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.
