Hawaii in Review

Here's a sum up of Hawaii. Check out WAY more photos on my flickr account (I needed a way to upload a ton of pictures, is there a better option you guys have used?) I will post a link shortly.

 

We arrived Monday evening in Lihue, Kauai with out incident. The resort was beautiful and over looked the island’s main bay.

 

We determined that the best way to adjust to the 5-hour time difference was to spend Tuesday lounging on the beach a few steps from the resort. And the pool bar. I will admit (somewhat begrudgingly) that on this trip to the tropics I frequently ordered and consumed frozen-girly-often-multicolored-sweet-tiki-bar style drinks with a whole fruit salad garnishing the rim. And I liked it. I surely will more than make up for it with copious amounts of more respectable drinks in the coming months in Ireland.

 Wednesday I went for a morning walk down the beach, had a incredibly relaxing and invigorating yoga class by the ocean, tried paddle-boarding, and went to a local farmer’s market where I got some lovely bananas, mangos, and avocados (but not a lovely bunch of coconuts). Stand-up paddle boarding was an experience. I was learning in quite large waves, and for the first 15 minutes I could barely stand up straight and my legs were shaking like crazy. I fell completely off twice. I came close to falling much more than that, but I have perfected my “oh crap I’m about to fall- I should do something- run forward- run back- stick butt out- thrust hips forward- lean back- and miraculously don’t fall” technique.  After 15 minutes I couldn’t remember what was so hard about it. It was a great way to see the bay and very peaceful aside from the sporadic giant (by my southeast Texas gulf standard) wave that rolled by under us- but hey, something had to mix things up. 

Thursday Mom and I went to the McBryde Botanical Gardens (which is giant by the way) and saw acres of breathtakingly beautiful or downright weird plants. The gardens work to protect native and “canoe” plants from other introduced plants or animals and other dangers to the rare varieties. “Canoe” plants refer to the varieties that the first Polynesians brought with them on canoes. All of these plants play an important role either in cultural, spiritual, or medicinal practices. I was fascinated by the uses for the different plants and the lengths that the garden had gone to save the disappearing varieties.  After the garden we had great intentions to explore other beaches on the island, but somehow that morphed into an extended nap time.

 

I started off Friday with another great yoga class. (The instructor asked if I had a regular headstand practice, but I don’t think that the random headstand by the rock wall or on a soccer field counts).  After lunch Matt and I took off up and extremely steep road with more switchback than anyone even mildly prone to motion sickness could take (Wiggles you would not have liked it). This very steep and windy road brought us to the Pihea trail-head. We hiked about 2 miles out to the Alkak'i Swamp Trail, which took us a very long two miles to Kilohana Lookout. The area we were hiking is one of the wettest places on earth and the world’s highest swamp. We were up on top of a mountain but walking through a bog. It was bizarre. The trail was a bit tricky at times because there were very steep portions of slick, smooth, wet clay. About half of the trail was a boardwalk going over the swamp. We saw very old telephone poles atop the mountain in the swamp and wondered at how difficult of job that must have been. The poles are certainly not functional. The Kilohana lookout was breathtaking. Soon after we arrived a large cloud rolled in and obscured everything and we watched as it dissipated. After we had seen the end we headed back double time. Literally. It took us two hours to get out to the point, but we made it back in one. It was a fun challenge scrambling up the inclines; Matt had the added challenge of having shoes with absolutely no traction. We felt accomplished afterwards and I am sure in the retelling the hike will stretch from the original 8 miles to 15 or so. Overall it was a great experience.

Saturday began with a massage at the spa and ended with a very long plane ride. With a few logistical things thrown in. More on my air travel portion of the adventure shortly!