Kauai, Hawaii Part 2- South and East Shore. Kapaa, Poipu and Waimea Canyon, Kayaking Wailua River to Secret Falls

 Friday night after we checked into Kauai Shores Hotel in Wailua Kapaa, we drove to Poipu for dinner and to watch the sunset. We loved this road with the tall, green trees lining it like a wall. 

We ate dinner at Volcano Pizza. It was delicious. 

The Hawaiin Green sea turtles come up onto Poipu beach every night to sleep. We saw about a dozen crawl out of the water and onto the sand. So neat. And they ate at the beach just next to Poipu, literally a stone's throw away. 

Even though Poipu has the sea turtles and a great beach to swim in with large rocks placed in a semi circle to make a shallower area and one where waves aren't crashing you on (especially nice for kids), there were just too many people there. It was too busy. And so I prefer Hanalei Bay or Kekaha Beach. 

Saturday May 20th we drove to Waimea Canyon. We hiked the Canyon Trail to Waipoo Falls. It was 3-4 miles and took us less than 2 hours. 

After our hike we started to drive to Polihale state park beach but just before the beach, there's 3 miles of dirt road that would take 45 minutes to drive because of all the potholes. We started on the dirt road but it was making me sick to my stomach. So we turned around after 20 minutes(I got out and walked/jogged for a little bit to give my tummy a break so I didn't have to ride the entire bumpy 20 minutes back). We stopped at a beach we passed on the way to Polihale, called Kekaha beach. It was beautiful, the sand was soft and it was a pretty quiet beach since it's to the west of Poipu, which we liked. 

After spending a couple of hours there we drove to the Right Slice because we heard they had the best pies; and they were delicious. We got a macadamia nut pie (like pecan pie) and a Lilikoi cheesecake pie. We thought these stickers they sold at their bakery were funny.

We got our pie slices to go, grabbed dinner to-go in Poipu at Da Crack (mexican food) and brought it to Poipu beach to eat. 

We saw Hehe everywhere! Literally everywhere in Kauai...on long hikes, in parking lots, on the side of the road, in yards. 

You can see Poipu beach a little better in this picture; those big rocks in the ocean create a barrier. 

 

Sunday May 21st we joined in our hotel's free yoga class they offer each morning at 830am. 

Afterwards we went to church at 11am in Kapaa. The church is the same everywhere which I love, but it was fun to hear their experiences and their chapel was beautiful. 

This is where their youth and primary classes were; I love the open air hallways.

After church we got lunch: me from Kalaea Juice Hale and Scott from a food truck. 

Afterward we hiked Hoopi Falls Trails. It's about 2 1/2 miles and takes about an hour. I was in love with all the lush green, and giant plants! 

Hehe again

At the bottom of the falls  they had a pond and a rope swing that both Scott and I went off which was fun. We made sure to go straight home and shower after as I read on alltrails that sometimes sewage from the old homes in the area leaks into the falls. 

This is some of the beach front property at Kauai shores hotel; at night they have corn hole out for guests to play and they have live music at the outdoor restaurant. We liked the hotel but I think we both  preffered the quietness of the condo we stayed in. 

Monday May 22nd we woke up early (well, we woke up early every day and went to bed around 9ish most nights too) because that's when we'd rescheduled our kayaking hike to Secret Falls along Wailua River. 

Our tour began at 715. We got some instruction on where to go and then we were off. We had to have the kayak back by 1215pm which wasn't a problem. We actually had it back by around 1030-11ish. 

There were several other couples kayaking with our group and we made friends with a younger couple from Utah while we were hiking. We ran into them again later at a donut place they told us about and then at Kalaea Juice Hale, which I had told them about, which was fun. He's in med school and Gabby's the photographer for the Jazz professional basketball team. So of course I asked her to take a photo for us :)

I got a blister on the inside of my thumb from rowing,a nd it broke open before we kayaked back, so I put a bandaid on itand  held my hands a different way on the paddles. 

We ran back to the hotel to shower after our kayaking adventure (we got an hour extension on our checkout for free which was nice) and then went over to Island Craves and ate a really yummy Malasada donut that was filled with coconut buttercream. 

Then we went onto Kalalea Juice Hale. While there we made another friend. When he found out we are from Utah he asked if we were Mormon (yes) and if we'd ever seen the movie The Testaments(yes). He said although he's not Mormon, he was in it and loved the experience of filming  with a Mormon crew that prayed each morning before filming and their family values. 

Since we were trying to kill time before our flight at 7:25pm,we then stopped at Wailua Shaved Ice which we decided was the best shaved ice on the island. We loved the foam on the top and they also had the icream on the bottom and sweetened condensed milk drizzled on top. 

We filled up our jeep at Costco gas and then returned it to the car rental location at the airport (it was pretty dirty, inside and out, but they have you drop it off at their car wash and cleaning area so I suppose they expect that in hawaii with all the rain and mud they get) around 445pm. The flight home was overnight which wasn't fun, but at least we just had one stop in denver this time instead of the two. We barely slept so we were dragging Tuesday when we got home at 950am, but we made it through the day and got back on our normal clock within a couple of days. 

We absolutely loved our time in Kauai and want to go back again. We'd love to take the whole family, but we'll see; it was expensive for 2(about $5000 w/airfare, car rental, lodging, food and activities), so bringing 7 would be a small fortune. Since we have an adult child and an almost adult child though, and since we wouldn't be able to make it out there anytime soon, they can pay their own airfare and I'm sure the other kiddos would be willing to help earn part of their fare too so this can happen.