I have taken Anna around Oahu, the Big Island and Maui already. Since we had almost a week in Hawaii I thought it'd be fun to take her to a new island, Kauai. But, as this trip was costly, Anna would only go if it was practically free. I used my frequent flier miles to get us there. Rather than stay the night, we flew in early in the morning and left on the last fight out, so we didn't need to spend anything on a hotel. We did get a rental car and pay for meals, but we figured we'd do that in Oahu anyway.
We landed in downtown Lihue.
It's quaint and not nearly as city like as Honolulu or Kahului. Even though we had only 14 hours we felt like this small island could be seen in that time. We didn't waste any time and first headed toward Waimea Canyon. On the way we drove by the "famous" swinging bridge of Hanapepe.
Anna wasn't too thrilled to cross the bridge, but there was a geocache on the other side so I insisted we go. It wasn't all that scary. But it does swing as you walk on it.
Then we kept on our path toward Waimea Canyon, nicknamed the "Grand Canyon of the Pacific." It is a deserving name.
We stopped at a cabin up in that cool crisp air to eat and then began the long windy road back down. We were close to a place called "Barking Sands" which gets it's moniker because when the wind hits the sand it sounds as if the sands are barking. However, everywhere we went to get to that beach we kept hitting barbed wire fences and US military posts. It was approaching noon already and we hadn't seen much, so we had to move along.
We next stopped at the Spouting Horn. Oahu has the Blowhole which is also lava tubes in the ocean that squirt water as the waves roll in and out. But I think the Spouting Horn is more impressive.
We then stopped at the Waimea River.
Waimea River
This area is where Elvis filmed much of
"Blue Hawaii." A hotel at the mouth of the river called the Coco Palms is featured in the film and is also where Elvis stayed while filming. The hotel has since lost it's luster.
We took a ferry ride up the river and a tour of the Fern Grotto.
Along the way the guide pointed out places of interest like the river bank where Indiana Jones ran to his floating plane from the dart-blowing natives in "Raiders of the Lost Ark." I took of picture of it, but there is absolutely nothing to see. Our guide also pointed out "The Sleeping Giant." Again I took a picture, but I still don't really see it.
The Sleeping Giant of Kauai. (I still don't see it)
We arrived at the Fern Grotto but were not permitted to go inside. A grotto is a shallow cave. When I came with my parents in December of 2000 the grotto was open and we did go inside. The cave looks like a small slit in the rock from the pictures you see today, but it's surprisingly spacious once you are in. Some very heavy rain in '06 weakened the cave and nearby walls so it is off limits to tourists. This pic shows the closest you can get now.
The Fern Grotto
After our tour we drove to the last remaining lighthouse on Kauai.
As beautiful as the view was, we didn't get any closer to the lighthouse. There was an unreasonable fee and we saw enough. Also, I found the nearby geocache so we felt no need to advance.
To complete our trip around the island we kept driving till we hit the scenic village of Hanalei.
The view of Hanalei
Anna was tired by this point in the day, she wouldn't get out of the car to see the view, so I handed her the camera and had her roll the window down. In hind sight, it might have been her way of not not being in any more pictures.
As we made the trip back toward Lihue, we had just enough daylight to see Waimea Waterfall, which is no relation to Waimea Canyon or the Waimea River.
Is it just me, or is everything on this island named "Waimea"?
There was a geocache near this sight too, but this this one seemed a bit dangerous. Yeah, I still got it.
At this point Anna and I were starving. We grabbed a quick bite to eat and when we finished there was just a hint of daylight left. The one thing we thought would be of interest to see still that we hadn't gone for was also the closest to the airport, the Menehune Pond.
Menehune are sort of like the Hawaiian version of a leprechaun - only they don't wear green. They are small mythical creatures that look like small people. I think Willy Wonka's Ompaloompas are probably the closest comparison in our culture.
This pond is believed to have been built by the Menehune. Likely it was small Filipino migrant workers...
Just as we left the Menehune pond it turned from twilight to pitch dark. We drove around Lihue a bit to see the non-existent night life before we made an obligatory stop at Wal-Mart (my mom would be so proud).
We made it back to the airport a bit early. We were tired enough to just sit at the airport and decompress until our flight back to Oahu.
We were tired but felt a sense of accomplishment. In just one day we had seen the highlights of Kauai. Of course, had we more time we could have seen or done more, but it felt like just the right amount of sight seeing for this trip. If you every go to Hawaii and find yourself trapped in Honolulu thinking to yourself that it does not feel like the Hawaii you imagined then take a day trip to Kauai and you will see the type of Hawaii that is even better than what you see in pictures.
