Kauai January 2015

 Found a killer deal on round trip air fair to Hawaii so in about 10 minutes made the somewhat irrational decision to go to Hawaii with a friend.  Only $273....you can't pass that up!  We decided to hit up another island as well since the air fair over was rather inexpensive. We decided on Kauai.
We found a cheap place to stay out in Princeville.  Note to self.....do a double check on the place that is decided before committing......nothing like sleeping perpendicular on a futon.

I think this was a beach on the Napali Coast.  We were told this was the beach to go to since it had the best view of the sunset on Kauai, or at least that is what we were told. This beach had the start/end of the Napali Coast hike.  Unfortunately, neither of us really brought hiking shoes or appropriate gear to hike the 17-ish mile hike, so we settled for the sunset.

The waves were a bit rough that day so the beaches were kinda off limits, but I could have sat at the beach watching the waves roll in and watching the sunset for hours.

The weather was great, other than the water was a tad bit rough.  We had spent about an hour before making our way down to the beach for the sunset watching some surfers.  We heard that they had about 30+ foot swells so surfers were out in abundance. So that was pretty fun to watch.

 The next day we tried to find a few different beaches.  I believe this one is called Hide-away Beach.  You have to do a bit of hiking down to get to it.  Lots of ropes and high stairs...not really made for the short in stature.

It was kind of a smaller beach, but hence the name Hide-away Beach.  There was only a few other people down there, but once the again the waves were a bit rough so it was just walking along the beach and stuff.  Would like to be able to go back to that beach when the weather is nicer.  It had a pretty good view and seemed like a good place to snorkle.  It looks like there were some great reefs.

Tried to get a pic, but the wave that looked like a little one, turned out to be a pretty good size with a good under current.  I was trying not to fall while still trying to run up the beach on sand that was quickly sliding away.

We also hit up Hanalie Bay and did some paddle boarding. It was a great day.  The ocean part was a little rough which I found out when I tried to paddle out of the bay and into the ocean.  The bay was fantastic.  Very smooth water.


The best part of the day was that we saw about 7 sea turtles. Since the water was a little rough they said that the turtles had been pushed into the bay.  I had seen one and paddled out to get closer to it and just watched it.  Then we saw a few more and then they disappeared right when we got our cameras out.  Didn't get mine out in time and was super bummed.  Then as they disappeared I started to paddle again and all the sudden I had about 7 turtles all around my board!  So super cool to see them right under my board and surrounding it.  Once again I was trying to keep my paddle from hitting the turtles and trying to get Ellie's attention to get over there but not in time to get pics of them.  BUT it was a highlight of the trip!  After a while we decided not to harass them anymore and kept paddling up the bay.  We only rented the boards for 4 hours but I could have stayed out there for the entire day!

 Before we had to head to the airport we drove around Kauai a little bit. We came across a sign that said there was a waterfall so we headed down that way.  A little bit of a drive down some narrow roads.  Once we got to the falls, they were pretty amazing to see.  I even got a rainbow in the picture.

They had signs all over that said that you couldn't hike down there cause there were drop off cliffs, but we saw a few people with packs hopping over the rail guards.  That was kind of our sign that we should leave before some turd fell to their death.
As we were walking back to the car we saw this rock...so we decided we needed to get a picture!

Kauai....it was fun!  I'll be back again for sure!