Hawaii, part 1
Ok, so I'm splitting Hawaii into two parts too. Six very busy days just shouldn't go into one entry. Pictures will come later.
We awoke at the crack of dawn and got moving to make it to the airport in a reasonable amount of time. We made it to the airport a little less than 2 hours before our flight time. It's a good thing. There were only a handful of counters dealing with a huge line of people who were flying United Airlines to Hawaii. After about an hour in line to check in, there was the long line for security. Once we got up to where they check your ID and boarding passes, they pushed us aside into a stroller line, which moved pretty quickly. Of course, our gate was one of the ones that was rather far out, so we speed walked toward the gate stopping off to get a breakfast burrito to eat on the plane. We made it to the gate 3 minutes before boarding began. I simply can't believe it. If you're flying out of SFO, do yourself a favor and stick to the two hours early rule. We boarded and ate our breakfast then settled in for the long, boring, blue flight. They showed an episode of The Office, some documentary about Will Smith and the movie Mad Money. I didn't watch the last two. I love Diane Keaton, but the movie just looked horrible. But then, I think that's a prerequisite for movies they're willing to show on planes. Thankfully Jonah decided to sleep a fair amount of the way there (probably about 2-3 hours) and with both of us there, he could stretch out across our laps and sleep fairly comfortably.
Five hours and five minutes later, we arrive in Lihue, Kauai. My mother-in-law was waiting at baggage claim to snap a no doubt tired picture of us and present us with orchid leis. We struggled with the rented carseat while Chris and his dad picked up the bags. Once we were off, they headed to Costco to fill up the gas tank, then we went to go find some lunch at a fish market that was recommended by one of our books. Unfortunately, their grill was closed that day, so we opted to find something else. We went across the street to Wal-Mart to pick up some grocery essentials (including some POG, or passion fruit/orange/guava juice, which is made and distributed by Meadow Gold, but not found outside of Hawaii) then headed on toward the condo. On our way, we stopped at another book recommended place, Duane's Ono-Char Burgers. After a 45 minute wait for burgers, fries and shakes, we devoured our food and headed on toward the condo. Jonah was having fun while we waited chasing the plethora of wild chickens and the occasional stray cat.
Once we got to the condo, we unloaded and rested a bit while Chris and his dad went to find some fresh fish to cook perhaps the next night. Chris picked up some local beers while he was out as well. A wheat beer with passion fruit from Kona Brewing and a pale ale in cans from a Maui Brewing company. By the time they got back it was about time for the sunset. Martha offered to keep Jonah at the condo, since he seemed to be settled in nicely. Chris, his dad and I decided to drive down the road where there was a little access point to a hidden beach below the cliff side there. My father-in-law is afraid of heights and gets dizzy in those situations, so he opted to watch from the top of the cliff instead of maneuvering down the precarious dirt staircase to Hideaways Beach. Chris and I discovered coral washed up on the shore and noticed how coarse the sand there was. It was a gorgeous little hidden spot. A few minutes before the actual sunset, we climbed back up to the top to watch the finale. Then we headed back to the condo to have a little something for dinner and get to bed early.
Our morning routine was to get up, make breakfast and as we sat sipping coffee, review our books to figure out where to go that day. Today's decision was to check out Larson's Beach. It was another somewhat hidden spot, with about a quarter to half mile walk back to it, depending on how far down the beach you wanted to go. Since we had Ted and Martha with us, we opted to stop at one of the first places to head down to the shoreline. They set up under a shade tree there and Chris, Jonah and I walked up the beach further. The book mentioned the spot was frequented by nudists and sure enough, we saw three. We climbed our way over some lava rock boulders to another little secluded spot which had signs warning of monk seal resting habits and albatross nesting habits. We sat and drank a beer and had a bit of a snack while we rested some before walking back to join Ted and Martha.
