Most people know that when we travel we like to get off the beaten path and mingle with locals. It's a bit harder here but we managed to spend a day doing just that.

We got up early (shocking) and were on the road by 7 after grabbing our coffee. With traffic we knew it would be close to a 2 hr drive to the other side of the island. We had planned to go over to the Waimea Canyon and do some hiking. Many people refer to it as the Grand Canyon of Hawaii. It does look like a GC but with a lot more green and waterfalls all around. We had flown over it yesterday and wanted to do some hiking. We had read and heard that the best forests and trails were up there.

Nothing was open at 7 so we had to wait until we got close to the canyon to grab stuff to take with us for lunch. Not a great idea. We stopped by the convenience store at the base and since it was still early the pickings were slim. We ended up with a hot dog, a corn dog, a Chinese sausage (don't ask) a bag of chips and some water. Yum. It would have to do.

We slowly made our way up the first 15 miles of the canyon road. We stopped at the main lookout for a quick look and some photos. Nothing too different than the flight. We jumped back in our car and left all the other tourists.

From here we followed our guidebook for directions to get to the Mohihi-Wai-'alae Trail. The directions said you had to have 4wd drive, it was 6 miles to the trailhead on a dirt road and to follow the map. Between the map in the book and the signs on the road we were in good shape. You definitely need 4wd and high clearance. We again crossed some water and went through mud. I can't imagine this being passable during rainy season. It was a long and very bumpy 6 miles. Took about half an hour to drive.

When we got to the end of the road ER saw no other cars other than a ranger truck or two. We knew the hike was going to be long but weren't sure how strenuous so we took my camera. (sorry my camera can't upload to the iPad so no pics til we get back of this day)

Let me try to recap this hike. We were supposed to hike 3 miles out then turn around and come back. 6 total. At 1/2 mile I told Josh I might die. At mile marker 1 I sat down, ate my lunch and said I was done. Despite my whining we pushed through and did 5 miles. Anyone who is in shape and in Kauai would enjoy this. I'm pretty out of shape. I disagreed with the guidebook though. The hike starts and takes you over a stream (cool). Then you go through a brief Sugi tree forest. To me one of the prettiest areas I had seen in the trip. Felt like I should be in a Twilight set or something. Then the rest of the first mile is uphill torture. Seriously. Torture. Mile 1 to 2 was amazing! Gently rolling path through the forest with moss and ferns everywhere. I've never seen anything like it. At mile 2 you descend down into a narrow fern path that lasts about half a mile and rips apart any flesh that is exposed. The guidebook author liked this section. We could have shipped it. We went a little past the 2.5 mile mark but didn't see anything enticing us to continue. I was delirious at this point. The hike took us 2 hours to do the 2.5 hours out and then about 1.5 hours back. We stopped several times to either eat, take photos or not pass out. The smell of the plants and air up the air was amazing and I agree you get to see a lot if different vegetation than the rest of the island. My suggestion is to take Advil (my head throbbed with the car ride) and lots of water. Oh and wear long hiking pants.

After our trek back down the mountain I really felt awful. I wasn't sure if I was dehydrated, hungry, exhausted or what. We were disgusting and our main agenda was to find a shower or beach to rinse off. We wanted to spend the evening on the western side of the island but not like this.

There aren't as many options for beaches in this area. We didn't want to go too far so we headed to Salt Pond Beach in Hanapepe. It provided sand to sleep on, shade for Josh, swimmable water to rinse off, an outside shower and a bathroom to change clothes. It fit the bill. I probably wouldn't rank it high on my list of Kauai beaches. There are just too many other awesome beaches. It's major pros were some cool rock features on the right side where the water rushed over and the campsites. A bunch of locals were there, singing, hanging out, cooking.

Once we were relatively clean and relaxed we headed in to downtown Hanapepe. It's been described as a ghost town but we went on a Friday evening when they have their Art Night. It's like the NoDa (Charlotte reference) of Kauai. A lot of local art galleries mixed with some shops. For art night, musicians perform on the streets and food vendors come out. We got there a bit early and visited the used book store Talk Story. Wow. They had some amazing kids vintage books. I really love old kids books with the good illustrations. I find several and take them up to be priced. I happily add an animal book and two Kauai stories to my vintage collection when I'm told they are $5 or $7. Then we get to the book I found from the 30's about manners. I loved it. I waited to hear that it too was $6. The man tells me, ok so this is a rare find and is selling with collectors for $150... I could sell it for $25. What? As much as I wanted it that's crazy. I'm happy with my three. As we leave two local high school boys were starting to sing. They were really good. Wish we had caught their name.

