Stacey's third full day

Stacey's third full morning started, again, a bit early.

The plan for the day was to drive up to Hanalei Bay on the other side of the island to check it out. However two things needed to happen first; I needed Stacey to look at my foot, and caffeine was a prerequisite.

Apparently the day before, while swimming at Turtle Beach, my foot hit a rock. This I was aware of. What I didn't anticipate was the trauma that occurred to my foot as a result. I knew I had scraped/cut my foot up. But when I woke up, there was one spot that was especially sensitive to any form of stimuli.

The spot had raised to about the size of a BB over the night and was extremely...colorful. Of course, me being me, I had to squeeze it to see what would happen. Immediately after applying pressure, it opened and issued a measure of bodily fluids. It felt immediately better, but when Stacey looked at it, she noticed it felt like something hard was still in the wound. So, she grabbed a pair of tweezers and started working what ever was inside towards the exit, not unlike working a splinter. A couple painful minutes later, and we saw what was causing the problem; somehow three grains of beach sand embedded themselves in there. With my foot better, we hit Starbucks (coconut mocha frappuccino!) and hit the road for Hanalei.

The drive was rainy, this part of the island being literally the wettest spot in the world. However it was clear enough that we got to see most of the scenery on the way up there.

On the road to Hanalei.

The first stop along the way was to view to taro fields. However, the rain moved in within five minutes and sent us back on the road.

The taro fields when we first got there...

...And five minutes later when the rain came.

The next stop after that were to the beach caves, a couple of old lava tubes that are freakishly large. It's scary to imagine that at one time the entire tube was filled with lava, probably pahoehoe.

The dry tube.

The sign outside the wet tube.

While at the caves/tubes, we found what I think is the Kauai hippie beach, as evidenced by the numerous tents, several shirtless people, and one couple standing on the side of the road with backpacks in hand trying to hitchhike, and after an unsuccessful attempt yelling "Awwwww come on maaaaaan, it's raining!" (for the record, if you come to the rainiest and most isolated spot on earth knowingly with little to no cash and no vehicle, don't get irritated at people for not feeling sorry for you.)

Tents on the beach. And what is either a camper or hippie - really the difference is all in the perspective.

Up the way from the caves was the end of the road we were on (It does not go all the way around the island). At the end of the road there was a beach, and a hiking trail that took us to a decent vantage point. The parking was tight, but the nice thing about a Jeep is that parking becomes an activity all to itself.

I watched a Lincoln Towncar try to take this space when we left. It was entertaining to watch.

The trail itself wasn't too bad, for someone with hiking boots. However, we made what could have possibly been one of the worst decisions of the trip and decided to go up the trail in our flip flops.

The beginning wasn't bad...

...But then we got to the actual trail.

However, we escaped injury all together by being uber careful, and the short hike was totally worth the pictures.

There's a reef in the center, with good snorkeling to the bottom right of the water.

This is allegedly the best snorkeling spot in all of Kauai, and while we did see snorkelers in the water, we declined to go in as we were devoid of snorkeling gear and wanted to check a few more things out on the way back, like a spring we had seen gurgling through the mud on the way up the trail.

Short little video of the spring bubbling up.

That's when we found what is probably one of the neatest little churches I've ever seen.

Coming up to it...

And driving away from it.

And a field just down the road from it, where you can see two long waterfalls.

We crossed a bridge that had been there for who knows how long (not that it wasn't in good shape), and wound up finding a beach not too far up.

Single lane bridges are everywhere on the island.

The road as it turns out had a bunch of beaches scattered here and there. So of course we had to stop and check one out.

I wonder what this tree is hoping to accomplish.

We also, again after a fortuitous wrong turn, found a sweet little lagoon that was secluded of the rood a little ways.

The left side...

...Center (the Pacific is just behind the sand in the background)...

...And right side.

And we found some more wild basil in there. I so need to go back and hook up some caprese salads.

It's everywhere!

After getting back on the correct road, we headed towards the light house and bird sanctuary. The light house was, well, a light house. However, the bird sanctuary was a lot more open than what I was expecting. I was thinking it would be more like an aviary, but it was still way cool, and we even got to see some red-footed boobies. Now we just have to see the blue footed ones to make Stacey happy.

The light house on left, bird sanctuary, well, rest of the picture.

The light house was pretty much the end of the Hanalei Bay portion of the morning, and Stacey really wanted to go swimming again, so we headed to Turtle Beach. On the way we stopped at Ali'i Kayaks to inquire about the rental of a two person ocean kayak. As it turned out, a guided tour up the Wailua to Secret Falls was only like five dollars a person more than just straight renting a kayak, so we signed up and had a check in time of eight thirty the next morning.

The beginning of the next days activities planned , we headed over to Turtle Beach where, once again, we saw another three turtles. It was the same story as the day before though, not close to touch or take a pic of, but still kinda close. After a few hours we were ready to leave. On our way out Stacey spotted some more turtles, this time in a different area. So we pulled over and parked, and counted no less then six turtles in this small area. We think they were eating moss off the rocks. Whatever they were doing there, we were able to get pics this time.

We dubbed this Turtle Cove, next to Turtle Beach - you can see a couple/few in the wave.

Even got a pic of one breaching the surface.

Also, a one of the many black and red hibiscus flowers in the area made its way into Stacey's hair.

We picked it from the plant in the background.

The drive back was nice, as is most of the driving there, with lots of stuff to look at.

I so want to build a house amongst those trees.

After running home and showering, we decided to go check out Wailua falls once more. The falls are apparently very dynamic, with their flow being heavily influenced by rainfall on an almost real-time basis. Come to find out this was true of the Wailua in general. As it turns out, it was still at low-flow, but it still made for a nice picture.

Awwwwwww...

Just before we left, we were intruded on by what I think was a Hawaiian motorcycle gang. Well, maybe a moped gang. Either way, we were doing our best not to laugh hysterically as they left the area.

Rebels without a clue?

Dinner was had at the crew house that night; tortillas, kalua pork, cheese, and cock sauce (the sauce with a picture of a rooster on the front - aka the best damn hot sauce ever). Oh, and of course the obligatory rum and cokes. We crashed soon after, since we had a bit of another early morning right around the corner.

And that was the end of Stacey's third full day.