As we came up the trail and had them in sight, they motioned to us to come up quietly. There was a monk seal that had come up to rest along the beach there not far from where they were sitting. They had watched it swim up and flop itself there in the sand, just beyond the washing waves. We all got lots of pictures of it and Jonah played in the shade with his granddad. Chris and I wandered around on the reefs near them, peering into the crystal clear water to see what we could see. Several colorful, though small formations of coral revealed themselves, as did a few sea cucumbers, or what I assumed were sea cucumbers. I even spotted a fish or two.
By then, it was the heat of the day and we could all use some lunch. We drove up to Hanalei to a little shopping center hoping to check out another book recommendation, Tropical Taco. Unfortunately, they were closed on Sundays, so we tried a Brazilian place across the street, but it was a little too much food for what we wanted, knowing we had nice ono tuna fillets to cook that night. So, we tried again, back across the street to a little cafe that served some sandwiches and things. We sat and ate our grilled ahi sandwiches and fries with a stunning view of the mountains and a massive waterfall pouring down several hundred feet I'm sure, high in the summit between two peaks. Quite a gorgeous view if it hadn't been for the powerlines in the way. From there we headed back to the condo for Jonah to attempt to rest a while.
Chris wanted to check out one more thing before we called it a day, so Ted drove us to the end of the road to Ke'e Beach. We walked around to the left of the beach and again over some lava boulders to attempt to find a trail head that lead up to a sacred spot. The trail was hard to find, but the views from the boulders of the Na Pali coast were breathtaking! Even once we finally found the trail, it was really hard to stay on it. We couldn't tell what was trail and what were paths runoff water had created. We made our way up to the spot though, most likely the hard way. It really was quite awesome. There was a ring of small lava rocks used as a boundary and the space had been terraced flat with a lava rock wall retaining it. There was a small alcove in the solid rock wall that soared above the space which was filled with what looked like offerings of flowers and dried leis. Offerings to whom or for what I have no idea, but it definitely had the feel of an altar. We tried to tread lightly in this place, as to not disturb it at all. But of course, we enjoyed a beer there as well. I'm not sure if that's disrespectful or not, but I'd like to think it's not. ;) As a lone girl climbed up and appeared to be humbling herself in this sacred space, we took our leave and headed back down. The trail was no easier to find on the way down, and I'm fairly sure we took a rough way down a couple of times as well. Maybe the locals cut several trails to keep people out of their sacred space. I think it's more likely the runoff water's fault for constantly seeking new paths of lesser resistance. We had a little time when we got back to Ke'e beach, which seemed to be an excellent little protected and calm beach for swimming, so we took a quick dip to refresh ourselves after our climb. This was the first real swimming we got to do since we arrived. I finally managed to talk Chris into the water, heh.
We headed back to the condo and Chris insisted on cooking us all dinner. Since it was Mother's Day, he wouldn't allow me or Martha to help, and well, let's face it, Ted doesn't cook but offered to clean up afterwards. He made a fantastic brown rice pilaf sort of dish with macadamia nuts, coconut milk and various spices we managed to grab at the grocery. He also made a black bean dish with some of the fruits we had picked up at a fruit stand on the way to the condo the day before. And then there was of course the ono tuna which is a yellowfin tuna that he pan seared with some powdered ginger and POG. Everything was delicious! A very nice finale to the day.
This morning's decision was to head down south and up to Waimea Canyon with a few stops at other places on the way. It was a long car ride that we were not anticipating. See, there's only one major road on Kauai and it's a two lane road with lots of one lane bridges, stop lights and no speed limits over 50 mph. So, even if your trek is only 30 miles or so, it might take you 2 hours to get there, depending on traffic.
Our first stop was in Kapa'a to rent some snorkeling gear. The guy we rented it from seemed like a surfer straight out of a movie. He kept saying words like bra and stoked. . . it was all I could do to keep from laughing. I didn't realize there really were walking, talking stereotypes. When he was telling us about how to use the defogger, he made some crack about a "local herb that helps with defogging, but I can't really tell you about that." Hilarious! Anyway, gear in hand, we kept south toward a "not to be missed" attraction, the Spouting Horn. Basically, it's a hole in a lava rock shelf where every wave comes up and sprays out as high as 50 feet in high tide. Of course this was early in the day so it was only low tide and not nearly as impressive. The unnatural feel of the overlook guarded by chainlink fencing kind of ruined the appeal for me as well. While it was neat, I'm not sure I'd call it "not to be missed". On the up side, we did see three massive sea turtles in the surf near Spouting Horn.
