Sunset Dinner and Wale Watching, Kauai - Day 7

Day 7: Sunset Dinner and Whale Watch trip up the Na Pali Coast.

 

I don't even know where to start with how amazing our tour was. It was definitely the highlight of our trip. We met at Port Allen at 1:45 and boarded our catamaran at around 2:30. We saw whales immediately out of the harbor, so that was definitely a sign that it was going to be a great trip! We've done a few whale watching trips in Monterey, but this was a whole different experience. I was looking forward to seeing the Na Pali Coast since it's practically unreachable by any other mode of transportation other than boats. The only ways it had been described to me was "Jurassic-looking" and "gorgeous". There is a hike you can do to reach on of the beaches along the coast - it's an 11.2 mile rigorous hike from Ke'e Beach up North near where we stayed down to the beach. You can hike it, turn around and go back, or you can camp out on the beach. During our trip we saw some campers from our boat. The hike might have to be a bucket list item for me. Maybe. 

Anyways, the crew on the boat was amazing - we went through Captain Andy's Sailing Adventures and they were phenomenal! They were very personable and a lot of fun to talk to, and they were constantly walking around checking-in with everyone, making sure everyone was comfortable and had what they needed - drinks, snacks, food, etc. They were incredibly knowledgeable of the history of the island and gave a lot of interesting facts throughout the duration of the tour.

{Humpback fin-slapping}

{Sun starting to set over the Hawaiian island of Ni'ihau}

We sailed almost all the way up the Na Pali coast, stopping a few times to check out waterfalls, caves, whales, reefs and some other cool stuff. When we got to our "turn-around" point they hoisted the sail on the catamaran and opened the bar! Dinner was served shortly after that - it was delicious!!

After dinner and drinks we headed back up the coast to see more whales and see the gorgeous sunset. 

It was the perfect way to spend our last full day on the island...well, I guess on the ocean around the island. Our advertised 4-hour tour turned into almost 5&1/2 hours. We saw A TON of whales and some Hawaiian Spinner Dolphins. 

It. Was. Awesome. 

Snorkeling Success! Kauai, Day 6.

Day 6: Success! While we didn't get to snorkel at Tunnels or Ke'e Beaches because the surf was still tooooo crazayyy and beaches up north are still closed until at least tomorrow, we did go to Lawa'i Beach in Koloa on the South Shore. We were there the other day for our Beach House lunch and it looked like a nice little beach so we decided to try it out for snorkeling and, man, what a great choice! We had an abundance of fish at our feet right off the shore before we even got out into deeper waters. 

Just a few fish we saw: 

Parrotfish

Needlefish

Reef Triggerfish...AKA: Humuhumunukunukuapua'a (it's just too fun of a word to not say it!)

Butterflyfish

Angelfish 

Wrasses

Tangs

Pufferfish

Sea urchins

Seaslugs 

Whitemouth moray eel

and a lot more that I either can't think of or don't know the names of! It was amazing and so neat. If Tunnels Beach really is the best snorkeling on this island then we have to come back sometime to snorkel there because Lawa'i was pretty awesome for not even being an honorable mention in the top-snorkel spots on Kauai. 

After snorkeling and getting a good tan we headed back up to Kapa'a for some shaved ice and shopping. =) Came back to the condo, had some lunch, I did some laundry and now we're just relaxing until it's time for me to make some dinnaaa! 

Tomorrow, Day 7: FINALLYYYYY our Whale Watch and Sunset Dinner Cruise of the Na Pali Coast! So SOOOOOOO excited! We decide to book this for the end of our trip and it's been hard waiting but it's going to be a GREAT way to spend our last full day on this amazing island!

Hope ya'll are having a great week so far! 

<3 <3 <3

Sights & Snorkeling - Kauai, Day 4 & 5

The reality that our trip is coming to an end is getting stronger and stronger, and just plain depressing! We are having a blast relaxing, sight-seeing, and just spending the time together that, honestly, we haven't been able to spend together in months!

The last two days have been full of more adventures and we've come to realize that we've gotten to know the island pretty well and are able to roam around and navigate without the help of our GPS on our phones anymore! Woohoo!

Day 4 was a beach day. We spent some time snorkeling at Anini Beach just a few miles southeast of where we are up on the north shore. The water was nice and the weather was great, it just wasn't the amazing snorkeling we got spoiled with at Hanauma Bay on Oahu in 2007.

