Day 5: Koloa and Poipu Beach

We woke up to another gorgeous morning on day 5 of our trip! Our plans for the day were to explore the South side of the island.

Waiting in the car for Rob who forgot to grab the sunscreen!

Rob giving me the stink eye because he forgot the sunscreen :)

Just a little bit of family history for you...Rob's Dad's side of the family is from Hawaii. His ancestry doesn't start in Hawaii, but his Great Great Great Grandpa, James W. Smith, moved to Hawaii in 1842 as a Christian Missionary and Doctor. He and his wife settled on the island of Kauai in the town of Koloa. James Smith was the main doctor on the island for many years. There is even a book written about his legacy.

While in Kauai, Rob and I really wanted to visit the family history sites that are still there. The main one is the Koloa Missionary Church. The church is actually located in one of James W. Smith previous homes. Below is a picture of a plaque they have posted on the church's property.

Rob in front of the church.

Below is a picture of a small cemetery that we were told held grave sites of some of Rob's ancestors. After spending an hour driving around, making sure we were at the right cemetery, and searching every headstone, we still didn't find any Smith relatives :(

After getting a little frustrated, we decided it was time to feed the hungry monster (me!). We were planning on spending the rest of the day at Poipu beach, so we headed in that direction to find a place to eat. We stumbled upon an oceanfront grill and decided to eat there. The food was pretty good and the views were spectacular!

Next stop was Poipu Beach! Poipu was pretty crowded compared to the beaches on the north shore, but we heard it was a great snorkeling spot, so we decided to check it out. After my first snorkeling incident, I wasn't too excited to get in the water, but I decided try it out. We had spent money on snorkel gear, and I didn't want it to go to waste. Poipu turned out to be a much better snorkeling spot than Ke'e! We saw a ton of really cool fish and I didn't feel claustrophobic at all!

Poipu Beach

After a couple of hours at Poipu, we decided to head down the beach a little bit to Brennecke's Beach. It was a better spot for boogie boarding, which is Rob's favorite thing to do. The waves at this beach were a lot bigger than the ones on the North Shore. I was really hesitant to get in the water, but Rob finally talked me into it. I mainly went out because Rob told me there was a huge sea turtle that kept making an appearance out in the water, and I've never seen one in person. Swimming in the ocean really makes me nervous. I'm not a very good swimmer and I hate how unpredictable the waves and currents are. The waves were a little too big for my liking at this beach, but with Rob's help I caught a couple of good waves. Then we had a little incident were Rob tried to drowned me, which caused an embarrassing swimsuit malfunction, so I decided to cut my boogie boarding short and go back to my book on the beach. Rob came in a shortly after and broke the news that I had missed the turtle once again!

Rob (with the red boogie board)

We decided to make one last beach stop before heading back for the day. We hit Shipwreck's Beach, which is nicknamed that because of an old wooden shipwreck that was found there, but was washed out to sea in the 1980's. This beach is most famous for the cliff (which is pictured below) which Harrison Ford and Anne Heche jumped off in the movie Six Days and Seven Nights.

This little beach had enormous waves that Rob enjoyed swimming in, while I sat on the beach and watched a couple of small weddings take place.

Wedding

Another shot of the cliff

While I waited for Rob, I started noticing all of these little holes popping up every where around me. Out of the holes popped up tiny little sand crabs! To be honest, I was a little freaked out! I had never seen these little creatures before and they were all around me! Lucky for me, they were really scared of me and any movement I made, they were immediately back in their holes.

This is the best picture I could get of the fast little buggers!

I took this picture on our way back to our hotel. It's blurry, but I kind of like it.

We were starving by the time we got back to our hotel and decided to get a burger from one of our favorite locals joints we had discovered. They had the best onion rings I have ever tasted! I think we stopped and got an onion ring fix at least once a day! Their burgers were pretty good, but in my opinion they didn't even compare to In-n-out!

Rob is so excited for his burger and rings!

I thought this sign was pretty funny!

Day 4: Hike to Hanakapiai Falls

This day was probably my favorite day of the whole trip! We had researched hikes before we left for Hawaii, and this one caught our eye. The hike was 8 miles round trip and was described as strenuous. We knew it would probably be a little difficult, and would take up most of the day, but we decided to do it anyways! We got an early start and hit the trail around 9am. The first two miles weren't too bad, just muddy in places.

This was the most beautiful hike I've ever been on! The scenery was AMAZING!

At mile 2 you cross a river and end up on a tiny, but beautiful secluded beach. Rob and I decided it would be a great place to stop and eat lunch. It was truly breath taking! I know I've said that a lot about this trip, but the ocean views were amazing!

After lunch snapshot

While eating lunch, this wild cat came up and hung out right at our feet. So random!

You should be shocked that I'm posting this picture of this spider. I can barely even look at it. I have a huge case of arachnophobia! I can't stand spiders! While waiting for Rob to use the port-o-potty, I saw this huge web with this freaky looking spider on it. This spider was HUGE! I am so glad we don't have these kind of spiders in Utah. When I pointed it out to Rob, he had to take a picture of it. It honestly gives me nightmares!