We continued on to Poipu to grab some lunch at another book recommendation, Puka Dog. This was a Hawaiian hot dog spot known for a unique serving method. Puka means hole and that's what makes a puka dog unique. They take a big sweet roll and stick it on a big, hot metal spike. The spike toasts the inside of the hole. You can get either a veggie dog or a Polish sausage and they put it right there in the toasted hole along with whatever tropical fruit relishes you've ordered (there were about 8 to choose from, like papaya, mango, pineapple, coconut, etc. though they were more sauces than relishes) and some unique mustards (including a Lilikoi, or passion fruit, mustard). Yum! After I read about the place, I remembered seeing it on a Food Network special about unique hot dog joints in the US. There's another Puka Dog on Waikiki which may have actually been the one featured.
Still on our way to the canyon, we had a brief stopover in Port Allen for Martha to go take a tour of the Dirt Shirt factory. Surprising to me, most of the dirt there looked like dirt from Utah, bright red. So, like all places with characteristic dirt known for staining (I've seen Alabama dirt shirts from the red clay there, Utah dirt shirts from the sandstone, etc.), they make dirt shirts. Martha had never heard of such a thing, so she was interested. Chris, Jonah and I just kind of wandered the little shop area until we noticed a Hawaiian shaved ice place. Having been told, "trust me, it's not a snow cone," by people who had been to Hawaii before, we wanted to try one. I'm here to say, trust me, it's a freakin' snow cone! Maybe there are better places to go, but I just don't see how flavored syrup and shaved ice could be anything but what it is. Their tour of the dirt shirt factory didn't last long and before we were done with our glorified snow cone, we saw them come out. Come to find out, all the place has are a couple of old washing machines, some buckets of dirt and some white vinegar as a fixative. I probably could have told her that, but at least she got to do the tour, since she had wanted to since we got there.
Finally, with no other stops planned, we were on our way to the canyon. The terrain began to look more and more like Utah as we climbed in altitude. As we approached the top, we consulted the book. Another hidden little spot was described where you could climb up a staircase to an overlook. We had them drop us off and they took Jonah to the actual established overlook not far from where we were. We crossed the street and walked up a driveway to a telecommunications building. As we saw no trespassing signs for the second time on a hike this book suggested, I told Chris, "I hope this book doesn't get us into trouble!" As we walked up some concrete stairs to the back of the building, we noticed the "staircase" the book described. I didn't realize we'd be doing any mountain climbing this trip. There was a bunch of old cable attached to rebar driven into the ground that acted as a guide rope. There were times when I really had to remember rock climbing techniques and take all the weight off my feet and rely on my arms to pull me up to the next "step". With the sandy dirt, most of the steps had washed out and I get the feeling not a lot of maintenance was required to the tower at the top, otherwise the stairs would have been in better shape. Made me feel a little better about the trespassing, I guess, knowing we weren't as likely to run into someone here. Once at the top, I snapped a quick picture of the impossible climb below. I was really glad we didn't have Jonah with us. The view at the top was amazing though! A tiny bit ruined by all the helicopter tours, but certainly breathtaking. Across the canyon from us was yet another massive, several hundred foot waterfall. It appeared that there was a trail or even a road that went down from the rim to the top of the falls. I'm sure those on the helicopter tours got their money's worth. We enjoyed a beer at the summit (have I mentioned how much I love than some microbreweries are canning their beers these days? Certainly makes packing in a beer a lot easier!) then headed back down, slowly and carefully, again, I relied much more on my arms and hands than my feet and legs. We got back just a couple of minutes early and waited for Ted and Martha to pick us up.
