02/13/12 - Vacation Day 4 - Kauai

Today we played golf at Puaka Golf Course in Lihue.  Before we left the condo to golf we hiked back down the cliff to the waterfall we found to take some photos.  It was kind of sprinkling out when we left and of course the longer we were out, the harder the rain came down.  This made for a fun hike back up the cliff.  I'm not pleased with the pictures I got, but they are better than nothing I guess. 

At the golf course, we got to play by ourselves, and it wasn't very busy at all.  The course was just alright to us.  The greens were VERY slow and over grown.  We both didn't play well, but had fun anyway... we were in Hawaii!  And Dallas is always happy to be in the golf course. 

After golf we decided to go further south on the island to try some snorkeling again.  We ended up at Poipu Beach.  There were quite a few people snorkeling here, so we gave it a shot.  We saw quite a few fish, but no turtles!  When we were leaving there was a large sea turtle that was sleeping on the beach.  The lifeguards had it roped off so nobody would bother it. 

After snorkeling we went to see the Spouting Horn, which was just down the road.  We heard several people talking about it on the beach.  This is an area in the lava rock that has several holes and caves where the water rushes in and out.  With the ride tide the water shoots up through these holes and the air that gets stuck makes a groaning sound.  It was pretty neat to watch.  Each spray was completely different.

NOTE:  Click on the photos to enlarge.

The waterfall at the bottom of the cliffs near our condo.

Dallas teeing off at the golf course with the mountains in the background.

Red Crested Cardinal on the golf course.  We saw quite a few of these around Kauai.

Snorkeling at Poipu Beach.  Multiband Butterflyfish.

Raccoon Butterflyfish

Moorish Idol

Some snorkelers we ran into that look just like us!

Sea turtle... not sure what kind this is, but it wasn't a Green Sea Turtle.  Either way, the Hawaiian's call them Honu.

Spouting Horn

02/12/12 - Vacation Day 3 - Kauai

Today was our relax day around the condo.  We slept in and then decided to go hike around the beach below the cliffs we discovered the first afternoon we were there.  The water looked calm and Princeville is home to one of the largest reefs in Hawaii, so we decided to check that out to see if it would be a good place to snorkel.  Our "check it out" trip turned into a 3+ hour "adventure" (according to Dallas).  We had no water, sunscreen, snorkel gear, or camera, but we hiked probably a good 3 miles along the beach front and lava rocks.  We discovered a hidden waterfall around 30 feet long along our hike, which we planned to come back to with a camera.  Once we got a long way down the beach front I convinced Dallas we should turn around and go back the way we came instead of trying to find our way back up the cliff through neighborhoods and what looked to be a long winding road.  We determined later, by car, that we made the right decision, and it would've been a VERY long hike back to the condo.  We took the car down to the beach we ended up at on our hike with our snorkel gear.  Our first attempt at snorkeling was pretty much a complete fail.  The water was pretty cold and we only saw 2 fish!  The surf had been pretty high near our condo so we figured this had something to do with the bad snorkeling. 

Since snorkeling was a fail, we decided to go to the last beach on the North shore of Kauai to watch the sunset, as we read this was the place to watch it from.  We could see the very end of the NaPali coast from here.  There were a lot of people at the beach with the same idea as us.  The sunset was very pretty, but something we noticed on our trip, was that the colors were not near as beautiful as the last time we were in Hawaii.  I'm assuming that has something to do with the winter months and the trade winds. 

Even though I teased Dallas about our "adventure" we had a pretty fun day together just doing whatever we felt like.  Dallas could probably be a professional rock hopper! 

NOTE: Click on the photos to enlarge them.

This is a very pretty treeline we drove past nearly every day.  We both think they look like Bonsai trees, but are unsure if that is what they really are.

 Sunset photos at Ke'e Beach.



02/11/12 - Vacation Day 2 - Kauai

Today we got up very early to head to Waimea for a NaPali Coast Tour with Liko Kauai Cruises.  We rode on the NaPali Kai III catamaran with around 8 or 9 other couples.  The weather started off fairly cool, but the day ended up being really nice.  The captain let 4 people sit at the bow so Dallas and I jumped at the opportunity since no one else seemed interested.  We sat there for nearly the entire trip, which was about 5.5 hours. 

The boat started out going along the Waimea coast traveling North towards the NaPali coast.  On our way out we ran into a pod of spinner dolphins and saw a few humpback whales in the distance.  Neither was very exciting, the pod of dolphins (around 15 or so) just swam past the boat and the whales occasionally splashed their tails, we mostly saw spouts.  It took us about 1.5 hours to get to the NaPali coast.  It was very cloudy and hazy, which is what I was worried about.  Everything we read said it is very rare to get a clear view of the cliffs.  The captain did take us close to the land a few times to get better views.  The cliffs are absolutely breathtaking, and this is what initially lead me wanting to go to Kauai.  They are very sharp looking and lush with greenery. 

We were able to see most of the coast before we had to turn around due to rough waters.  Riding on the bow was fun, but we definitely had to hold on at times.  On our ride back down the coast we ran into a large pod of spinner dolphins.  There were between 100-200 and they were very playful.  Our captain turned the boat back around so that we would be driving in the same direction they were swimming.  At this point we determined sitting at the bow was the best place!  The dolphins were swimming right under our feet, in and out, jumping and spinning around.  It was really neat!