Day 5 (yesterday) was a long day of driving around sight-seeing after our original plan of snorkeling all day failed! Our first day here we drove to "the end of the road" up on the North Shore where the Hawaii 560 literally ends at Ke'e Beach, and you hit Tunnels Beach right before Ke'e. These spots, mostly Tunnels Beach, are supposed to be some of the best snorkeling on the island so we knew we had to come back here for some snorkeling during our trip. We read in one of our Hawaii guides that Tunnels Beach on Kauai and Hanauma Bay on Oahu are two of the best spots to snorkel on the Hawaiian islands and we did Hanauma Bay in 2007 so we had to do Tunnels, too! Unfortunately the surf was too high and the beaches located on the Northern shore were closed for swimming/surfing/snorkeling. So instead we wandered around the caves for a bit, stopped and enjoyed a shaved ice on the way back to the condo, then took a drive south to enjoy some sights and continue to break in our brand new rental car for its' future drivers. =) We enjoyed a nice dinner at Duke's in Lihue then headed back north for the evening.

 {This guy obviously didn't read the memo about the beach being closed to surfers)

 {Waves at Tunnels Beach}

  {Waves at Ke'e Beach}

 {Wailua Falls}

 {Wailua Falls}

 {Opaekaa Falls}

 {Wailua River heading towards the ocean}

 {Pretty sunset from Wailua River lookout}

 {Pretty sunset from Wailua River lookout}

Day 6...coming up!

Then...that means Day 7, our last full day here before we head out on Day 8 (Thursday). Booohooooo!!! =(

Waves and Whales - Kauai, Day 3

Yesterday was fabulous Day 3 in Kauai and we didn't do nearly as much driving as Days 1 an 2. 

I wanted to go and spend more time at the beach where we saw the whales on Day 2 since we didn't get to stay long so we packed up a picnic lunch and headed down the highway back to the beach. We saw lots of whales and we decided to go down the cliffside to the water to do some more exploring and we got even luckier and saw a sea turtle! He hung around for quite a while so I got a few pictures (one I posted below) and then we just roamed around the beach for a while checking out the tidepools and crevices in the lava rocks. So much fun. The excitement I get from being at the beach and all the creatures there sometimes makes me wish I had gone with Marine Biology instead of Child Development, but eh...ohhh wellll! =)

{^^Sea Turtle!!^^}

 {^^Coral wedged between some lava rock^^}

 {^^Whales!^^}

{^^Coconut^^}

{^^Kilauea Lighthouse lookout^^}

{^^Kilauea Lighthouse lookout^^}

{^^Anini Beach^^}

{^^Anini Beach^^}

After our beach adventures we went to the market to get some stuff I forgot the other day, then we got some Shaved Ice (of course), then home and relaxed for a while before I made tacos for dinner, complete with all the fixin's! =)

On tap for today, hubby is currently watching the 49er game while I sit on the balcony writing this, then we are going back to Anini Beach to do some snorkeling out on the reef and who knows what else we'll venture out to do! <3

Hawaiian-inspired "Huli-Huli Chicken"

Great for whole chickens, half chickens, breasts, thighs, whatever pieces you like to use! We had a whole rotisserie chicken and it was delicious!

Huli-Huli Chicken is a Hawaii favorite, often served with vegetables and sticky white rice which, for anyone who knows me and my cooking, veggies and rice are staples in my kitchen!

The term "huli-huli" means "turn-turn" because the chicken should either constantly be turning (the most popular method being a rotisserie), or if you'd prefer to do it in the oven or classic BBQ grill then it should be turned every 10 minutes until the skin is crisp and dark (but not burned, obviously) and cooked thoroughly.

INGREDIENTS:

1/3 cup ketchup

1/3 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup honey

1/4 cup sherry

1-2 Tbsp. sesame oil

1-2-more pieces ginger root, crushed

3 cloves garlic, crushed

Worchestershire sauce to taste

Sriracha or Asian chili paste (or red pepper flakes) to taste

Squeeze a lemon in if you've got one

DIRECTIONS: 

Marinate your chicken for at least a half-hour.

Rotisserie the chicken until cooked thoroughly (typically 40-50 minutes) and the outer skin is crispy and dark. Brush with marinade throughout rotisserie process. Serve with grilled veggies and sticky white rice, if desired.

Enjoy!

Aloha, from Kauai!

Hubby and I are on Day 3 of our vacation/2nd Honeymoon in Kauai and loving every minute of it!