The final 2 miles up to the falls were extremely muddy and slippery! Plus we had to cross the river 2-3 more times. Our shoes and legs were covered in red mud!

There were a couple of patches of bamboo along the trail. It was a little creepy because when the wind blew they would creak and crack and I kept thinking something was moving around in them. Rob took a stick and decided to play the bamboo. It sounded really cool! Leave it up to my husband to find music ANYWHERE.

I love the trees in Hawaii! They are so cool.

We had about a quarter of a mile to go, but we could finally see the falls. These falls weren't very full, but they were about 300 ft tall!

There was a small pool at the bottom that you were allowed to swim in, but we decided to pass. While reading up on these falls, it cautioned people not to swim in the pool if you had any open cuts because of the bacteria in the water. Both Rob and I had cuts, so we decided to play things safe.

After resting for a bit, we decided to head back. I was not looking forward to the 4 more miles we had to hike to get back to our car!

The two miles back to the beach weren't too bad. I even snapped this cool picture before crossing the river. This is where the hike got a bit difficult. It was now around 2pm and hotter than ever! The last two miles were 75% uphill and in direct sunlight. Our legs were extremely tired, but we continued on. Even though it was the same trail we took earlier that day, it felt twice as hard! I almost cried tears of joy when we saw the parking lot. Although it was tiring, we were extremely glad we did the hike! It was a major highlight of the trip for both of us!

Once we got back to the trail head, we hosed off from the waste down and headed back to our hotel. We then showered and hit the town! Rob and I had spotted a steakhouse earlier on in the week and decided we would treat ourselves to a big meal. Heck! We deserved it...we hiked 6 freaking hours that day! I even treated myself to a delicious Guava Mango Daiquiri. I think I ate more that night than the whole week in Hawaii. It was SOOOOOO good! Or maybe I was just starving. Who knows?

Out on the town!

That's right girls, he's all mine! :)

All in all...in was a fabulous day!

Kaua'i Day 3

Day 3

We woke up bright and early at 6:30...AGAIN! We decided to start the day off with a run along the beach. This was one thing I really wanted to do while we were there, and the day before we had found a really cool trail that went right along the beach. The scenery was breathtaking!

I do have to say if we ever move to Hawaii, I would have to transition to a treadmill runner. It was so stinkin HOT!!! I wanted die.

On our way back to the hotel, it started raining. We had the top down in the car and decided to keep it down. While everyone else was pulling over and putting their tops up, we welcomed the refreshing rain! It felt fabulous after our hot workout. It poured for another hour or so, and had stopped just in time for us to head out for the day.

Hawaii even graced us with a rainbow!

Our first stop was to rent a boogie board and snorkel gear. Then it was off to the North shore once again! The drive that morning was even more breathtaking than the day before! The rain had produced multiple waterfalls on the mountains. It was gorgeous!

This is what the mountain looked like on our first day on the North Shore. If you look closely, you can see a tiny waterfall near the top.

This is what it looked like the next day after the rain. You might have to click and enlarge it to see all the waterfalls.

After boogie boarding in Hanalei Bay for an hour or so, we grabbed some lunch and a scrumptious Hawaiian Shaved Ice!

Have you ever had an authentic Hawaiian Shaved Ice???

They are to die for!

Next on our agenda was snorkeling at Ke'e Beach. This was my first time snorkeling in years! I think I have only ever snorkeled one other time in my life. I was a little nervous but excited.

All ready to go! Attractive huh?

The reef on this beach was only a couple of feet under the water. Shortly after getting in the water I started feeling really claustrophobic. I also kept getting water in my mask that would sit at the base of my nose. I finally had to knee on the coral to adjust my mask (BTW, I know you aren't suppose to touch, kneel, or stand on reefs, but I had no choice! I was about to drown!). It felt like kneeling on rocks! I wasn't really enjoying my snorkeling experience, so I decided to head in. Rob stayed out for a little while longer. While sitting on the beach drying, I looked down at my knee and noticed it was gushing blood! The stupid coral had cut my knee! Me, being super unprepared like always, had zero band-aids and nothing to clean my wound with. I ended up asking the people next to me if they had a band-aid. They not only had a band-aid, but they had anti-bacterial wipes, neosporin (sp?), and band-aids! Lucky for me, they were SUPER DUPER prepared! After Rob finished snorkeling, we decided it was late enough that we would stay and see the sunset. To kill some time we did a little exploring around the area...

This was a cool cave filled with water

The beach was lined with these trees that had massive root systems!

This tree was practically knocked over, but the roots kept it from falling completely over!

So cool!

I LOVE Hawaiian sunsets!

So Gorgeous!

Luckily the sun sets early in Hawaii (around 6:45), because we were starving! It was the perfect ending to another perfect day in Paradise!