{Travel} Kauai, Hawaii - Day 5 Birthday Celebrations, Kapa'a, Poipu Beach & Sea Turtles

Here we are at Day 5 of our Kauai adventure and today was Mr. Click's birthday!

He loved driving our rented Jeep around the island.  We decided to check out another recommended spot and were heading there for breakfast after putting our name on the virtual waitlist. *good tip!*

We drove back to the charming town of Kapa'a to Kountry Kitchen.  The menu was huge and everything sounded so good.  I started off with a coconut mocha latte.  Mr. Click got an omelette and I had the 2 egg special with cornbread. I swapped out the meat for fresh papaya. 

We definitely needed a walk after breakfast.

There's an 8-mile trail that winds along the ocean and many people rent bikes to explore it.   

We didn't have time for that but the walk we did was lovely (and not 8 miles!).

The views like this never got old.

Housekeeping left us these cute sea turtles on our bed when we got back to the room.  It was a little foreshadowing of our upcoming day.

We spent some more time at the pool and picked the adult pool that wasn't busy.

Later, we got ready to go out to dinner for Mr. Click's birthday.

We celebrated with some cocktails at Tahiti Nui (another recommendation) in Hanalei.  The story of this Tahitian themed restaurant is really interesting and you can read about it here.  It's also featured in the movie The Descendants starring George Clooney.

I had my first ever Mai Tai (pretty good!).  We each had something that was featured on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives show.  I had the zesty coconut crusted catch (ono, of course!) and Mr. C had the Kalua pork sandwich.

What a place to celebrate your birthday!

On the way out of Hanalei, we were driving past the Hanalei Bay Lookout like we did on day 2 but it was so sunny this time so we had to get out for some photos for a different view.

A family pulled in at the same time and we took photos for each other.

We then headed to Poipu Beach and passed through the Kauai Tree Tunnel, a beautiful canopy of over 500 eucalyptus trees that line Maliuhi Road.

We made it to Poipu Beach on the south shore of the island.  It is a calm, crescent shaped beach know for its calm waters and for sea turtles at sunset!

This part of the island felt so different from the north shore where we were staying.  It felt much more like a busy, luxury resort area.  

Lots of people had the same idea that we did and the beach started filling up with people hoping to see some sea turtles.

We finally got to see one and I think this one was the scout who came out to check the conditions for the rest of the turtles.

We were thrilled to see one and didn't wait around too much longer after it swam back into the water.  This was definitely a highlight for us!

to be continued...

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{Travel} Day 4 Kauai, Hawaii: Anini Beach, Kilauea Fish Market, Thrifting & Napali Coast Boat Tour

 We started Day 4 with some time at the hotel ...

{my Amazon tennis dress & belt bag}

...and then headed to Anini Beach.

We found a parking spot and walked right down to the beach. It was huge and not very crowded. It was also raining a little but cleared up.

We walked for miles along the shore. I loved seeing this different kind of coral than I'm used to.

A creative artist had made this portrait on the beach.

It felt like we had the beach to ourselves.

Now that is some driftwood!

The sun was back out.

It was a great day at Anini Beach.

We stopped for lunch at Kilauea Fish Market (another recommendation) and got a local fresh plate lunch.  I got the ono again and Mr Click got the chicken. Everything was so fresh and delicious. 

We also went thrifting that day, you may have seen my thrift finds from this post.

We stopped for coffee at Trilogy Coffee.

On the way back to the hotel we saw this lucky dog.

Our afternoon/evening plan was a Napali Coast Sunset Dinner Cruise with Holo-Holo Charters out of Port Allen.

This was a 3.5 hour tour along the breathtaking Napali Coast.

They served snacks, drinks and dinner along the way and played a great playlist.

It was way rougher than we expected and the weather kept changing.

We stopped here for photos and they played the Jurrasic Park theme song.

The opening credits were filmed here.

I had a cute sundress on but I'm glad I brought my rashguard.

It rained and we got splashed a lot, the sun was intense..it was a little of everything.

We pulled into this cave...so cool!

Somebody was enjoying his pre-birthday.

Is this really real?  They had a champagne toast and brownies at sunset to cap off the cruise.

Riding back to the port.

It was all so stunning!

The sunset when we got back to the parking lot.

to be continued...

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{Travel} Kauai, Hawaii - Day 3: Hiking Ha'ena State Park & Beach

We started Day 3 in Kauai with some breakfast at the hotel.

The avocado toast was pretty good (and huge!).

We took a walk around the property and came upon a litter of kittens. They were so friendly and sweet.  There were at least five of them and all came up to us.

We had a pretty easy going morning because we had a more strenuous day planned.

We had reservations for Ha'ena State Park. We had to pick which day we wanted to go a month before we got there. Parking spots fill up immediately (and are mostly for Kauai residents) so they recommend getting reservations with the Go Ha'ena shuttle service.  The reservation included parking, transportation and entry fee into the park. There were two pick up locations and we were able to walk to one (about a mile from our hotel).  

When I made the reservation, I only saw that the main hike was 4 miles round trip (you can do a much longer trail and even get a permit to camp in the park--not our thing) and that didn't sound too bad. 

 The staff repeatedly said how slippery, rocky and steep the path was to the 2 mile point (half way) and back was even harder.  It looked like this in some of the easier parts. 

They told us our only job was to be back by the last shuttle bus (around 6pm).

We decided to just get up to the 1/4 mile mark because it was supposed to be one of the best views.

It was not fun and probably took us close to an hour. There are other hikers on the path and it's pretty much single file. There are also hikers coming down at the same time and some very serious hikers who don't want to stop.

Once we got to the look out point, there really were some stunning views.

It was enough for us and I was ready to head back down.

This felt like an accomplishment even though we didn't get very far.

Just gorgeous!

It was definitely harder going down because gravity and momentum.

I was so happy to be back down on solid ground.  I made friends with a cute chicken family.

We didn't realize that our fee also included spending time at Ha'ena Beach. Some people on the shuttle were doing just the beach.   

We didn't have beach gear with us but wanted to feel the water and sit in the sand for awhile.  There was this glorious monk seal just hanging out on the shore.   They had erected a small barrier to protect it from humans getting too close (from the beach side). I think it was just taking a nap.

We got the shuttle bus back to Hanalei and then got another one that took us right to our hotel.  We asked our driver what happened if people missed the last bus of the night and were told that the locals often go to the beach for sunset and will drive the stranded people home (there's no cell service in the park!).  I was impressed by the kindness and Aloha spirit.

Back at the hotel, we cut up the Sugarloaf white pineapple and took some to the pool with us.  Delicious!

We had some relaxing pool time and I even read some of my book.

When in Hawaii--order some Blue Hawaiians.  Even better if enjoyed by the pool.

We were pretty tired that night and just wanted to stay local for dinner. The hotel had very limited options so we walked over to the Princeville Shopping Center to look for a dinner spot.   We picked B's Kitchen and had some really good pizza.  (We are pizza snobs so it takes a lot to impress us).

It started to drizzle on our walk back but we also caught the sun setting on another wonderful day in magical Kauai.

to be continued...

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