Day 94: Recovery (But Not Really)

 It's our first full day home. We all were in bed by 7pm, but we're still pretty worn out. I anticipated a nice lazy day at home, resting, recovering, not wearing real pants, you know. 

Until my phone chimed. 

Calen's first baseball practice of the season is tonight. 

Of course it is. 

So off we go, packing away the hockey gear for the summer, and pulling out the baseball bag. I had joked to Brad that we needed to exercise the moment we got home from Hawaii due to all the crap we ate, and here we are. 

So, Calen stepped onto the field (his first practice of his last year of Little League), and I went and walked 5.5 miles on the track. 

Welcome home, anyways. 

Day 93: Exhaustion

 If tiredness was measured in size, I'm standing on the top of the Empire State Building. 

I. Am. Done. 

Congratulations, you've read these beautiful expansive detailed blog posts and now we're back to short boring posts. Sorry not sorry. 

The flight left Lihue, Kauai at 10pm Hawaiian time and we landed in Kodiak at 2:30pm Alaska time (two hours ahead). It's a miserable flight, no one sleeps soundly, and you feel hungover the next day. 

All. The. Coffee. 

Coming back tanned and tired. 

Shoot, you don't even know what day it actually is. 

Also it's snowing here and I'm offended. 

We got home, unpacked, and fell asleep on the couch. Literally. Good freaking night. 

Day 92: Hawaii Day TEN

 This is it!! The tenth day! We made it! This trip went SO fast, and yet I feel like we did SO much. 

We spent the morning packing and spending time with the chickens. I know the locals can't stand the "fricken chickens", as they're nicknamed, but I'm a huge fan of them. They're funny, annoying, and stupid. And they're my favorite. 

So here's to you Bill, Janet, Felicia, Tracy, Stella and Junior, Robert, and Prince Phillip. 

Janet was my favorite

Bill was quite daring this morning and tried to get into the house. 

One last look of our amazing back porch view

Because the west shore is far away from basically anything, we packed up the car, checked out of the cottage completely, and headed out for a day of adventure before catching our flight. Camden woke up not feeling well, so we took our time and went slow today. 

We stopped for an early lunch on the west shore that we've driven by the last two days and I always wanted to try: Porky's. It's a pork dog joint, basically, but better. We got the #1, which is a pineapple pork sausage topped with kalua pork and fresh (and I mean, fresh) pineapple chunks. 

Oh. Em. Gee. 

If I had known just how good this was ten days ago, I would have eaten there every single day. Also the restaurant is adorable and gives me the Hawaiian vibes. 

We were going to sit at the beach and just relax until dinner time, but we still had an important bucket list item for Camden to complete. So we headed to the south shore to a gift shop and finally, FINALLY, bought Camden a "lei"

We headed to the beach, but elected to stay out of the water (other than to wade in to our shins to cool off) to stay clean and dry for the trip. Luckily, there's some cool stuff on the green of the beach. The boys played an hour of giant chess, cornhole, and then sat on the beach and read video game magazines. 

We left the beach to go back to our favorite "fancy" restaurant on the island - Dukes, because it's on the beach, you eat outside, and we can drink out of a pineapple. 

And that's it! We tooled around Target for a bit, got picked up by our Turo, and started the LONG overnight adventure back to the real world. 

Until next time, Hawaii. That was truly magical. 

Day 91: Hawaii Day NINE

 It's our last completely full day of Hawaii! I mean, we don't go to the airport until 8pm tomorrow, but as far as carefree not worrying about what time it is to catch a plane, it's our last day.

Pam and Larry needed to pack, as they were leaving much earlier tomorrow morning, so it was just the four of us again today. 