So, for this entry: a re-cap of our first two days then a delicious Hawaiian-inspired recipe! =)

First off, technology never ceases to amaze me...we flew (no pun intended) through the whole airport thing thanks to Online Check-In and Baggage Payment. We checked in BEFORE we even left grandparents' house for the airport on Thursday morning and paid for our checked baggage, too...so when we got to the airport we went to the check-in counters, showed our boarding passes and receipt that we had printed before we left the house, the guy took our bags, gave us stickers for our boarding passes and off we went to Security...we flew through that too. So, we had 2 hours to kill until our flight so we grabbed a Jamba Juice and relaxed for an hour and a half until they started boarding. 

 The flight was fine. But I hate flying. Especially over nothing but water. I played some games and read a book on my iPad, did some sleeping, hubby read on his Kindle and slept...and we got complementary Mai Tai's on the flight so that made it a little more bearable. It was delish. 5 hours and 20 minutes later we were in Kauai where our baggage came onto the carousel super-quick! Within an hour and a half of landing we had gotten our baggage and our rental car (which, might I add, was a BRAND NEW Ford Focus and we were the lucky first drivers of it; we have definitely already broken it in well for the next drivers) and we had made it to our first stop...Hee Fat General Store in Kapaa for what I had read to be "the best Shaved Ice on the island" (thanks to some wonderful Yelp.com reviews!). We shared a "Lava Flow" (macadamia nut ice cream on bottom with banana, coconut and strawberry flavored shaved ice with a Snow Cap on top) and it was pretty dang delicious! So good, in fact, that we had it again on Day 2. =) It's not a Hawaii trip without Shaved Ice!

We couldn't check-in to our condo until 4pm and we landed a little after noon so we had some time to kill so after our shaved ice we drove around and got familiar with part of the island for a while, then finally checked in. 

 Our condo is super-cute. Hubby is in love and convinced we need to move here...party because we are minutes from a few golf courses and there is a putting green behind our condo. I don't completely object. This island is so pretty gorgeous. And compared to prices of houses back home, there are some reasonable deals here...and the landscaping, and the beaches, and the people, I could go on forever...I love this place. 

The rest of our first day after we finally checked in we just relaxed. We went to the grocery store to grab some dinner because I am determined to use the full kitchen that our unit has as much as I can, rather than spending a ton of money on eating at restaurants for every meal. We had a rotisserie chicken and chef salad for our first meal here. =) Then...it was time to SLEEP. 

 

Day 2 we were quite adventurous and put some serious miles on the rental car...but most importantly, the local Starbucks was discovered. <3

Waimea Canyon was at the top of my to-do list, after whale watching but we've got that booked for next week. The canyon is nicknamed "The Grand Canyon of the Pacific"...it was breathtaking and the drive up was so much fun. It was a little foggy/cloudy at the lookout point because we went later in the day so our pics didn't come out the best but we might go back earlier on a clearer day. 

 

We stopped at Spouting Horn in Poipu on the South Shore after Waimea Canyon. It was pretty neat. It's basically a beached area lined with lava rock that is corroded away by the crashing waves & it leaves narrow openings in the rock; one of the opening is on top of the rocks so when the waves crash in from underneath it forces the water up through the narrow opening creating a big or small spout of water, depending on the size of the wave. 

We had lunch at Beach House Restaurant because we had heard such great things about it...it definitely lived up to expectations. Hubby had a huge burger and fries and I had Chicken and Vegetable Stir Fry with Rice. And our drinks came with pretty orchids in them. <3

On our way back to the condo we stopped to stock up on groceries for the week and, yes, for Shaved Ice at Hee Fat General Store again. =) I got the Lava Flow again but hubby tried the POG (Passion Fruit, Orange and Guava shaved ice with coconut ice cream and a Snow Cap)/ Just as delicious as the first time. 

As we were driving I noticed some whale blows (at least 3 different whales together) off in the distance so we pulled off at one of the stops and whale-watched from shore for a while but didn't stay as long as I would have liked since we had groceries in the car and it was warm out! But, it was fun, nonetheless and makes me look even more forward to our Sunset Dinner Cruise/Whale Watch next week when we're even closer to the amazing mammals! 

{^whale blows!^}

We ended our day with a late dinner in Hanalei at Kalypso, a local favorite. 

Overall an amazing time so far...and we still have so much time left! =) Can't wait for our next adventures...keeeeppppp checking back! Uploading pics now from today, Day 3, so that entry will be up later tonight. Now...for a recipe

<3 <3 <3