Aloha and Mahalo...

Sarah and I are back from our trip to Hawaii. It was very relaxing and we loved seeing my Uncle and Aunt again on the Big Island; they were happy to see my Mom and Dad again who wouldn't have made the trip without going with us. We also explored Kauai for several days, which was a great side trip midway through the vacation. We didn't really get a tan (sun screen is your friend when you skin tone if best described as pale), but I thought I'd share a few highlights from our trip:

Hiking: Sarah agreed to take one day out of our relaxing vacation to go on a long hike with me on the North shore of Kauai on the Napali Coast. I had read and heard that this was generally thought to be the most beautiful area in the world. We're not really into the camping thing, so our best option to explore the 11-mile Kalaluu trail along the Napali Coast was to hike up and down the coast two miles until you get to secluded beach and then two miles inland along a stream to a majestic waterfall.

Highlighted Trail Map

For an 8 mile hike, it is fairly challenging due to several major stream crossings and the fact that this time of year the rock climbs are slippery and muddy. At some point you just embrace the mud and plow right through. The last part of the hike is not really marked so there are lots of opportunities to get off the trail; at one point we thought we were at another stream crossing but suddenly saw people walking 25 feet above us. Despite all that it was a very unique hiking experience and having plenty of water and bringing the right equipment (crocs for stream crossings were great) made it a great hike.

At the Falls

Roosters: If you haven't been to Kauai, a strange but interesting fact is that roosters (and chickens) have taken over the island. It's sort of weird...imagine if you went to someplace local like the Reston Town Center with nice restaurants and shops and also found like 15+ wild chickens running around. Our first night sleep on Kauai was cut a little short thanks to some added COCK-A-DOODLE-DOS much earlier than dawn.

Lava - We did something that we missed out on last time due to not planning ahead and relatively poor conditions, we got to see the lava at dusk. We grabbed our flashlights and walked down a small trail to the viewing area. What a show! It is hard to do it justice in words but here is picture at dusk to show you the entry point and a video once it is a little darker that gives you a feel of how dynamic it was:





Turtles - We spent a lot of time snorkeling and and we saw several giant sea turtles at several different snorkeling spots. Sarah now has a mini-fascination with turtles, so here is a cool turtle picture from snorkeling on the big island with one of those disposable underwater cameras.