Brad and the boys didn't have the chance to snorkel at Tunnel's beach the day that Allie and I did it, and I really wanted to give them the chance to do it before we left the island, especially since it's Brad's favorite thing to do. This was a good time since the parents were busy. So we took the drive back up to the North Shore, where the snorkeling was even better (like, 10 times better, if that's even possible) than when Allie and I did it. There were entire schools of fish, a couple of huge eels sliding in and out of the holes in the coral. Fish swimming, fish eating, fish sleeping in the coral. And as you swim over the coral, the cracks in between that reveal the deep blue sea underneath (and when I say blue, I literally mean Jello blue). The boys were done, so Brad and I headed to the drop off, and it's literally a drop off Finding Nemo style, dropping off from 3 feet deep to 30-40 feet deep, but so clear and so turquoise that you can see the bottom. Below us were schools of larger fish, and then Brad snatched me and pointed to this amazing green sea turtle gracefully swimming below us. We followed him for about a minute before he dropped deep below the overhang of the dropoff where we couldn't see him. 

Literally the coolest thing I've ever done. 

One of the only photos we took this morning because we were so busy in the water

We only stayed for a couple hours, and after we packed up and headed a few miles down the coast to the infamous Hanalei, where we stopped for another new shaved ice place. This place was on the list specifically because we could buy coconut bowls and serve the shaved ice in them. 

And since drinking out of a freshly cut coconut was a bit of a let down for Camden, buying a souvenir coconut bowl for fresh ice was absolutely justified. 

This fantastic mural on the back of a tractor trailer

Nearby was a really easy walking trail. You can hardly call it a hike, except for distance, but it's more like a stroll with a really cool finish line. We parked at a super cute dog park and headed out to the Stone Dam Trail. 

The Trail was amazing, marching us through these perfectly structured groves of mahoganey trees (as this was once a sugar cane and then a mahoganey plaintation). It was very muddy with red clay, but it was gorgeous, green and lush, and fun to do something entirely different on this trip. 

The end of the trail was like finding the Holy Grail. At the very end this trail opens up to a perfectly manicured natural garden, with a rushing stream pouring out of waterfall over a manmade stone dam. The history of the dam is that it was built to feed water into the nearby sugar cane plantations (at the time), and now is curated and cared for historical and agricultural runoff (i.e. the mahogany grove). 

There is a path walking over the dam (or around it, whatever), which leads to a calm pool and a tree with a rope swing. Althrough the water wasn't perfectly clear and probably not the cleanest, we couldn't resist, and Brad and the boys took several swings into the water. 

You only live once, right?

This was SO much fun, and we probably would have stayed longer, but we had reservations at dinner on the south shore and a long way to get there, so we packed up and left. We met Brad's parents at Cabanas Bar and Grill for dinner, and then went to Kiahuna Beach together. There was a plan to this. On Wednesday nights the Sheraton resort (right there on the beach) had a luau that of course was closed to the public HOWEVER it was right there on the beach and clearly visible. Camden wanted more than anything to be a part of the luau, so we made sure to be at the beach precisely when the luau started. 

Crashing a luau, so to speak. 

They made sure they were dressed for a Luau

As it started the boys plopped on their towels right where the luau was roped off and watched the show. By the time the fire dancers showed up (the finally), Camden was joyfully jumping up and down in the sand in excitement. 

It was almost just as good as being in the Luau ourselves. 

Almost. 

But my wallet is happier. 

And look at the moon on the beach while we're at it! 

What a great day. 

Day 90: Hawaii DAY EIGHT

 We woke up early again today, mostly because it's so pleasant to wake up and hear the ocean, the chickens, and the see the sunshine (finally). 

We packed up the two cars and drove up a long and windy road up to the lookout for Waimea Canyon. It was threatening rain, but just clear enough to be able to see the entire canyon, known as the Grand Canyon of the Pacific. 

Having never seen either the Grand Canyon OR the Waimea Canyon in person, I had nothing to compare anything to, so I was thoroughly impressed. The colors were so impressive, with red clay mixed with jungle green. And waterfalls! So. Many. Waterfalls. The photos don't do justice of just HOW big and deep and expansive this canyon was. It went on for miles and miles and miles. 

After appreciating the view for a while (and the cold set in - I mean we were 3,000 feet up), we decided to spend some time in Waimea town, the little village right at the bottom of the canyon. We did a little souvenir shopping, and while searching for a bathroom stumbled upon a very neat pier that juts out into the ocean. 

