Kauai - 2013

Kauai 

Probably the most beautiful of the islands, it is also the oldest of the major islands of Hawaii.  There are plenty of lovely sandy beaches here.  The view from our deck was wonderful - we would sit out there....

....watching the sunrise...

watching the parasailing...

watching the cruise boat.  

It was idyllic!

When we ventured out from the condo, we found some old "friends" and made some new ones.  We were sad to learn that Waimea Brewing had closed down but we discovered Kauai Island Brewing Co. and got to see Gonzaga beat Portland one afternoon. 

We had visited the Kilohana Ranch on our previous trip to this island (for their luau - I highly recommend it!) but this trip we were headed there for Sunday brunch at Gaylord's (again, HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS!  Get reservations ~ noon because you'll want this to definitely be both breakfast AND lunch!)   

Since we were a bit early, we opted to take in the train tour of the ranch.  It was really incredible to see what's left of this working ranch.  The train makes a "whistle stop" about half-way through and everyone hops off to feed the critters (and there are LOTS of them!)  I'm glad the pigs were fenced in (though I'm fairly certain that had they wanted out, that little fence wasn't going to provide much of a deterrent!)

Though they have created a cute "mini mall" of art, jewelry, etc. stores in the mansion, the place you'll want to visit is the Koloa Rum Co.  Their "rum tasting" starts with two shot glasses - one filled with mai tai mix, the other empty.  There are three different kinds of rum to be tasted and coincidentally, these are three types of rum that together with the mix make a Mai Tai!  She pours, you take a small sip of the rum and then pour the remainder into the shot glass with the mix.  After three tries, you've built yourself an incredible Mai Tai!

We took a drive to view the Grand Canyon of the Pacific (Gerry loved how the signs said when road construction would BEGIN but nothing about when it might be FINISHED). It was a bit hazy the day we were there (the locals were blaming it on the volcanic activity of the big island - which explains why we had such great weather two years before!)  

The entire island was experiencing quite a bit of wind which we really noticed when we went out on the boat for our whale watching expedition.  Apparently whales don't care much about wind because we've never seen so many or so close.  It was amazing!  They also put on quite a show for us when we were up at the Kilauea lighthouse as we watched a pod of 3 adults and a baby play not terribly far from us.

And of course, a visit to Kauai must include a whale watching expedition.  The trip was pretty wild (I think our boat captain took us out a bit farther than he probably should have) and the view of the Napali coast is always spectacular!  The whales didn't fail to perform - they were VERY CLOSE to our boat!!  And the view at sunset as we pulled into the dock was breathtaking.

We finished out our visit to Kauai by catching a performance of "South Pacific" - the local dinner theatre company has been performing this play weekly for nearly 10 years and we recognized many of the cast members from two years ago.  I LOVED our seats (although if I get any closer I will probably have to actually join the cast!)

~Aloha, tw