Kaua'i 4: Poipu Beach and Queen's Bath

On Saturday, August 28, 2021, I again hung my hammock to watch the sunrise. A nice lady from Minnesota was out there watching the sunrise, too, so we had a nice chat.

As I walked around, I saw several other people out watching the sunrise. Most of the people there are Americans from the mainland, and were thus awake starting at around 5am.

The kids, on the other hand, were starting to get adjusted to the time zone, and worn out from our intense schedule, so they slept in a bit.

Eventually we got everyone up, and our first stop was Wailua Falls, about 15 minutes from where were staying.

I kind of had to step outside the fence to get a clear view of the falls.

Linette's dramamine warned that it could cause drowsiness for 24 hours. 3 hours to go!

Our main outing that day was to go to the south coast to see Poipu Beach. The road there had a beautiful "tree tunnel".

When we got to the beach, we found that the upper part had a light covering of grass so it was nice that you're not sitting in the sand and getting it everywhere. We found a palm tree that provided some lovely shade.

Another palm tree was close enough that we could set up a hammock that was still in the shade, so Linette hung out there and read her book for some time.

The two-person hammock swallowed Linette so that you could just see her book sticking out.

I took a little rest, too. Here was my view.

Adam has some 200 books on his phone that he is currently reading, so whenever he didn't have something else going on, he would find a nice place to sit and read his book.

At the same time, he was apparently picking up on chicks.

Poipu Beach had some good snorkeling. At first we made the mistake of heading straight out, which takes you over rocks and maybe some coral, which beats you up a little on the way out, and really bangs you up on the way in. Then we discovered a nice sandy area around the left side from which you can snorkel with no problem.

Linette came out to snorkel with me for a bit.

Here are some fun fish that we saw. I loved the colors on the Christmas Wrasse.

I thought it was cool how the Threadfin Butterflyfish had stripes at 90 degree angles to each other.

This interesting fish is called a "Reef Triggerfish." But the Hawaiian name is much cooler:

Humu-humu-nuku-nuku-kua-pua'a (and I'm not kidding).

Later, I was snorkeling along, minding my own business, when suddenly there was a huge rock next to me. But it wasn't a rock...(Bob: "...It was a rock lobster!!")...no, it was a huge sea turtle!

So I followed it around for a while. I like how you can see it reflected off the underside of the water here,

They look like they're having fun "flying" underwater.

Here's a 39-second video of the turtle swimming along, getting pushed around by the waves.

And then, as if that wasn't exciting enough, I ended with the grand finale! A sea slug! (jk)

After several hours at the beach, we packed up and drove over to see the Spouting Horn Blowhole.

When a big wave would come through, water would shoot up through two different holes. In between, it would make a big breathing and sometimes moaning sound that was eerie. You can watch this 10-second video to have a listen.

Ok, maybe not that impressive, but it was kind of cool. (Apparently there used to be a blowhole that would shoot 200 feet in the air, but a farmer didn't like that it was spraying the edge of his crop with saltwater, so he blew it up. I thought that was uncool.)

After that, we were all starving, so we chose to eat at the Holoholo Grill, which was a tasty restaurant at a big fancy new resort (I figure it's new because Google Maps shows an empty field there). It had a great pool, so after lunch we sort of sauntered over there and checked it out. Linette sat on a recliner and read for a bit while I tried out the pool and hot tub.

These flowers grow all over, so you can just grab one whenever you want to look super cute.

As we drove back from that place, we saw a fruit stand by the side of the road and picked up some fresh pineapple and dragon fruit.

The dragon fruit looked so strangely deep red. (Its flavor was pretty mellow compared to its color, though).

Sunday morning, August 29, there was a ukulele guy at the shore while we all watched for the sunrise. I also said hello to the lady from Minnesota from the day before.

Linette came out and shared one of her AirPods with me, and we listened to an awesome talk given in church by our friend Melissa Lym. She told about an old family photo that she couldn't identify most of the people in, and how she couldn't get it out of her mind, but had no idea who would know anything about it. She finally had the thought that she should hire a private investigator (something totally foreign to her), and shortly thereafter, one of her kids mentioned that her friend's dad was a P.I. He turned out to be just the right kind (tracking down living heirs), so he went to work and gave her a list of descendants of the oldest ancestor in that picture.

When she looked at the list, one name popped out at her as the one she needed to call, and it turned out that it was a guy in California who said, "Genealogy is a hobby of mine..." He gave her tons of information over the phone, and they eventually got together in person and had amazing experiences. So cool.

Later, I heard a very complicated bird chirp, and it turned out to be a mina bird. They are all over in Kauai. It reminded me of my Aunt Kay Merrill's mina bird named "Flaps" that used to say, "Have a good day, Mark!" in a perfect imitation of Kay. (One time the phone rang, and Flaps said, "I'll get it," so Don didn't answer because he really thought it was Kay).