At this point, I think we were all ready to get out of the car. We headed back to Princeville to the condo but stopped off again in Lihue at the fish market we tried to eat at on Saturday to get some more fresh fish. This time, swordfish and some nice big shrimp. I couldn't believe how cheap the stuff was or how good it all looked. We vowed to come back before we left to eat lunch here. They had so many different kinds of poke! And all their grilled platters sounded amazing. They also had some dried fish and some smoked fish and they even had some ahi tuna jerky, which we couldn't resist. We got back to the condo and Chris and I were anxious to try out our snorkeling gear. Ted and Martha were ready to stay in for the night and I think Jonah was just ready to stay the heck out of the car for a while. We had Ted drive us back down to Hideaways.
Chris, having played low brass instruments in high school, was a natural at snorkeling. I was a percussionist in high school, so it took some practice for me. I had to hold my nose at first to keep from either fogging up my mask or causing it to leak. But oh, the amazing fish we saw! After a long, stressful day in the car, this was the ultimate stress reliever. It's like swimming around in a giant salt water aquarium. Reef fish are just gorgeous! And as long as you just sort of float there, they'll come right up to your mask sometimes. There were several times where I turned around and there was a fish right in my face. We saw some pretty large fish schooling and just some amazingly colored fish. I'd love to get a book on Hawaiian reef fish to figure out what I was looking at. I just wish we had an underwater camera. We didn't see much coral, despite all that we saw washed up on shore. I'm guessing the formations were mostly further out. Being noobs, we didn't want to venture too far from shore. And besides, there was already so much to look at in waist deep waters, why get further out? So, I've found a way to reliably get Chris in the water: promise him he can look at fish while he's there. We didn't do any just straight swimming for the rest of the trip. If we were going in the water, we had our snorkel masks in tow.
A little before sunset, we headed back up to the top of the cliff and began walking back toward the condo until we regained cell phone service. Then we called Ted and he came and picked us up (though the walk back wouldn't have been bad and we walked the whole way the next night). I have to say though, the climb back up to the top was easier barefoot than in sandals. Once we got back to the condo, we ordered a pizza from another book recommendation and changed clothes. Chris and his dad went to pick it up. We had gotten half a shrimp scampi pizza and half what they called the Billie Holiday, which was smoked ahi tuna, I think goat cheese and really I don't remember what all else. I just know it was incredibly good!
We awoke at the crack of dawn and got moving to make it to the airport in a reasonable amount of time. We made it to the airport a little less than 2 hours before our flight time. It's a good thing. There were only a handful of counters dealing with a huge line of people who were flying United Airlines to Hawaii. After about an hour in line to check in, there was the long line for security. Once we got up to where they check your ID and boarding passes, they pushed us aside into a stroller line, which moved pretty quickly. Of course, our gate was one of the ones that was rather far out, so we speed walked toward the gate stopping off to get a breakfast burrito to eat on the plane. We made it to the gate 3 minutes before boarding began. I simply can't believe it. If you're flying out of SFO, do yourself a favor and stick to the two hours early rule. We boarded and ate our breakfast then settled in for the long, boring, blue flight. They showed an episode of The Office, some documentary about Will Smith and the movie Mad Money. I didn't watch the last two. I love Diane Keaton, but the movie just looked horrible. But then, I think that's a prerequisite for movies they're willing to show on planes. Thankfully Jonah decided to sleep a fair amount of the way there (probably about 2-3 hours) and with both of us there, he could stretch out across our laps and sleep fairly comfortably.
Five hours and five minutes later, we arrive in Lihue, Kauai. My mother-in-law was waiting at baggage claim to snap a no doubt tired picture of us and present us with orchid leis. We struggled with the rented carseat while Chris and his dad picked up the bags. Once we were off, they headed to Costco to fill up the gas tank, then we went to go find some lunch at a fish market that was recommended by one of our books. Unfortunately, their grill was closed that day, so we opted to find something else. We went across the street to Wal-Mart to pick up some grocery essentials (including some POG, or passion fruit/orange/guava juice, which is made and distributed by Meadow Gold, but not found outside of Hawaii) then headed on toward the condo. On our way, we stopped at another book recommended place, Duane's Ono-Char Burgers. After a 45 minute wait for burgers, fries and shakes, we devoured our food and headed on toward the condo. Jonah was having fun while we waited chasing the plethora of wild chickens and the occasional stray cat.