We looked around the galleries but didn't find anything that fit our art collection. We get something from every trip.

The smells of the vendors were taking over our senses and we gave in. We shared a huge slice of lasagna from Hanalei pasta. As we were eating it we were seated next to the pie lady - the Right Slice. I heard her describe the Tantric Chocolate cake and was a goner. Belgium chocolate with cayenne pepper and candied ginger and almonds. I'm not a pie person. I loved this pie. This may be the best pie I have ever had. I have already pinned a recipe so I can try to replicate. If you are here find the pie lady! She goes to several markets and has a store in Lihue I believe. I can't believe we just stumbled into that.

After Hanapepe we headed back over to downtown Waimea. Since Josh had finished reading the Hunger Games we had googled movie theaters on the island. It turned out that there was an old historic theater in Waimea that shows movies a few weeks after they are released. It just so happened they would start showing HG that night. I did some quick research and found out that if you get there when the box office opens or a bit earlier you can snag one of the few bamboo stuffed rattan chairs. So, for $24 total Josh and I saw the Hunger Games, got two sodas, popcorn and two candies while sitting in our very comfy bamboo chairs with the locals. We were the only tourists. It was quite fun. And we stayed up past 8! It was pretty late by the time we got home but it was a great day on the west side of the island.

Note: these pics aren't ours... Will post when we have ours.

***More photos to be uploaded later. ***

Another early morning. I'm seeing a pattern. Josh and I have realized that early mornings in Hanalei are gorgeous so we decide to throw on our suits and head to a beach. Which one? It's early and I've read that Tunnels is really hard to get a parking spot at so we decide it might be the best time to head there.

We grab some of our muffins and fruit and make a quick stop at Java Kai across the street for coffee. Also named Hanalei Coffee Roasters. Why do you need two names? Oh well.

The drive further north past Hanalei is really pretty. Several little beaches with picnic tables and palm trees caught my eye for a picnic dinner or sunset spot. We saw some for sale signs and started guessing how much. You don't wanna know. Josh and I agreed that Haena would be a great spot to rent a house with the family but too remote for us to see the rest of the island. Even Hanalei has been a trek to get back around.

The guidebook gave pretty good directions for finding the beach parking. Not sure if we found the first or second turn off. There were several roads that said "no tunnels beach access" on handwritten signs. We parked on the first street without the sign. We arrived plenty early and easily snagged a spot at 8:30. My guess is they were gone by 9?

Tunnels beach is pretty but the highlights are 1) the amazing mountain backdrop to the left and 2) the snorkeling. Josh would add a number 3) the shade trees so he could stay at the beach longer than 30 minutes. It was a bit stormy or headed that way but we enjoyed the beach. Most people headed right and planted themselves on the sand in front of the snorkeling spot. Best snorkeling on the island we are told. Lots of young kids because of the calm pools from the reef. Cool beach and the mountain is pretty dramatic. However, Secret Beach still wins in our book.

Close to 11 it started to sprinkle so we headed to the car. It was about time anyway. We went back to the cottage, got cleaned up and headed out for lunch and the afternoon.

Even though I had heard mixed reviews I wanted to try the Kilauea Fish Market. For a long time the ahi Tina wraps had gotten race reviews on Tripadvisor. The last few months people were irrate that the ahi was replaced with Ono. Here's my view. We live in Charlotte. I just want yummy fresh fish. So we went anyway. Cute little place. Not by the beach but plenty of outdoor tables if you get there before noon. I got the fish wrap, Josh got the fish tacos. Pretty large and filling. Very messy. About $12 a piece so a bit pricey but they have free water! Josh liked the tacos better.

After lunch we started making our way towards Lihue for our helicopter tour. We were a bit early so we stopped in Kapa'a at one of the two ukulele stores I had found on the island that was raved about. We had another genius idea that our 3 and (almost) 2 year olds would like their own authentic ukulele as their surprise. You laugh but have you seen our son's guitar? What three year old has a guitar that nice? My mom told me that if our kids don't grow up to be musically inclined it is by no fault of ours. So we go into Larry's and 10 minutes later are the proud owners of a gorgeous soprano ukulele. Highly recommend them. The owner (I think) was super friendly and has kids of his own who play so he claimed to not think we were insane.

This is turning into a very expensive day...

We are finally ready to head over to the helicopter place. After a lot of research we had chosen to go with Jack Harter. Safety was obviously very important. Next, if we are paying mega bucks I better be getting the most out of this. That means no doors. Josh wanted photos. So no glass. There are two main operators. The other stops at a waterfall which equates to another $110 per person. I am a safety nut and was very happy with them. Josh even put his life preserver thing on upside down and they caught it.

