Hawaii Part 4 - Kaua'i: Land of green & water.

We finally touched down in Kaua'i after a missed connection in Honolulu forced two unsuccessful standby attempts. We finally got our rental car, a luxury Chevy Aveo. This has to be the smallest crappiest car ever made. But it was cheap and brand new and we got to see how much we could destroy it in less than four days. We stopped at the Opaeka'a Falls on the way to our lodging at the Princeville B&B. At this point, Tom was pretty waterfalled out, but I love me some falling H2O.

Our B&B was located along the north shore of the island, also known as the unpopulated gorgeous, wet and isolated part. There was a lot of natural wetland there which made for good taro farming as seen here.

Our B&B was very cute but the best part by far was the personal chef we had each morning. Saturday morning we got up and went for a walk to the ocean to watch the sun rise.

When we returned, a young women around 30ish was cooking in the kitchen. She asked us if we like banana macadamia nut pancakes and said that breakfast was almost ready. Umm yeah. Sounds good. So the basic story is that she runs a restaurant in Philly but was getting paid to run the B&B and take a vacation for one month in Hawaii. I want this job. She would cook us amazing breakfasts each morning with fruit, a main dish, smoothies, coffee, and other assorted amazing things like little mango bars. Let's see, personal chef of free food...chalk another one up for B&Bs.

So Saturday morning, we decided to do a kayaking trip up the Wailua River. A river tributary led to a hike through the jungle to Secret Falls (which isn't really that big of a secret). It was a beautiful day, the river was smooth and glossy and the hike was very informative with our very own ethno-biologist major tour guide.

Not the most impressive falls we had seen on this trip, but it was still great to cool off in never less. How often do u get a kiss from u'r honey under a waterfall anyway? Group awwwww......

On the hike out, we took a small detour to something called "The Green House" which was very aptly named. Very cool enclosed room of green vines and plants. We then kayaked back to the harbor to complete the day.

We finished in just enough time to make it to a sports bar in Kapa'a and catch the second half of the OSU Buckeyes game against Minnesota. They had the game well in hand by then so we also enjoyed watching Florida lose to Auburn and about 5 other top 10 teams that get upset. It felt weird to get a thread back of reality after so much vacation. On the way home, we stopped to watch some surfers. It was funny because it was an absolutely gorgeous beach but there were big signs everywhere saying No Swimming. I guess surfing doesn't count as swimming. I don't think the north shore of Kaua'i is the place to learn to surf as the waves were huge the entire time.

Sunday's adventures proved that we needed to be rested so we enjoyed a very relaxing night just watching the sun set over the north shore.

Stayed tuned for part 5...