We were checking out that morning, so it was imperative that we finish all of the ice cream. So we used ice cream instead of milk with our cereal that morning.

Adam chose the mint chocolate chip. We were indeed able to finish it all off and then take the cereal with us.

We didn't have to pack especially well, because we were just heading up to another AirBnB in Princeville (on the north shore) for the last few days.

We went to church that morning at a building that was 2 minutes away from us. Since we had a little time to kill, we hung out at a park by the ocean.

We felt a tad overdressed.

I like how the church building had a courtyard with little lava stones. They also just left windows open to let the pleasant breeze blow through during the meetings.

Jess and Beth Jensen used to live in our ward in Riverton. They moved to Kauai around 15 years ago and raised their kids there. It was so great to see them and catch up.

I had heard that people sometimes feel trapped when they live in Hawaii, because you can't go very far. But Beth said that they didn't feel like that at all. Jess said that it was like living in a small town (there is just one movie theater on the island, for example, and it plays old shows). Beth said that when people visit, they're all like "look at this island paradise!" but when you actually live there, it's just life--taking kids to soccer, making dinner, going to work, and so on. Although, I'd add that "it's just life--with an especially beautiful backdrop."

After church we broke out our leftover Hawaiian rolls and peanut butter and jelly, spread with the handle of a portable toothbrush. It worked.

As we drove to the north shore, we stopped by a few sights along the way. Here is a viewpoint that overlooks the Wailua River, where we kayaked (and went iPhone fishing) a few days before.

This particular viewpoint seemed to best illustrate the state of the chicken population in Kaua'i. We left a door of the van open, and someone said, "You'd better close that, or you're going to get a van full of chickens."

Next door to the overlook were the remains of another Heiau, an ancient Hawaiian temple.

We also drove up to see Opaeka'a Falls, which you can see from the road.

We drove up the coast and Linette walked along the cement beach walkway for a while.

As we drove along, we kept glancing over and seeing these dramatic mountains that would be easy to start taking for granted. ("Don't take them for granite--they're lava!" :| )

When we got up north, we stopped in at the Kīlauea Lighthouse. The gate was closed, so we just looked at it from afar (with a zoom lens).

It was a beautiful setting, and it was also a bird refuge, so birds were flying all around, both above and below us.

Here is a Wedge-tailed Shearwater (Hawaiian: 'Ua'u kani) that flew circles in the area.

As we approached Princeville, we checked out the Hanalei Valley Lookout, which was gorgeous, with the green farms below and the tree-covered mountains above.

If you look a little closer, you can see that there are several waterfalls on the taller mountain.

Zooming in further, you can see at least half a dozen ridiculously tall waterfalls. Nāmolokama Mountain is 4400 feet tall and has dozens of waterfalls, some of which seem to come right off the top of the mountain, which doesn't seem like it should be possible. Apparently it has a long, gently-sloping plateau at the top that feeds these falls. This, combined with the fact that the top is the "rainiest point on earth" keeps these huge waterfalls flowing continuously.

We decided to take a short but tricky hike down to see "The Queen's Bath", at the recommendation of my friend Merlin Carpenter.

The combination of jungle and ocean makes for some very pretty views.

The roots on some of these trees are amazing. (They're also thorny, so 'no touchy').

There was a cute creek along the trail.

The creek ended in a little waterfall into the ocean.

The most famous formation in the area is called "The Queen's Bath". When the tide is lower, people sometimes swim in it.

However, according to this sign, at least 30 people have drowned in this area by getting knocked off the rocks by a big wave that carried them out to sea, where a strong current makes it tough to get back to shore. So that's a bit scary.

And this sign might warn us of something, but we'll never know.

The kids had fun climbing on the rocks and just chilling and looking over the ocean.

Sienna took a lovely picture of Jared's ear.

It was fun to watch the waves dramatically crashing against the rugged rocks.

Sienna did some Irish dance poses.

Jared said he especially enjoyed this place.

The kids spotted a sea turtle swimming by, so that was cool.

We hiked back up to the parking lot, where Linette had already gone to move our van, since we had parked behind someone (with their permission) in the tiny crowded lot. We got new views on the way back up we hadn't seen on the way down.

At that point, we checked in to our new AirBnB, which was located in Princeville. When we walked in, Linette said, "Woah, this is swanky!" It took Sienna very little time to locate the optimal reading spot on the lanai out back (and a flower for her hair from a nearby tree).

The resort had lots of nice trees and immaculate lawns.

As the sun set, the clouds turned a wonderful orange color. ("Flash! Bam! Alacazam! Out of an orange colored sky!")

Jared and I walked over to the golf course to watch the sun set.

This cool bird took off just at the right time for a picture.

That night we played a few rounds of "Ripple" with SkipBo cards to finish off the day.

So those were a couple of nice days. We knew we were going to have to get up early the next morning for what my friend at work called "The best hike in the world." In the next episode, we'll see how that went...