Kauai Trip Report Part 3

[jmq]

Breakfast in condo early, drive around towards Waimea Canyon – very enjoyable and scenic thru rain, sun, clouds and rainbows. Stop briefly in tiny Hanapepe – the Hanapepe Café was closed due to owners personal situation. So we stop in at the cute and funky Small Fish Café up the street and get a latte, a mocha, and a delicious fruit smoothie.

Take the first turn up to the canyon, stop and walk about the overlooks with varying degrees of clouds and sun, but thankful that when we hit the last turn off in Kokee, that the Kalalau Valley clears for just few minutes to experience that awe inspiring vista.

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Back down the other fork, to lunch at the Shrimp Station for shrimp tacos, garlic shrimp with rice, fried mahi sandwich. The shrimp plates were tasty (they're hard to screw up as long as you don’t overcook the shrimp). It surprised us that the mahi was fried and was probably our least favorite piece of otherwise outstanding fish we had all week. Maybe stick to the shrimp at their locations here Waimea and Kapaa.

Onto the airport area for our semi-spontaneous helicopter tour with Safari. Wife and daughter get to go up front, I go in the middle left in the back figuring I’m taller. I give my daughter the better PowerShot and my wife takes my daughters camera. Unfortunately either in passing the cameras back and forth and showing my wife what to do, the setting on the PowerShot gets moved from the Av setting to the Tv setting screwing up those pix beyond fixing.

Although it was a challenge shooting from where I was sitting and I wish I had asked the pilot Ian to swing wider from the coast, the Sony a55 performed admirably, especially in regard to its ability to rip off up to 10 frames per second. I did the best I could but now know that I could do a few things differently for even better results.

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Although I do loves me some photography, don’t think I didn’t take the time to take it all in – it was way cool especially how they combine it with the music and use Bose noise cancelling headphones. The pilot Ian was great as was the other folks at Safari. The girls were also buzzed – they should be – they were up front!

On way back to the condo, stop by Café Coco and Mermaids Café to scope them out and are intrigued by Mermaid. Back to condo for some killer homemade rum drinks, a dip in pool, even (briefly) check out the news to make sure the real world is still in place.

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Out to the hole in wall known as Mermaids Café along the main street there (its nice that we didn’t have to fuss over our dinner appearance LOL). Grab a couple of big Blue Moon beers across the street at the ABC store after we order. We hang at one of the small sidewalk tables to watch the world of what feels is similar to other “surf” or beach towns I’ve spent time in.

We thoroughly enjoy super fresh high quality mahi focaccias with pesto spread and an ahi cilantro wrap and talk about upcoming days. The stir frys others are getting look and smell mighty good too.

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Back at the condo enjoy a clear night out on the lanai, marvel at the stars (shooting and otherwise). Couldn’t make out any constellations, so made a few of our own like Jack Johnson suggests.

Next up will be final part covering the North Shore, probably not until later in the week or next week. Thanks for props on pix and words.

[PA Girl]

I think your pictures look great. I checked the forum all weekend for this installment.

[shoemak38]

great photo's

[sea-nile]

I love your Kauai pictures! I will have to get back there some day.

[GotToGetAway]

Loving all three of your trip reports so far. Your pictures bring me back to my honeymoon... lots of good memories.

[liamsaunt]

Your photos are fantastic (as always). I have wanted to go to Kauai for a long time but the flight length from the east coast has been holding me back.

Looking forward to reading more.

[paulandtracie]

Thanks for more wonderful pictures! I do believe the Kalalau Valley has got to be the most breathtaking place on earth. No, wait, Waimea Canyon. No, wait, Hanalei Valley.

I was one of those people who also hesitated for years on going to Hawaii from Michigan because of the flight times. My husband pointed out, however, that to get to St. John we drive 2 hours to Detroit, fly 3 hours to Miami, layover an hour or two, take another flight to STT, take a cab to Red Hook, take the ferry to STJ then drive to the villa...about 12 hours (with no delays). When we went to Maui last summer, we flew from Saginaw MI to Chicago (45 minutes), then nonstop to Maui (8 1/2 hours). We rested on the plane, watched movies and they gave us complimentary mai tais...not bad! Didn't mind the flight at all. On our return trips, we spend a night or a few nights in California to break it up. You could also stop in Seattle, Vegas, Phoenix, etc. Lots of choices.

[Lex]

Really enjoying these, jmq

The Kalalau Valley overlook is certainly magical. It's like being in some sort of fantasy world. The clouds shift slowly, revealing veiled glimpses, then suddenly part, briefly showing the whole, spectacular panorama. Gasps, much like prayers, are heard from all directions.

We hung out there and at the Pu'u o Kila Lookout (a little further walk, so fewer people) for quite a while. Some folks don't have the patience for it, (it does sort of happen in slow motion), but for us it was really stirring.

I'm enjoying each installment

[Maggy]

Thank you for sharing. The pictures are stunning. Love Kauai. I also want to go back, but talking about long flights, it's 12 hours time difference from us. Or maybe 11, not sure .