours at home, and a three day FTX, I'm finally back in my lovely apartment. Even though I should have gone to bed a while ago, I'm getting up late tomorrow (read: late = 7, haha). So I thought I should take some time to do a little write up on my trip to Kauai. Spoiler alert: it was amazing!

Friday: I met Noelle at Tripler early, and we carpooled over to HNL, grabbed some Starbucks, and awaited our 30 minute flight to Kauai. By 8:30, we had flown over and gotten Bob, our white PT Cruiser. (Kauai was full of PT Cruisers and Jeeps. Go figure.) We didn't have anything in particular planned for Friday, so we headed West to Waimea. We grabbed a quick and delicious breakfast at Cafe Obsessions, then headed up to Waimea Canyon. It's called the "Grand Canyon of the Pacific." It's amazing. We did a short, 2 mile hike, then headed to Po'ipu for some snorkeling. We saw a Monk Seal chillin' on the beach and lots of fish in the water. (This is when having a waterproof camera started to be absolutely awesome.)

Saturday we went kayaking and hiking to Secret Falls. It was a 2.5 mile kayak, then a short hike (maybe a mile?) to the Falls. They are 112 feet! Amazing. After the adventure, we showered off and headed up to the North Shore of Kauai. We stopped at a market (kinda like the Swap Meet only much smaller), then made it up to Hanalei. There are tons of cute shops there, good restaurants, and live music!

Sunday we went tubing on the irrigation canals of the old Lihue Sugar Cane Plantation. (Note: they filmed some scenes of Tropic Thunder on this land. :) If any of you have gone tubing on the James, it's kinda like that, only much colder, faster, and through 5 tunnels. But it was so cool. And it's an eco-tour!

Last but obviously not least was our 5 hour Na Pali Coast trip! The highlights were: seeing many whales (including 2 half-breaching--where they come half out of the water), about 200 dolphins, the Napali Coast itself (gorgeous), and snorkeling with a monk seal! It was such a great end to a wonderful trip!

So if you ever get the chance to go to Kauai, GO! It was so beautiful, everyone was really friendly and kind, and it was a great getaway.