Once we got to the condo, we unloaded and rested a bit while Chris and his dad went to find some fresh fish to cook perhaps the next night. Chris picked up some local beers while he was out as well. A wheat beer with passion fruit from Kona Brewing and a pale ale in cans from a Maui Brewing company. By the time they got back it was about time for the sunset. Martha offered to keep Jonah at the condo, since he seemed to be settled in nicely. Chris, his dad and I decided to drive down the road where there was a little access point to a hidden beach below the cliff side there. My father-in-law is afraid of heights and gets dizzy in those situations, so he opted to watch from the top of the cliff instead of maneuvering down the precarious dirt staircase to Hideaways Beach. Chris and I discovered coral washed up on the shore and noticed how coarse the sand there was. It was a gorgeous little hidden spot. A few minutes before the actual sunset, we climbed back up to the top to watch the finale. Then we headed back to the condo to have a little something for dinner and get to bed early.
Our morning routine was to get up, make breakfast and as we sat sipping coffee, review our books to figure out where to go that day. Today's decision was to check out Larson's Beach. It was another somewhat hidden spot, with about a quarter to half mile walk back to it, depending on how far down the beach you wanted to go. Since we had Ted and Martha with us, we opted to stop at one of the first places to head down to the shoreline. They set up under a shade tree there and Chris, Jonah and I walked up the beach further. The book mentioned the spot was frequented by nudists and sure enough, we saw three. We climbed our way over some lava rock boulders to another little secluded spot which had signs warning of monk seal resting habits and albatross nesting habits. We sat and drank a beer and had a bit of a snack while we rested some before walking back to join Ted and Martha.
As we came up the trail and had them in sight, they motioned to us to come up quietly. There was a monk seal that had come up to rest along the beach there not far from where they were sitting. They had watched it swim up and flop itself there in the sand, just beyond the washing waves. We all got lots of pictures of it and Jonah played in the shade with his granddad. Chris and I wandered around on the reefs near them, peering into the crystal clear water to see what we could see. Several colorful, though small formations of coral revealed themselves, as did a few sea cucumbers, or what I assumed were sea cucumbers. I even spotted a fish or two.
By then, it was the heat of the day and we could all use some lunch. We drove up to Hanalei to a little shopping center hoping to check out another book recommendation, Tropical Taco. Unfortunately, they were closed on Sundays, so we tried a Brazilian place across the street, but it was a little too much food for what we wanted, knowing we had nice ono tuna fillets to cook that night. So, we tried again, back across the street to a little cafe that served some sandwiches and things. We sat and ate our grilled ahi sandwiches and fries with a stunning view of the mountains and a massive waterfall pouring down several hundred feet I'm sure, high in the summit between two peaks. Quite a gorgeous view if it hadn't been for the powerlines in the way. From there we headed back to the condo for Jonah to attempt to rest a while.
Chris wanted to check out one more thing before we called it a day, so Ted drove us to the end of the road to Ke'e Beach. We walked around to the left of the beach and again over some lava boulders to attempt to find a trail head that lead up to a sacred spot. The trail was hard to find, but the views from the boulders of the Na Pali coast were breathtaking! Even once we finally found the trail, it was really hard to stay on it. We couldn't tell what was trail and what were paths runoff water had created. We made our way up to the spot though, most likely the hard way. It really was quite awesome. There was a ring of small lava rocks used as a boundary and the space had been terraced flat with a lava rock wall retaining it. There was a small alcove in the solid rock wall that soared above the space which was filled with what looked like offerings of flowers and dried leis. Offerings to whom or for what I have no idea, but it definitely had the feel of an altar. We tried to tread lightly in this place, as to not disturb it at all. But of course, we enjoyed a beer there as well. I'm not sure if that's disrespectful or not, but I'd like to think it's not. ;) As a lone girl climbed up and appeared to be humbling herself in this sacred space, we took our leave and headed back down. The trail was no easier to find on the way down, and I'm fairly sure we took a rough way down a couple of times as well. Maybe the locals cut several trails to keep people out of their sacred space. I think it's more likely the runoff water's fault for constantly seeking new paths of lesser resistance. We had a little time when we got back to Ke'e beach, which seemed to be an excellent little protected and calm beach for swimming, so we took a quick dip to refresh ourselves after our climb. This was the first real swimming we got to do since we arrived. I finally managed to talk Chris into the water, heh.
