Kauai: Trip 3 – Day 4

Posted on June 24, 2017 by sandersnm

We had one day on Kauai to explore the rest of the island. We decided on breakfast in Hanalei (delicious) and then driving around the rest of the island. Our first stop after breakfast was Kilauea Lighthouse and seeing the bird sanctuary. We then made it to Waimea Canyon where we spent most of our time stopping to see the views. It looks so much like the Grand Canyon! We made it to the top of the Kalalau Valley lookout. It was so weird to think we were down there the day before. Our last stop before dinner was the glass beach. There were tiny bits of sea glass all over the beach. We treated ourselves to dinner at Duke’s in Lihue before catching our flight back to Oahu. Had such an amazing trip!

Kilauea Lighthouse

Cousin love

Josh & Kyle

Waterfall!

Kalalau Valley

Looks like a painting

Glass beach

Our view from dinner!

Kauai: Trip 3 – Day 3

Posted on June 23, 2017 by sandersnm

On Sunday we woke up early to get started on our long hike back. I definitely did not sleep well the night before as I was dreading the hike and I was worried about the little black kitten. He turned out to be totally fine, but I was still dreading the hike. Once again, at about mile 9 I think we were all pretty done. It was a gorgeous day and much hotter than the hike in so we went through all of our water and had to stop and refill at the rivers. We were thrilled to make it to the last river and see people! It meant we were almost back. I was so happy to get off that trail and see our rental car! We all took showers and had a ton of food in Hanalei. This is the second hardest thing I’ve ever done (only being trumped by the first time I did it). Such a fun experience, but we were all thankful to sleep in a real bed that night!

Good morning and goodbye to the beach!

I think this was on accident but I loved it.

The long hike up the red dirt hill.

The sun on the ridges in the morning is beautiful.

Group shot!

Crawler’s ledge on the way back.

Finished!

Looking back at crawler’s ledge.

Love the trees against the water.

Made it to the first river/beach!

Looking back at what we accomplished.

We did it!!

Kauai: Trip 3 – Day 2

Posted on June 22, 2017 by sandersnm

Day two started out with all of us being just a bit sore (maybe not so much Kyle) but the rest of us were feeling it. We made coffee and breakfast and then set out to explore! Our day consisted of checking out the the rocks at the end of the beach that had all sorts of things growing on them, walking the beach and visiting the caves at the end, lounging around camp (including in our tents when it decided to start raining) and then enjoying another beautiful sunset on the beach after it rained. We finished the evening by enjoying the stars. They were absolutely breathtaking. We also made friends with a black kitten. It took everything I had to not take him home with me. ❤

What a view.

Cousin love

Walking to the caves

Enjoying the shade and coolness of the caves!

Kyle relaxing in the cave

Sibling love

Bailey enjoying the waves

Walking back from exploring the caves

These birds were everywhere and not afraid of us.

Camp!

Enjoying the rain

Rainbow!

Getting water

Such a beautiful waterfall!

Just beautiful

Loved these flowers. They were everywhere.

Love that you can see the rain in the distance.

This cat..I was so upset I couldn’t take him home.

Kauai: Trip 3 – Day 1

Posted on June 21, 2017 by sandersnm

A few weeks ago, my cousins Bailey and Kyle came to visit Josh and I. It was deja vu as four years ago they came to visit to celebrate Kyle’s graduation from high school and Bailey’s graduation from college. This time, it was Kyle celebrating graduation from college and Bailey celebrating graduating with her PhD.

They spent a couple weeks each on Oahu, but the highlight of their visit for all of us was hiking the Kalalau trail. This would be the hike that Josh and I did as our first date here he tried to kill me. It rained the entire time, which made crossing three rivers rather interesting and terrifying. Luckily, this time we didn’t run into that issue!

We spent the days before buying supplies, organizing our packs and making sure we had everything we needed.

Getting organized!

Osprey Ad.

We left on Thursday evening and checked into our Airbnb in Princeville. It was close to the trail so we didn’t have to drive too far on Friday morning to get started. We ate dinner at Barrel Chicken in Hanalei and then prepared for the next day.

We got up at 3:30 AM to have coffee, finish packing and arrive at the trail early. It was dark out when we started so we were able to enjoy the sunrise.

The moon

Ready!

Gorgeous

Gorgeous view with the sun starting to rise.

We made it to the first river and I was happy to find that I could hop along rocks to cross (very different than the last time). We made friends with a rooster who decided to cross it with us.

Josh looking thrilled

Around mile 6 we made it to the second river and stopped to have a snack. I also changed shoes as my feet were killing me. We were really psyching ourselves up for mile 7 and crawler’s ledge. Good news, is it was not as bad as we thought it might be!

Second river

Crawler’s Ledge

Made it! A boat stopped and waited for us to finish and then cheered us on when we were done.

One mile left!

Almost there..soooo tired.

We finally made it! The last three miles seemed to take days. But we crossed the final river and spotted the beach. We set up camp, then went to the waterfall at the end of the beach to refill water, made dinner and enjoyed the most incredible sunset ever on the beach. Not bad for the first day!