We went with three other couples - two per helicopter. You don't know who you will be riding with or which seat until the last minute. They say it's based on weight. However, I really didn't want to be in the front middle. Up front is the pilot, one middle and then front right. In the back are two people. So three of the four have great seats. One gets the middle where you get hit by the pilot the whole time. Normally the lightest person gets that spot. I'm pretty sure that I was the lightest out of the 8 people but Josh must have asked them 10 tunes if we could be in the back... Guess where we sat! In the back.

The most amusing part was when the fourth couple arrived. Two ladies in their early 40's. One in shorts and a t-shirt and the other in a leopard mini skirt and tank top. Ummmm. I was in jeans and a denim long sleeve shirt and still froze at times. Those entertaining ladies were on our chopper.

The hour tour is pretty indescribable. If you go to Kauai you must do this. It is worth the money. We don't like tourist stuff. It's just amazing. Josh took 300 pictures in the hour. We must have seen hundreds of waterfalls including the Jurassic Park one. The pilot gave us facts the whole time. I think he made up a few. I think he told us that Steve Gates, founder of yahoo and google, is a large land owner now. Huh? Regardless. Beautiful. It was pretty overcast when we were flying and I was worried but that didn't seem to matter.

After our ride we were hungry and we've now learned that people go out to dinner super early here. We debated a few places. Mediterranean Gourmet in Haena on the water is supposed to be amazing. However, the live entertainment tonight was belly dancing. We decided to save that dinner for a night where they had acoustic music. Bar Acuda in Hanalei had gotten good feedback too. However their tapas menu didn't sound too inspiring to us. I remembered I had heard that the sushi bar at Hanalei Dolphin was supposed to have some of the best sushi on the island. Sold. We defied our guidebook again and headed over.

There are only 6 seats at the sushi bar itself so we were happy to snag the last two. More seats in the lounge. I must say that Eric and Drew are pretty crazy talented. We got the special roll and then the No Big Deal. We told them we wanted something crunchy and they came up with that. I don't think it's on the menu. Best roll I've ever had. Ahi, asparagus, some sort of amazing sweet chili sauce and a crunch. Rolls were huge. They were $20 an order but were double an order at a normal sushi restaurant. They had other cheaper ones. The sushi lounge is open air. Everything was perfect. May have to return!

After dinner we had a few minutes before sunset so we went down to the pier. The clouds rolled in last minute so it still wasn't the Bali hai we are waiting for! We called it a night.

The first night of sleep whenever you are adjusting to a 6 hour time change is always rough. When you add in an island of roosters who seem to have no concept of time and a husband who has suddenly become enthralled with a book... I woke up at 2am to the sound of cock a doodle doos and a saw what I thought was daylight. Josh told me to go back to sleep. The roosters were confused and he had just turned on the bathroom light to read more. Of course. I was surprised I managed to sleep until 5:30. Normally on vacation we are very early risers. We prefer to get up and hike and go to bed early.

Have you ever slept under a tin roof while it is raining? If not, it's true bliss. It poured the whole night. The sound of that in our cottage roof and the breeze lulled us to sleep. The one room cottage doesn't have AC but instead a bunch of windows that cross ventilate perfectly. Heaven.

I was happy to lounge around and take my time writing a bit. For anyone wondering why in the world I'm blogging in vacation - for Italy and Greece I did a hand journal. Convenient. But I found I got burned out retyping everything later. I also often couldn't read my notes. For Croatia- oh that's a sad one. Stupid blogger didn't support the iPad last year. So I had to write all my notes in the iPad and then type them. Somehow all the notes got deleted when we got home. I lost everything. So I'm blogging and posting live. These blogs are more for us than anything else and we want to save all the memories.

Josh tested the shower out first as it is outside and I always make him go first for new things. Other than the fact that I had to walk around the side of the house and figure out how to keep the shower curtain from billowing out with the breeze, it was fine. I actually love outdoor showers.

We were now getting close on time so we grabbed some of our food, packed our bag with stuff for the day and hit the road. We had to be up in the mountains somewhere by 9.

One thing we had decided we really wanted to do was visit the Hindu Monastery. Not your typical Hawaii vacation activity. We heard the grounds were amazing and they only did tours once a week. We called a few weeks earlier and found out what day it would be and got our spot. Apparently they have very limited parking so it's reservation only of a very long taxi ride.

