Spring Break Day 4 – Poipu

 

The Hawaiian Gods are not smiling on us….the streak of losing things on vacation continues.  This time, Suzanne dropped the car keys somewhere between the beach and the hotel room.   So, that means a run out to the airport to get a new set of keys from Hertz, a pretty hefty lost key charge, and instead of heading north to hike the day turns into a beach/hotel day……

So, there aren’t a whole lot of pictures of the surroundings in this post.  The wind had died down some, so, the beach umbrella was a lot more stable.  The weather is still a little wacky, we sat through a 15 minute rain shower on the beach today (that did a good job of turning a crowded beach into a very sparsely populated beach).  And everyone had a good time snorkeling.  Saw a lot of fish……

The first five pictures here are from the new waterproof camera…what I wanted for Christmas.  Need to look at the camera more and figure out how to use all the features…..did a pretty good job just trying to see what would happen.

Most of these pictures are from the first day of snorkeling….the battery in this camera then died and we had to switch to the older waterproof camera.

Obviously one thing I need to figure out if the newer camera has a underwater filter or mode like the older camera does…

Matthew took a lot of these pictures, as always, the boy loves to swim and snorkel.  Cpher had a great time snorkeling as well, and he hasn’t been that into it in the past…

Suzanne came out the last time we went into the water….I think she finally got used to the make and snorkel and saw a lot of fish with Matthew and I

No turtles, no really large fish….but Kauai isn’t really the island for snorkeling either.  No complaints here though, it is very cool that we can just walk out of the room to the beach and see a large number of fish…

After several trips to the water, we came back to the room for some down time.  Headed out to the ‘shopping village’ right across the street and then headed over to the Grand Hyatt

Did I mention there are roosters and chickens everywhere?  EVERYWHERE. 

pulled up the camera and hit click while we were waiting for Mom to complete her purchase….

this boy had a moment of warning….Kevin would have ducked away…

Oh yeah, we also went out to Spouting Horn before heading over to the Hyatt…

the attraction here is these two lighter colored areas where they surf, which goes under the lava flows, comes up through the rocks in giant sprays…

Wasn’t able to get a really good picture of it though…

The Hyatt is definitely the best resort on this side of the island…man, it went on forever and had some huge pools….definite resort envy.  May have to really consider coming back here some time…

We came over here to see the torchlighting and hula dancing show that they have on Saturdays….was ok, had a drink or two and walked around, a pleasant enough way to spend an evening.

Spring Break Day 3 – Waimea and Polihale

 

Up early (7 am) and after eggs and bacon for breakfast, we are out the door heading west.  Driving up to Waimea Canyon to check out the lookouts and then west to Polihale State Park (as far west as you can go on Kauai).

Aside from the joys of three boys in the backseat of a SUV (we decided in Maui to go for the mini-van because we were sure we’d be sick of the arguing by then) the drive was pretty easy.  This view is from the first lookout….

Boys will climb when the opportunity presents itself….

Grade A Ham…..

Still blown away by how all of this land is just sitting here in the middle of the ocean without any continental land mass within 2500 miles…..

The higher we got (the road tops out at 4000 feet) the worse the weather became…this is from the second to last lookout, and well, usually, you can see the ocean and the Napali Coast…not so much today….

But the clouds did make for some interesting views as they moved back and forth along the mountains…

This picture is from the last lookout, as high as you can go.  Yeah, that’s a whole lot of nothing…

But, me and the boys did take off down this direction for a small hike…

On the hike, the views to the right were better than those towards the left…

Cpher really liked the hike “they are adventurous and mysterious Dad”….kind of wet and muddy, but not too bad….

We didn’t go too far, maybe 3/4 of a mile?  didn’t even get to the first vista…like there would be anything to see there!

had them line up for a photo at one point….forced Kevin to stand in the lowest spot.  He literally towers over Suzanne and I now; even if we are in shoes he still has inches on us….

skipped one lookout on the way up because it was pouring rain….stopped there on the way down and took this photo

Lunch:  Went back to Waimea; three of us had shrimp (spicy and fried), two had Subway. 

North Korea:  Spent more than a few minutes on the drive talking and joking about being in the closest part of the United States to NK and that the forecast could be Partly Cloudy with a hint of Fallout. 

After lunch we headed as far west as we could go to Polihale State Park.  Probably five miles of unpaved road, but, yeah, it was worth it.

The geology here is just amazing….sheer vertical cliffs….

and miles…and miles…and miles of beach.  17 miles of sand beach here.

There are a lot of warnings about swimming here…there can be dangerous currents at all times.  Others were out there so we let the boys go in but they had to stay where the water would hit their knees with no waves…

The waves have been pretty gentle on the south side where we are staying but over here they were bigger and punishing.  I went in later and you could definitely fill the current pulling you back out before the next wave blasted you.

Stayed here until mid-afternoon and then headed back to the hotel.  Stopped in Waimea for some shaved ice. Dinner was burgers and fries that I grilled up; watched Sparty lose….went back out with Fric and Frac to watch sunset at the beach (not anything to see…too many clouds).  Played some frisbee with Matthew, saw a turtle that had beached itself and then after some time in the pool called it a night….Cpher must have been really tired out by all the sun and water, he made a big announcement at 8:30 that he was going to bed.

Spring Break Day 2 – The rest of it

 

As I said before, we didn’t do much, but, figured I might as well make sure I capture a few of the photos

Went out to Poipu Beach (which is just next to the resort) and did some swimmiing and snorkeling.  Was low tide, so, snorkeling didn’t turn out all that well, and it was very windy, which made the umbrella (and shade) for Suzanne very problematic.  But, the ocean was warm and we had fun….

Dinner was Costco rotisserie chicken with various sides; full kitchen here and four grills just outside of the room so we might as well make the most of it.  After dinner, we headed out to walk along the beach for sunset.  In Maui, the walk along the resorts along the beach is all sidewalk….not so here, more than a few sections of slogging along on the sandy beach.

After sunset we headed out to one of the shopping complexes that is nearby….picked up some ice cream and shaved ice; got some t-shirts for the boys.  Again, we’re back to the hotel and asleep pretty early…..