Aloha from Kauai

Our adventures have begun with a lovely trip to Hawaii.  We chose to visit Kauai which is known as the Garden Isle.  It is a ruggedly beautiful island with nearly half of it being inaccessible due to its mountainous terrain.  We started our stay on the North Shore of the island.  This is the wettest part of the island based on the trade winds so everything is lush and green year round.  Our home base on the North Shore was Princeville, a huge plantation that was turned into a resort town and a perfect locale to explore the northwestern side of the island.

Kauai is a hikers paradise offering a wide range of distances and difficulty.  Given the terrain, nearly every hike includes a steep ascent so flatlanders beware!  However, the views are so totally worth the effort.
View of the Wildlife Refuge from the top of the trail

Places we hiked included Hanalei National Wildlife Refuge, the Kileau Lighthouse, Ho'opi'i Falls, the Wai Koa plantation and Hidden Beach all of which offered great views as well as bird watching opportunities.  We spotted 26 species while on the island .......which for birders is exciting stuff.😀
Ho'opi'i Falls

Joining us on this trip was Dan's brother John and his wife Heather who are some of our favorite travel buddies. One of the things we learned on Kauai is that you must be a planner.  Nearly every thing you want to do will require a reservation including visiting a botanical garden.  We had the good fortune to visit the McBryde and Allerton National Botanical Gardens which had some amazing specimens like the fig tree below.  This tree is famous for being part of Jurassic Park.  More than fifty movies have been filmed on some part of Kauai!
Heather, John, Cheryl & Dan
We averaged 10 miles of hiking per day so of course we were always hungry!  We found a famous Drive In's and Dives location called Tiki Iniki which had some tasty tuna poke and Hawaiian ribs.  We'd give them 4 stars.  We also tried some very interesting local culinary treats.  Spam Masubi  is the equivalent of sushi made with spam, served warm and available at convenience stores everywhere. While not a huge fan of it, we certainly liked it better than purple Mochi which tasted like plain gelatin with a thin layer of peanut butter in the middle of it.  We had better luck with food when we headed to the South Shore so stay tuned for my next post.

Stay Curious!

Cheryl & Dan

Comments

  1. UnknownSeptember 14, 2019 at 12:26 PM

    Great pictures! Spam! Oh my, remember eating it as a kid in Mississippi. Look forward to hearing about your next leg of your journey.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. C and D UntetheredSeptember 15, 2019 at 1:07 PM

      They seem to have an affinity for spam. You can even get your hamburgers topped with it along with your cheese and other toppings!

      Delete

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