Kaua'i 3: Na Pali Coast

Friday morning, August 27, 2021, started out much like the day before, with Linette enjoying a nice sunset from out back.

The condo didn't allow people to hang their towels and stuff on the railings (to keep the view looking nice for everyone), but ours had the letters "BEACH" on the wall, with a hook on each, which was handy.

Friday's big outing was a boat tour up the Na Pali coast. But that didn't happen until 1:15pm, so we finally took some time to relax that morning.

Every morning we had breakfast on the lanai (back deck). Sienna was missing 8 days of high school for this trip, so she did homework whenever she had time, and ended up being pretty much caught up when she returned.

We had brought several games, but had been too tired every night to play any of them, so we finally played a bit of Bohnanza ("the bean game") and Sushi Go.

That morning Linette dropped us all off at Snorkel Bob's to rent a prescription mask for Adam (so he could see stuff underwater without his glasses) and some fins for all 3 kids to complete our snorkel gear for everyone.

Meanwhile, Linette stopped by Longs Drugs to get some stuff. Jared was especially excited about Longs Drugs for some reason.

We drove down to Port Allen on the south shore and checked in at Blue Dolphin Charters for our 6-hour boat tour. Adam realized his mask was going to leak if he kept his mustache, so he had me shave that thing right off.

Sienna said, "No, Adam, no!!"

We boarded a nice catamaran and headed out.

Linette took a couple dramamine an hour before the trip, and it apparently worked because she felt fine all day (and had trouble being awake the next morning...)

After a bumpy exit from the port area, we dropped anchor at a reef to do some snorkeling.

Our safety officer taught people how to use a snorkel so they wouldn't drown and stuff.

The reef was about 20 feet down, so it was a little hard to see much, but we did see a few fish down there.

Here's Sienna and a random fish.

Here's an attempted selfie of Sienna and me, using my underwater camera (blindly).

And one of me and Linette.

At one point I heard people saying that there was a sea turtle, so I swam over that way, and sure enough, there it was!

I had never been in the water with one of these before, so it was pretty exciting for me.

I followed it as it swam along for a while, and then finally came up to see that the lifeguard dude was saying I had gone too far away, so I hurried back to the group.

Here's a 14-second video of the sea turtle swimming along.

We had fun and nobody died, so that was great.

A little later, we spotted some dolphins, and they came and swam around off the front bow for a while.

It was cool to stand on one of the two bows and look right down at the dolphins.

The captain said that some of the dolphins were "asleep", where they shut off half their brains and go around in pairs to help each other do stuff.

A few of them did some jumps for us, which was fun.

Eventually we left the dolphins behind and started up the Na Pali Coast. This section of Kaua'i has many steep cliffs. There are no roads on this side of the island, so people who go here either kayak or hike. (Or see it by helicopter, like Sharon & Roger did; or by boat, like we did).

Here's a close-up of one of the caves in the above picture.

The views alternated between spectacular rocky cliffs and beautiful green valleys.

We had rainbows appear a few times, due to the rainy nature of the area (and the fortunate sunshine we also got that day).

It was just amazing everywhere we looked!

There were several waterfalls as we went along.

At this little waterfall, the captain steered the boat right over to the cave so that people could stand at the bow and get hit by the waterfall.

On the second go, our family jumped up front while Linette took pictures.

Direct hit.

Then Linette took a turn up front as well.

One of my favorite parts was the interesting ribbed rocky mountains that were decorated with green.

Just above the waterfall in the picture above was a black mountain goat, as can be seen in the close-up below.

Every once in a while I had to remind myself not to take the amazing color of the water for granted.

Zooming in on the beach in the above picture, you can see that there's a guy walking along. I'm not sure if he was on the 11-mile hike along here, or if he kayaked in. But people this far in are usually camping their way across the coast.

As we approached this valley, another rainbow appeared.

So cool!

The iPhone pictures tended to be a bit sharper-looking.

My Nikon tended to look a little softer, with yellower greens. But either way you snap it, it's a beautiful scene.

Here's another rainbow that appeared up the coast.

On the way back down the coast, we saw this sailboat. I've never really been sailing, so I'm not sure how fun it is, but it sure looks fun.

On the way back down the coast, we had a nice dinner of kalua pork and chicken. Then we all just watched the scenery go by again.

This used to be a big waterfall, but someone stole it. Someone redirected the water to use for their farm. I suppose that's better than just pouring it into the ocean, but it doesn't look as cool now.

On the way back, I had a fun time talking to a guy from Ohio, an Indian family from Michigan (the gal was in medical school training to be a surgeon), and some others.

We also made friends with the couple that was sitting next to us on the boat, Brian and Ciara, who live in Charlotte, NC. We told them about Kelsi and Chase, and this gal was friendly enough that she said she'd love to see them. (Later we called Kelsi and said, "We found you some new friends!") They were delightful.

As the boat got closer to port, the sun started to set, so the boat stopped and let us all just sit and watch that for a bit.

Once again, the Kauai sunset did not disappoint.

What a lovely day.

As the sun slipped below the horizon, there were some rays that came up, which I thought looked cool.

Finally, we made our way into port. I got contact info from our "new friends" and from the people just behind us, so that I could share some of the above pictures with them.

We drove back up to our condo in the dark, and had ice cream (with Cocoa Puffs as a garnish, in my case) before turning in. We couldn't believe how much we had already done in just 3 days.

In the next episode, we take it a little easier for a couple days.