The Island of Kauai (July 6-8, 2012)

Friday, July 6, 2012

During this trip I chose to read the Forest of Hands and Teeth trilogy. I really enjoyed the series. I was able to finish the first book while Heather and I hung around the Princeville condo nursing our achy muscles.

The raft ride the day before was a blast, but it was hard on the muscles.

Heather and I stocked up a cooler with ice and ran to the store to pick the guys up some after hike snacks and beverages. I got Kris a cold water and Dr. Pepper, king sized Reese's cups, and a bag of Gardetto's.

Getting to the trailhead took forever due to road construction, so Heather and I were an hour late. After we finally found a parking spot, the guys appeared. Perfect timing! They smelled atrociously bad. Heather gave Casthead a hug and kiss anyway. I waited for Kris to take a shower.




Kris seemed shocked that I remembered his after hike Dr. Pepper. He was very grateful for the snacks too.

Clean up was ridiculous. The guys were super filthy.




Really...you'd think they'd be clean after wading across knee high streams.




Multiple loads of laundry were required, some things were thrown away, and Kris had to hose off his shoes. After hosing the shoes down, he had to dry them in the dryer. They were still so dirty, they mucked up the dryer and Kris had to wash the dryer!




After the guys had cleaned up, we had to exchange stories and show them the skydiving videos. Heather's video was up first, and it shows me diving out of the plane from the perspective of Heather and JR, her guide. When I go out, Kris explained, "Why'd you do that?!?"

We went to a nearby restaurant called Kalypso for dinner. Kalypso is currently in the location of the restaurant where Kris and I ate our wedding dinner.

After getting back to the condo, Kris and I decided to go relax for a while in the hot tub to soothe our aching muscles. Casthead and Heather opted to try to get to sleep early for their next day scuba dive.

Saturday, July 7, 2012

Casthead and Heather had an early scuba dive an hour and a half from the condo this morning, so they took the car. Kris needed to rest after his two day, 22 mile torture hike, so we relaxed back at the condo.

I should have been writing blogs, but I decided to read the sequel to Forest of Hands and Teeth instead.

When Casthead and Heather came back, we all headed out to Queen's Bath. During the winter months, Queen's Bath is extremely dangerous. During the summer months, it's approachable - but still really dangerous.













The guys went to the correct side of the bath, but we saw a lot of people erroneously sitting on the rocks. The waves that came in knocked them all off. They were lucky not to be washed out to sea.










To top off the stupidity, a guy decided to do a backflip into Queen's Bath. It's a rocky cove and not incredibly deep. Insane!




Tunnel's Beach was up next for snorkeling, but we left when it didn't yield many fish. We'd all seen better snorkeling at this point.







Hanalei Bay was our next stop. It's a really great swimming beach, and we stayed until sunset.



















For our final dinner on Kauai, we traveled a bit out to Scotty's Hawaiian BBQ for the best brisket ever. Kris and I both got a sandwich sampler platter with chicken, pork, and brisket. I gave Kris my pork for his brisket. Silly guy. The brisket was the best part!










Sunday, July 8, 2012

The Lawa'i International Center is an outdoor temple that is home to 88 child-sized Shingon Buddhist shrines. It was designed over 100 years ago by Japanese immigrants who sought to replicate an ancient 900 mile pilgrimage in Shikoku, Japan.




The center is only open twice a month, and we happened to be lucky enough to be in Kauai on one of the Sundays they were open. Months ago, Carol Curren and I had plotted to meet there.




Kris and I were leaving Kauai for Maui around 2:30 pm, but Casthead and Heather didn't leave for home until almost 11 pm. We worked it out to where they would drop us off and keep the car.

Casthead and Heather drove us to the Lawa'i Center, met Carol and Clark, had some adzuki bean pastry and tea and helped us complete a quick luggage transfer into Carol and Clark's car.




They left to continue their Kauai journey, and we met Carol and Clark's gang of awesome people before the tour began.




The tour guide enlightened us about the Lawa'i International Center and the healing non-denominational powers of spirituality it held. She gave us each hiking sticks and told us our journeys were best entered in silence.




In all seriousness, it was a very calm and peaceful place with beautiful landscaping, and I enjoyed the time we spent there.










The shrines all had different offerings inside some of which were more fascinating than the last. And the awesome company made the trip even more fun.







I'd never used a walking stick before and got to try that out. I was surprised to be coordinated enough.




Carol and Clark drove us to lunch where we got to chat over teriyaki chicken and then dropped us off at the airport.

My views from the plane were outstanding. Kris wasn't afforded the same views.
















We made it to Maui and found the car we rented from Ashley of our Maui B&B in the parking lot just where she said it would be. To save money, I rented an old Toyota Previa from the people who owned the lodging of our final stay. It was $20 per day with tax included. No A/C or frills, but it ran great and we didn't have to worry about violating any rental company terms and agreements.

When was the last time you saw one of these?




We went shopping (Kris found a Double Dew) and checked into our latest AirBnB find.










Thai food from a school bus anyone?




We passed on the Thai food, and, for dinner, we made hamburger mac n' cheese for dinner and snacked on pineapple chips. We checked out a nighttime surfing spot too.











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