We headed back to the condo and Chris insisted on cooking us all dinner. Since it was Mother's Day, he wouldn't allow me or Martha to help, and well, let's face it, Ted doesn't cook but offered to clean up afterwards. He made a fantastic brown rice pilaf sort of dish with macadamia nuts, coconut milk and various spices we managed to grab at the grocery. He also made a black bean dish with some of the fruits we had picked up at a fruit stand on the way to the condo the day before. And then there was of course the ono tuna which is a yellowfin tuna that he pan seared with some powdered ginger and POG. Everything was delicious! A very nice finale to the day.
This morning's decision was to head down south and up to Waimea Canyon with a few stops at other places on the way. It was a long car ride that we were not anticipating. See, there's only one major road on Kauai and it's a two lane road with lots of one lane bridges, stop lights and no speed limits over 50 mph. So, even if your trek is only 30 miles or so, it might take you 2 hours to get there, depending on traffic.
Our first stop was in Kapa'a to rent some snorkeling gear. The guy we rented it from seemed like a surfer straight out of a movie. He kept saying words like bra and stoked. . . it was all I could do to keep from laughing. I didn't realize there really were walking, talking stereotypes. When he was telling us about how to use the defogger, he made some crack about a "local herb that helps with defogging, but I can't really tell you about that." Hilarious! Anyway, gear in hand, we kept south toward a "not to be missed" attraction, the Spouting Horn. Basically, it's a hole in a lava rock shelf where every wave comes up and sprays out as high as 50 feet in high tide. Of course this was early in the day so it was only low tide and not nearly as impressive. The unnatural feel of the overlook guarded by chainlink fencing kind of ruined the appeal for me as well. While it was neat, I'm not sure I'd call it "not to be missed". On the up side, we did see three massive sea turtles in the surf near Spouting Horn.
We continued on to Poipu to grab some lunch at another book recommendation, Puka Dog. This was a Hawaiian hot dog spot known for a unique serving method. Puka means hole and that's what makes a puka dog unique. They take a big sweet roll and stick it on a big, hot metal spike. The spike toasts the inside of the hole. You can get either a veggie dog or a Polish sausage and they put it right there in the toasted hole along with whatever tropical fruit relishes you've ordered (there were about 8 to choose from, like papaya, mango, pineapple, coconut, etc. though they were more sauces than relishes) and some unique mustards (including a Lilikoi, or passion fruit, mustard). Yum! After I read about the place, I remembered seeing it on a Food Network special about unique hot dog joints in the US. There's another Puka Dog on Waikiki which may have actually been the one featured.
Still on our way to the canyon, we had a brief stopover in Port Allen for Martha to go take a tour of the Dirt Shirt factory. Surprising to me, most of the dirt there looked like dirt from Utah, bright red. So, like all places with characteristic dirt known for staining (I've seen Alabama dirt shirts from the red clay there, Utah dirt shirts from the sandstone, etc.), they make dirt shirts. Martha had never heard of such a thing, so she was interested. Chris, Jonah and I just kind of wandered the little shop area until we noticed a Hawaiian shaved ice place. Having been told, "trust me, it's not a snow cone," by people who had been to Hawaii before, we wanted to try one. I'm here to say, trust me, it's a freakin' snow cone! Maybe there are better places to go, but I just don't see how flavored syrup and shaved ice could be anything but what it is. Their tour of the dirt shirt factory didn't last long and before we were done with our glorified snow cone, we saw them come out. Come to find out, all the place has are a couple of old washing machines, some buckets of dirt and some white vinegar as a fixative. I probably could have told her that, but at least she got to do the tour, since she had wanted to since we got there.
