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!