The weather sucks in Portland right now. Let's visit somewhere warmer. To the Kauai vacations photos!
Photo by Greg
We had a wonderful time in Kauai, despite a couple of hiccups. It rained off and on the whole time, which made us panic that we were going to have another experience like we did in Oahu. About halfway through our trip we got word that one of Greg's team members, who was only 53, passed away. We had a pretty sad three days processing that and it was hard to feel okay enjoying a tropical vacation. But if there's a better place to be sad than the ocean, I'm not sure where it is.
It helps that we stayed in Koloa, where you can see sea turtles frequently. We got to swim five feet from them while we were snorkeling. Another time we were floating aimlessly on boogie boards and one popped up right next to me. They are gorgeous animals.
Not a sea turtle (red-crested cardinal)
We visited Hanalei town, which was a wonderful little town.
Waimea Canyon was foggy but it was still beautiful.
By the time we got to one of the best viewpoints, it was so foggy that you couldn't see the canyon at all. It happens to be one the wettest spots on earth, receiving an average of almost 374 inches of rain per year.
We visited blowholes. We were underwhelmed.
We drank wine and contemplated on the beach.
We visited Ke'e beach, which sits at the base of Bali Ha'i. The waves were huge that day, as we were getting a lot of rough surf from Typhoon Haiyan.
We visited Opaeka'a Falls and it was pouring so hard that we snapped this photo and ran back to the car. There were flash flood warnings that day.
We drank a lot of maitais.
We admired the plumeria and chenille plant that surrounded our condo.
I still think I like Maui a smidge more but Kauai gets two thumbs up. And I thought its sunsets were better than Maui's.
Greg and I just returned from ten days on Kauai and we're slowly adjusting to a cruel lack of sunshine, maitais, and the gentle smell of plumeria on the air. It's cold and rainy in Portland.
I gave in at the airport and bought this tree fern (Cibotium splendens) and popped it in a weirdly wonderful pot I found at Digs.
I think it looks like the Grinch without his hat on. I've set it up in the bathroom where it should get the humidity it likes. Anybody have any luck growing one of these?
Last week Greg and I traveled to Anaheim to go to Disneyland with my brother, my sister-in-law, and their two girls, along with a smattering of grandparents and friends. We went swimming a lot, rode as many scary rides with my mom as possible (my dad's not a fan), and I bored Greg discussing the landscaping in and around Disneyland.
We also spent a few nights at Trader Sam's Enchanted Tiki Room. We love tiki and my brother really, really loves tiki, so we had a great time. I accidentally bought too many tiki glasses.
The trip was expensive, even staying at the cheapo Best Western, but it was so much fun. Screw dinners and flowers, I think the most romantic thing in the world is Greg voluntarily spending his vacation time with my family and allowing three little girls to demand that he hold their hands, go swimming with them, sit next to them on rides, or not hold my hands so they can. We don't want kids of our own but I am so grateful to my siblings for giving me such wonderful nieces and nephews. I miss them so much now that we're back home.
Phoebe having a staring contest with Greg
I missed my garden while we were away and it was noticeably larger when we returned. It rained the whole time we were gone, GOOD JOB PORTLAND!
I tried not to be that annoying girl taking photos of the landscaping, especially when I had such cute little girls nearby, but I snapped a few with my phone. California Adventure was particularly nice, with lots of desert plants, including a mass planting of Agave americana that I wanted to photograph but there were so many strollers between me and it.
But really, I bought too many tiki glasses. What was I thinking?
Feel free to ignore this post if you don't like looking at pictures of warm places when it's so cold out. We went to Maui! I've never eaten so much banana bread in my life!
We got up at 3am the first morning we were there to see the sunrise atop Haleakala. You can drive a paved road all the way to the top, which is way easier than seeing the sunrise from Mauna Kea on the big island of Hawaii. When we went up Mauna Kea in 2010 we had to rent a 4WD and drive miles of terrifying unpaved roads with steep dropoffs and no guardrails.
Haleakala October 2012
Because it's so easy to get to the top there were tons of people there. When the sun broke through some people exclaimed as though they weren't sure it was going to happen.
It reminded me of this commercial, which caused me to run around our whole vacation yelling, "Oh, it's so spiritual!"
It was nice but it wasn't as spectacular as Mauna Kea, which looked like this. We were pretty much alone when we visited Mauna Kea, too. Way better.
Mauna Kea October 2010
Good thing there were plenty of other pretty things to gawk over.
We visited the 'Iao Valley and the 'Iao Needle (the giant phallic rock) that was the site of an incredibly gruesome battle between King Kamehameha and the chief of Maui.