Finally, with no other stops planned, we were on our way to the canyon. The terrain began to look more and more like Utah as we climbed in altitude. As we approached the top, we consulted the book. Another hidden little spot was described where you could climb up a staircase to an overlook. We had them drop us off and they took Jonah to the actual established overlook not far from where we were. We crossed the street and walked up a driveway to a telecommunications building. As we saw no trespassing signs for the second time on a hike this book suggested, I told Chris, "I hope this book doesn't get us into trouble!" As we walked up some concrete stairs to the back of the building, we noticed the "staircase" the book described. I didn't realize we'd be doing any mountain climbing this trip. There was a bunch of old cable attached to rebar driven into the ground that acted as a guide rope. There were times when I really had to remember rock climbing techniques and take all the weight off my feet and rely on my arms to pull me up to the next "step". With the sandy dirt, most of the steps had washed out and I get the feeling not a lot of maintenance was required to the tower at the top, otherwise the stairs would have been in better shape. Made me feel a little better about the trespassing, I guess, knowing we weren't as likely to run into someone here. Once at the top, I snapped a quick picture of the impossible climb below. I was really glad we didn't have Jonah with us. The view at the top was amazing though! A tiny bit ruined by all the helicopter tours, but certainly breathtaking. Across the canyon from us was yet another massive, several hundred foot waterfall. It appeared that there was a trail or even a road that went down from the rim to the top of the falls. I'm sure those on the helicopter tours got their money's worth. We enjoyed a beer at the summit (have I mentioned how much I love than some microbreweries are canning their beers these days? Certainly makes packing in a beer a lot easier!) then headed back down, slowly and carefully, again, I relied much more on my arms and hands than my feet and legs. We got back just a couple of minutes early and waited for Ted and Martha to pick us up.
At this point, I think we were all ready to get out of the car. We headed back to Princeville to the condo but stopped off again in Lihue at the fish market we tried to eat at on Saturday to get some more fresh fish. This time, swordfish and some nice big shrimp. I couldn't believe how cheap the stuff was or how good it all looked. We vowed to come back before we left to eat lunch here. They had so many different kinds of poke! And all their grilled platters sounded amazing. They also had some dried fish and some smoked fish and they even had some ahi tuna jerky, which we couldn't resist. We got back to the condo and Chris and I were anxious to try out our snorkeling gear. Ted and Martha were ready to stay in for the night and I think Jonah was just ready to stay the heck out of the car for a while. We had Ted drive us back down to Hideaways.
Chris, having played low brass instruments in high school, was a natural at snorkeling. I was a percussionist in high school, so it took some practice for me. I had to hold my nose at first to keep from either fogging up my mask or causing it to leak. But oh, the amazing fish we saw! After a long, stressful day in the car, this was the ultimate stress reliever. It's like swimming around in a giant salt water aquarium. Reef fish are just gorgeous! And as long as you just sort of float there, they'll come right up to your mask sometimes. There were several times where I turned around and there was a fish right in my face. We saw some pretty large fish schooling and just some amazingly colored fish. I'd love to get a book on Hawaiian reef fish to figure out what I was looking at. I just wish we had an underwater camera. We didn't see much coral, despite all that we saw washed up on shore. I'm guessing the formations were mostly further out. Being noobs, we didn't want to venture too far from shore. And besides, there was already so much to look at in waist deep waters, why get further out? So, I've found a way to reliably get Chris in the water: promise him he can look at fish while he's there. We didn't do any just straight swimming for the rest of the trip. If we were going in the water, we had our snorkel masks in tow.
A little before sunset, we headed back up to the top of the cliff and began walking back toward the condo until we regained cell phone service. Then we called Ted and he came and picked us up (though the walk back wouldn't have been bad and we walked the whole way the next night). I have to say though, the climb back up to the top was easier barefoot than in sandals. Once we got back to the condo, we ordered a pizza from another book recommendation and changed clothes. Chris and his dad went to pick it up. We had gotten half a shrimp scampi pizza and half what they called the Billie Holiday, which was smoked ahi tuna, I think goat cheese and really I don't remember what all else. I just know it was incredibly good!