Calen picked out Pit Vipers (or a knockoff). This is all the rage right now. I hope in 20 years he looks back and laughs at himself. 

The shaved ice place next door opened for the day (Jojo's) and we stopped in for a treat. Camden was elated that there was a Lilo and Stitch mural inside the shop, and even had a Lilo and Stitch flavor (blue raspberry and red raspberry), which of course he picked out. 

After shaved ice we headed to the beach, of course! We stopped at Big Save (it seems to be their local grocery chain) for some beachfront lunch essentials - like their $5 fresh wasabi ahi poke bowls that I'm officially obsessed with. And lunchables for the kids, because that's easy. We hauled it down to Kiahuna beach and spent the afternoon there swimming and snorkeling. 

One of our beach cottage neighbors were packing up to leave Hawaii last night, and donated us two Costco pizzas, so we headed back to the cottage to have pizza for dinner! While it was cooking, Camden and I did our now nightly tradition of walking the Barking Sands beach while beachcombing and watching the sunset. 

Day 89: Hawaii Day SEVEN

 I really do have the best friends in the world. 

One of my oldest friends is my designated travel buddy. She works for Alaska Airlines and gets a lot of flight benefits, so she has made a habit of visiting us literally any time we travel (or move) somewhere. Calen and his buddy Cameron (her son) have the most amazing friendship, in that while they don't talk every day, they have traveled to the most amazing places together. Toddlers in New Jersey shore, Disney World at 4, the Golden Gate Bridge at 7, hiking in Alaska, and now, we are meeting on the beach in Hawaii!

I mean, who else gets to do that. 

They flew in LATE last night and fly back out EARLY tomorrow, so we only have one day with them. 

Well, in true Ashley and Allie fashion, we packed it in. 

We hit the road around 6am. Our destination: The North Shore (Hanalei, Kilauea, etc). 

The problem with being on the West Shore, is that there is no road from the West to the North (which would be shorter). The Northwest part of the island is the completely untouched Na Pali coast, which we sailed around the other day in the catamaran. So you have to drive all the way around the South and East shores to access the North. This takes about 2 hours on a good day. But since it's an island with one lane highways due to construction, it took closer to 2.5 hours. 

But man, the further north you go, the more drop dead gorgeous that drive is. 

These one lane bridges are everywhere. The signs say "common local courtesy is 5-7 cars per side". And it works!

We reached our destination, and our friends! The map says Haena beach, which has a big parking lot, bathrooms and a lifeguard. The water was this spectacular bright green turquoise that combined with the lush green mountains was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen. It was raining this morning, so it shooed the people away initially, leaving us with this pristine, picturesque secluded tropical beach. 

But we didn't stop there! Allie and I left Brad and the kids up on the shore of Haena and walked the 500 yards or so up the coastline to Tunnels Beach, world renown for being one of the best snorkeling spots in all of Kauai. And man, did it pay off. Between the most amazing shore views I've ever seen, the water was shallow, warm, and FULL of fish and coral. It was like Finding Nemo down there. There were fish in the coral and swimming around us, and a Jello Blue colored drop off where lots of bigger fish hung out at. Absolutely out of this world. 

After a few hours we left Tunnels Beach and headed to Kilauea to see the beautiful Kilauea Lighthouse.

Continuing heading South, we stopped at the boys' new favorite shaved ice place (Wailua shaved ice), and then back to Wailua Falls to show Allie and my inlaws Wailua Falls that we saw the other day). And then continuing all the way to the South shore to our favorite Kiahuna Falls to let the kids play (as Tunnels/Haena beach was not really boogie boarding friendly). 

A passing rain storm made for a perfect rainbow! At the bottom of it? The boys and their friends

For dinner we went back to Chicken in a Barrel, which was super fun at night eating outside in the warmth underneath all sorts of mood lighting while the kids played Cornhole. And then we said our goodbyes, and our visit with them was over. It was a perfect busy day. 

We drove through this tree tunnel to get to dinner