Due to the rough waters we didn't get to snorkel on this boat tour like originally planned, so our captain took us to his secret whale spot to dock for lunch in hopes to see some up close.  The first few we saw just swam around and we mostly saw their spouts and backs, every now and then a tail.  We saw some jumping around in the distance so we drove a little further before we docked for lunch.  While we ate lunch a baby humpback whale and its momma graced us with their presence.  The baby was showing off very close to the boat (as close as 30 feet at times).  It breached a couple times, as well as jumped around nearly coming completely out of the water.  The baby was about the size of an orca whale and the mom was huge, much larger than our boat (although we only saw her surface).  This was an amazing boat tour, we were very lucky in our whale and dolphin spottings.

After our boat tour we decided to drive up to Waimea Canyon while we were in the area.  Waimea Canyon is considered the Grand Canyon of the west.  The canyon was very pretty and lush.  We stopped at 4 different lookouts, with the last being of Kalalau Valley, which is part of the NaPali coast we saw earlier in the morning on our boat tour.

NOTE:  Click on the photos to enlarge them.





The first pod of spinner dolphins we ran into on the NaPali Coast boat tour. 

A breaching whale and the fin of another.

Part of the NaPali coast, this point is known as "King Kong".

A sea cave along the NaPali coast.  This shows you how rough the water was in areas.  In summer months our captain said he can actually drive in there without any issues and this is one of the stops for snorkeling.

The beautiful NaPali coast.  This is only accessible by air or by water.  There are several rigourous hikes that you can do to get to the beaches at the bottom, but you cannot see the entire coastline. 

The second pod of spinner dolphins that we ran into on our trip back South down the coast.  This picture was taken right underneath our feet at the bow of the boat.

The baby humpback whale showing off.  This was truely an amazing site to see!

More of the NaPali coast.

The side fins of one of the humpback whales we saw on the tour.

Waimea Canyon

Kalalau Lookout (this is part of the NaPali coast)

02/10/12 - Vacation Day 1 - Kauai

Today we flew into Kauai on the early flight out of DFW.  We arrived around 1:30pm Hawaii time (4 hour difference from Texas).  By the time we got our rental car and drove to the condo it was after 3pm.  Our condo was the Hestara at Sealodge, in Princeville.  We had a fantastic ocean view and wanted to check out the area, so we went out our back patio to take in the view and walk the trail down to the beach to see what we could find.  We first came across a lot of black lava rock and watched the waves hit and crabs running all over the rocks.  Once we hiked down the rocks a ways we noticed there was a small beach a little further down the coast.  It was surrounded by lush greenery and looked very isolated.  We hiked over and hung out for a bit to watch part of the sunset before we headed back to the condo. 

Our Hawaiian Vacation 02/10/12 - 02/20/12

Aloha!

Dallas and I went to Hawaii for 9 nights, 10 days.  We spent 4 nights on Kauai and 5 nights on the Big Island.  We had an amazing trip and some experienced some really cool excursions.  I'm going to break up the trip by day so that I don't overload with tons of photos and journaling.

We had originally talked about taking a trip overseas somewhere, but one night Dallas was watching a golfing show that was in Hawaii and said he wanted to go back (we went to Maui and Oahu for our honeymoon).  I told him he didn't have to ask me twice, and that I wanted to go during whale watching season.

Enjoy the photos and videos we took, as well as the journal entries I wrote while we were there.  Feel free to leave comments as well.  And as a reminder, you can enlarge each of the photos by clicking on them.

Mahalo!

6.52 Chaos

Week #6 is linear or chaos.  I chose chaos.  The hubby and I traveled to Hawaii for a 10 day vacation.  It was absolutely wonderful (more posts to come regarding our trip).  I fully intended on choosing a linear photo as those were easy to come by on the beach, but this baby humpback whale really stole the spotlight.  This photo was taken on a Napali Coast boat tour on the island of Kauai.  The waters were rough so we didn't get to stop and snorkel.  Our fabulous captain took us whale/dolphin watching for that extra hour.  We were stopped eating lunch and were met by a baby humpback whale and it's momma.  This baby showed off splashing and breaching very close to the boat.  This was an absolutely amazing site!  I'll share more of the story and pictures in a later post, so this is all for now. 

5.52 - Self Portrait With Loved Ones

Week #5 is self portrait with loved ones or liquid.  I chose to do the self portrait with loved ones.  It fit appropriately with the weekend activities for the Webster's.  We went down to San Antonio for the weekend to see Chase (my brother-in-law) graduate from Air Force Basic Military Training and to get married to his fiance Nikki.  We had a lot to celebrate and be thankful for that weekend.  Chase's flight made warrior flight and honor flight, so they were the best of the best!  We are very proud of him!  This is the only picture I got of everyone, and we are all smiling with our eyes open (even Brooklyn!).  From left to right: Dallas (hubby), me, Terry (father-in-law), Nikki (new sister-in-law!), Chase (brother-in-law), Sherri (mother-in-law), Brooklyn (niece), Byron (brother-in-law), Stephanie (sister-in-law).