For anyone going to Kauai you must do this. First it's cheap. Donation only. Second it's fascinating. Third it has to be some of the prettiest land I've ever seen. The tour started with about a 20 minute talk about Hinduism and the monks. We both were surprised at how much we enjoyed that part. Then we spent about half an hour walking the grounds over to the new pilgrimage temple. The monastery is on 365 acres. There are waterfalls with pools where the monks swim. The monks grow 70% of their own food on site so they have quite the farm too.

Then we spent about half an hour touring the new temple. It has been under construction for 22 years and will probably take another 5. It is entirely hand carved white marble by artisans from India. An art form that had all but died and no structure has been built like it in over 1000 years. Josh apparently wasn't impressed as he took no pictures...

The tour ended by 11 and we were getting hungry. We headed back down the mountain to Kapa'a to find some lunch. We ended up grabbing plate lunches from Pono Market. Wow. It was almost all locals there. It was a takeout local food type restaurant but the folks were super nice. They told us which two local foods to try. We got the Lau Lau (pork wrapped in grape leaves) and Teri Meatloaf. They both came with a bunch of rice and another side. With two drinks our total bill was $17. Considering we couldn't finish it all even though it was delicious I'd say it was a good bargain.

Now that we were reenergized we headed back up the mountain and past the monastery. We had decided to do the Jungle Hike since we were in the area. The directions kept saying to take the dirt roads as far as you could and that a regular car should be ok. While 4wd may not be necessary, high clearance definitely was. We were going through streams and over some pretty bad rocks in places.

After 4 miles or so we hit the stopping point and parked. We had packed a change of hiking clothes and a bathing suit. We threw them on and headed for the trail. Now the guidebook said this was fairly easy. While I agree the trail was well marked and pretty cleared. It was pretty steep up and down. Be warned. At the very beginning the trail takes you right next to a steam. I think that was my favorite part. I felt like I was at Disney World. It wasn't a long hike and we quickly found the waterfalls. Another couple was there. They had just abandoned their shoes and was scurrying up some rocks when we arrived. We weighed our options and visualized either dropping the camera in the water, falling due to trying to climb with a camera, or leaving a camera behind.... We sat and enjoyed the view for a bit and then headed back. Who knows what that scurrying would have uncovered.

Back at that car, I now matched the Jeep - wet and muddy. It was mid-afternoon so we figured we had at least time for one more adventure. As we made our way back up the shore I looked at the clock. Almost 3pm. I realized that Wednesday's farmers market was starting right now in this town. I quickly looked up directions and made our way there. We got there at 3:04 and it wax packed! These people are serious about their farmers markets. I had read you have to arrive when they open or you risk having things sold out. Yep.

It was pretty amazing. All the colors and smells. It was all locals too. We had no clue what we were doing so we watched for people who seemed to have a purpose and followed them. We ended up with two mangoes, three chocos (I'm told they taste like cinnamon and heaven in your mouth) and a bag of Logan (I think) fruit. I wanted some papaya and pineapple but Josh put a cap on my fruit consumption for the day. Unfortunately we left the camera in the car... Next time.

Even with all that fruit we were still craving something cold so we headed a couple blocks over and hit up Hee Fat General store for shave ice. I wish we could be more original and think for ourselves but the suggested lava flow creation sounded too yummy to pass up. Macadamia Nut ice cream topped with shave ice. Syrups are pineapple. Coconut and strawberry and topped with a vanilla ices cream "snow cap". Not sure how one person could eat that alone.

Sticky and content. we headed back up north with a plan to hike down to the Secret Beach. The directions were pretty good. It was a pretty steep hike down and I knew it would be a rough walk back up. When we got down it was do worth it. To the right was the golden beach with the lighthouse in the distance. To the left were the lava rocks. The black rocks against the blue waters were divine. As we emerged from the trees - raindrops. We decided to walk a bit and see if we could make it to the lava pools which were supposedly 600 m down the beach. Raindrops intensified. I turned around and saw the most perfect rainbow. Uh, Josh... Get your camera. It only lasted a minute or two. We grabbed pictures and then hiked back up. We decided to come back on a beach day.

It was now 5 and we were so tired we didn't even want to stop for groceries. We were disgusting from the day and grateful for the outside shower. (note: leave a tower outside so you don't have to go inside at all until you are clean. ) We ate our leftover pizza and cracked a bottle of wine. Determined not to go to sleep before 7 I woke Josh up and dragged him down to the beach for sunset. Considering this is one of the most famous beaches in the world I was surprised at how few people were there. It was very peaceful.

I think we stayed awake until 8:30 tonight. A little better!