Kaua'i Trip

Danielle's mom arrived the day after Danielle, Gabbi, and Jacqui returned from their New England visit. It was absolutely wonderful to have her spend 2.5 weeks with us! She was really loving and spent lots of quality time with us (especially Gabbi and Jacqui). She took them to Waikiki for a night at the Hilton Hawaiian Village. They had a blast! Thanks, Mom for such an incredible visit!!

Waiting for the airplane for our inter-island flight.

We had the opportunity to travel for a long weekend on Kaua'i, while she was here. We spent the first 2 nights in Po'ipu and explored Waimea Canyon and Koke'e State Park, Po'ipu, Sea Glass beach, and more. We were pretty disappointed on our first afternoon, when we attempted to get out the far western beaches. We found out that Barking Sands Beach is completely closed to the public at the Pacific Missile Range Facility. Then, we found the state park and the road closed just past Barking Sands.

Gabbi and Jacqui love to climb and they found this great spot at the north end of "sea glass beach"

Nonni's first Kaua'i beach, exploring for sea glass after driving through the lovely petroleum district of Port Allen...

We even got Nonni to cross this suspension bridge in Hanapepe!


At one end of the bridge we found this spectacular looking spider.

Hanapepe is known for Bougainvillea. This truck serves as a flower pot.

The morning our our second day we headed to the Kalalau lookout and got incredible views of Kalalau Valley (accessible only by hiking or kayaking). We got there early, because when we came in June fog rolled in and completely obscured the view by 10 a.m. Nonni indulged us and did a great job joining us for most of our hike along the rim of the valley.

Hiking along the valley.

Then, on the way down from Kalalau and Koke'e State Park, we took our time and explored plenty of views of Waimea Canyon, including this view of Waimea Falls.

A beautiful view with nice scenery behind...

While we were on Kaua'i we had a chance to see 3 different monk seals basking in the sun. There were 2 at Po'ipu beach on our first afternoon and this one on Salt Pond Beach.

We climbed around on the rocks at Salt Pond Beach. I especially enjoyed this view.

This one is great as well!

And how could you miss this beauty!!

And of course, the 3 lovely beach beauties.

On the way from Po'ipu to Princeville, we stopped at Wailua Falls (some of you may recognize this as the opening shot from Fantasy Island, from re-runs of course).

The second part of the trip we spent in Princeville. I had a couple of days of meetings at Kilauea Point National Wildlife Refuge, while the ladies explored Hanalei, Ke'e Beach, Princeville and the north coast.

Hanging loose on the beach in Hanalei.

The girls had a couple of nene visit our condo in Princeville.

The pool did not get a lot of use, it was pretty chilly...

Kilauea lighthouse.

A view across from Kilauea lighthouse at a portion of Kilauea National Wildlife Refuge and the red-footed booby colony.

Enjoying time with Nonni at Kilauea Point.

The sunset from the window on our return flight to O'ahu.

North Shore

We journeyed up to the North Shore last Sunday. I had my first soccer game in the morning. Then Danielle, Ruth Gabbi and Jacqui picked me up and we headed North.

Danielle and Ruth took an African dance class at the Pupukea community center, while Gabbi and Jacqui met our friends Jason, Lynn, Elijah, and Oliver at the beach right next to it. After Danielle and Ruth got out of class and cooled off, we ate lunch and walked a little bit down the road to Waimea.

Waimea Bay is one of the most beautiful and fun beaches on the island. In the summer, the water is like glass, we're getting to the time of year when the surf is moderate. The waves at Waimea form this incredible surge that pushes you up the shore and then pulls you back into the ocean. It is really a ton of fun to play around in the surge. In another month or so, we won't be able to get into the ocean most days because the surf will be dangerous. For now, we'll take advantage of the awesome water and scenery!

The east end of Waimea Bay even has some pretty good snorkeling...

The view looking west along Waimea Beach.

The kids having a blast, as usual!

Finally, we caught the sunset at Haleiwa Beach Park. It was an awesome sunset with some nice waves and surfers to watch. One father, daughter team was doing some great tricks, with her getting up on dad's shoulders and a variety of other stunts!



There was a nearly full moon that night. We actually did a full moon hike the following night at Makapu'u.