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Hawaii
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On New Years' Day 2004, I flew with my family to Kauai. Unfortunately, Mark could not take the time away from the lab, so it was my parents, my sister and I off on a family adventure. We headed to the airport at 5 am after saying goodbye to Mark, Sydney, Moose and Josie. After a flight reminiscent of, but much shorter than, the flight to Australia, we landed in Honolulu. From there we took an island hopper to Kauai, got our rental car and set out for Poipu Beach through the Tunnel of Trees. We had booked a two-bedroom condo at the Aston Poipu Kai for seven nights. It was a wonderful setup. We had our own little deck, kitchen, living room, and laundry facilities. We were so relaxed and comfortable, it was as if we were living there.
After unloading our bags, we had enough time to walk down to the beach for sunset and a quick swim. Since it was getting late, and we didn't have any food in the kitchen yet, we headed to the Poipu Beach Broiler in the condo complex. We had mai tais while we waited, a wonderful assortment of fish for dinner, and spent the evening relaxing and planning in our living room.
In the morning, we walked along the greenbelt to the Hyatt. It is an amazing complex with three levels of connecting pools and slides. The weather was pretty wet, and the snorkeling visibility was low, so we went in search of non-beach activities. We decided to drive out to Waimea Canyon, the Hawaiian Grand Canyon. After a stop at the Waimea Brewing Company complete with good beer and kittens on parade, we headed up the winding road to the canyon. Poor Cady didn't really appreciate the twists and turns, but we made it to a view point, just in time to be totally fogged in so that looking down in the canyon was exactly the same as looking up at the sky. Still happy to just be in Hawaii, we snapped a few pictures of the beach poultry (so named by us because of the presence of brightly colored chickens and roosters on the beach the day before) that had chosen the canyon for their home. We wound down the road, now with Cady in the front seat and headed back to the condo for dinner at home.
We spent another day exploring the island in the opposite direction. Making our way from Poipu we drove up to where the road ends past Hanalei. Since the water visibility so far had been poor, we still needed to fulfill our snorkeling quota. We stopped at Anini Beach, which we had pretty much to ourselves and floated in the shallow waters (sometimes less than a foot deep) watching the sea life. The snorkeling was great and the spot was gorgeous.
Our next stop was the Kilauea Lighthouse. We wandered around the secluded bluff, and admired the view up and down the island. Then, we were off to lunch in Hanalei at the Hanalei Mixed Plate. The food was delicious, but the servings could have fed an elephant. The town of Hanalei looks like it made it to the 60's and just stopped changing after that. It was a cute place though.
We drove past Hanalei to the end of the road where the Na Pali Trail starts. We walked up a bit of it to admire the view, but were unfortunately not dressed to go much further since we were all in flip flops. In all, it is an 11 mile hike, but there is a secluded beach only two miles in. Someday, it would be fun to go back to the trail.
We spent the rest of the time in Kauai enjoying Poipu Beach, golfing at the Kukuiolono Golf Course (little used outside of the locals and much cheaper than anywhere else by mandate of its founder), snorkeling at Lydgate Park (actually quite impressive despite its write-up making it sound like a children's pool), and taking a kayak trip to Wailua Falls. We went to the Poipu Beach Broiler again, to Keoke's, and cooked several more meals at home from the fresh fish in the markets. By the end of our stay in the condo, it did feel a bit like leaving home. But we were off to a couple days on Oahu before heading back to California.
After the peaceful stay on Kauai, Oahu seemed very ritzy and crowded. In fact, we likened it to Las Vegas on the beach at one point. However, our stay was still very enjoyable. We checked into our hotel room, and headed to the beach. After a quick swim we cleaned up and set out for dinner. We ate outside at Duke's, which meant the menu was slightly different and shorter, but the experience was pretty much the same, and we were on the water.
The next day, we got on an early shuttle for Hanauma Bay. We watched the introductory video and then headed down to the beach on foot. We spent a couple of hours snorkeling, and then laid on the beach for a rest. Though crowded, the spot is gorgeous, and is definitely worth all of the hype.
Always ready for more, my dad went surfing when we got back to the hotel, while Cady and I went off to buy souvenirs for everyone back home with my mom. That night we ate at the Royal Hawaiian. Again, we chose to sit outside. There was a young man and woman providing entertainment. He played the guitar and sang while she performed the hula. He spent the night playing requests, many of them ours since we were sitting so close and were obviously impressed with their talent. My dad ended up getting the man's (Ells') email address, and has since gotten a CD. It was a perfect last night in paradise.
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