There were taro plants everywhere.
We visited the Korean Garden, which was a mishmash of tributes to the various emigrants that landed on the Hawaiian islands.
There were spaces for the Chinese . . .
New Englanders . . .
Portuguese . . .
Japanese . . .
We went to Lahaina and saw the single banyon tree that covers a huge park. It was gorgeous.
We attended the Old Lahaina Lu'au, where the food and dancing were spectacular.
We drove The Road to Hana. If we're being honest, I hate things like this, where you drive and stop every half mile to take photos of something scenic. I don't end up enjoying myself at all. But we stopped at the Kahanu Botanical Garden (pictures to follow in a separate post), which was peaceful and nearly empty.
We swam at the black sand beach at Wai'anapanapa.
We saw the red sand beach but I was wearing flip flops and couldn't get down to it. The iron in the lava is rusting, giving it this unreal color.
We went powered hang gliding in Hana. This was my birthday present to Greg and I still can't believe I did this. If any of you know me in real life or follow me on Twitter, I get absolutely shitfaced before getting on flights, using a combo of Xanax and vodka. I've gotten waaaaay better at flying over the years but I never look forward to it. I took half a Xanax for this little excursion. It took about 15 minutes up in the air to unclench and then I felt like I could stay up there forever.
The pilot is named Armin and he's wonderful. He showed me Oprah's property and Pat Benatar's house.
This is Greg flying over the road to Hana.
It's a stunning way to see the island and I can't recommend it enough. The funnest part is when he cuts the engine and you just glide. Then he starts diving and swooping and you can't stop screaming and laughing. We stayed overnight in Hana (which I highly recommend) and had dinner at one of two restaurants in town. We sat outside while rain poured down on the corrugated roof and locals performed at the open mic. Hana is wonderful, especially when all the tourbuses depart.
The next morning we got up and visited the Seven Sacred Pools at 'Ohe'o Gulch.
We hiked the Pipiwai Trail, into the bamboo forest, which is one of the coolest hikes I've ever done.
It gets surprisingly dark on the trail at points, the bamboo is so thick. It can get noisy with the shh-shh-shh of the leaves and the clack-clack-clack of the thick culms smacking against each other. It's AWESOME.
The trail ends at the 400 foot Waimoku Falls. We have so many waterfalls in Oregon that I'm rarely blown away by them, but this was very pretty.
Here's how it looked from the air.
Then our rental car started bucking and dying on our way out of town. We had planned to take the south road home from Hana, which is unpaved for five miles and mostly single-laned with blind turns. There are few towns along it. After restarting the car several times, only to have it die again, the car magically started (thank goodness, as there are no rental car agencies in Hana) and Greg said he still wanted to take the south road.
This was not my finest hour.
We bickered back and forth, with me pointing out that if the car died on the road, we'd lose power steering and power brakes, possibly while making a sharp turn, possibly plunging us into the ocean. If the car died we'd be in the middle of nowhere. Did I mention we had no cell service either? He still wanted to do it.
So I spent a few hours quietly seething. And worrying. He asked if I wanted to stop anywhere and I basically told him, I will leave you forever if you even think about stopping this car. We don't know that it will start again.
I hate Fords, guys. This shit happens to everyone I know with a Ford.
But the south road is beautiful and totally different than the north road, with its waterfalls and lush greenness. My friends Amy and Sloan wrote about it here. I can't recommend falling down the rabbit hole that is their travel blog enough. They are fantastic storytellers and they've been amazing places.
The road wasn't as scary as I feared it would be and it was totally doable without a 4WD car.
Despite all the worrying, I thought this drive was prettier than the north road to Hana.
We swapped out our rental car in Kihei and hopped in the ocean for a swim and I felt so much better. Swimming in the ocean is the best palate cleanser ever.
We went snorkeling at Molokini Crater, which has visibility of 150 feet or more. It was great, we even saw an octopus! I always refer to this fish as "the Blazers fish" because it looks like the Portland Trailblazers logo:
Right?
We drove around the NW top of the island, which was waaaaayyy dicier than either road to Hana. Unpaved one-lane roads, blind corners, very steep dropoffs and tricky maneuvers when you meet another car going the other direction. But it was so pretty! And there's a great art gallery on the road, as well as the best banana bread I've ever had.
Loree, is this Agave attentuata? It was everywhere and I loved it so much I failed to get a non-crappy photo!
We also laid on the beach and read two books apiece and swam and swam and swam. If you are what you eat, I was 40% pineapple, 20% dark rum, 10% ocean water, and 30% grilled meat during our stay.
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