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| Heather and Henry Go to Hawaii |
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| We arrived in Honolulu, Hawaii on September 1, 2002 after a 8.5 hour plane trip. We didn't rent a car the first day because we thought we would be too tired and we were just going to leave in the morning for Kauai anyway. Well, we wish we had because the hotel (Honolulu Airport Hotel) was a dump. The lobby was nice, but the further we got from the lobby, the dirtier the hotel got. Our room was very far from the lobby indeed. We had a night full of people yelling in the hallways and garbage trucks rattling around right outside the window, very nice. Over all, not a good first impression of Honolulu. September 2- We flew to Kauai and were very impressed right away! It was absolutely beautiful! We stayed in a rental house just outside of Kapa'a. The house was wonderful! It had a beautiful swimming pool with a waterfall in it. It felt more like swimming in our own private lagoon than a swimming pool. There was also a koi pond (never could actually see the fish, though) and 2 hot tubs. |
| Since I was 8 weeks pregnant when we got there, I couldn't use the hot tub until we turned the heat down and made it a cold tub. The house itself was really nice on the inside with a full kitchen, big screen tv, king size bed, and beautifully decorated. We even had our own outdoor cat that lives on the property. The view from the back of the house was magnificent. There was a beautiful mountain with waterfalls running down it outside the back door and the landscaping in the yard was great! The people that owned the house said we could pick all the fruit we wanted from the trees (papayas, oranges, grapefruit, coconuts, lemons, limes, and probably more). The best thing about the house and property was that we had it all to ourselves! |
| Our back yard on Kauai |
| September 3- I got woke up at 6:00am by a wild rooster cock-a-doodling outside. Oh well, I got some peace and quiet time before we started sight-seeing. We headed out not knowing where we were going to go and we ended up at Opaeka'a Falls. It was basically a railing by the side of the road and was really far away from the falls. But, we stopped and took the obligatory picture. We got back in the car and decided to keep driving to see what we could find. We took the road all the way until we came to a semi-dirt |
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| road. There was a river flowing across it and a parking lot to the left. We pulled over into the parking lot and watched as a couple of little cars made it across the river. So, we decided to try it in our rented Buick LeSabre. We made it! We then traveled down a really bumpy, pot-holed road. But, the scenery was worth the bumps. We were going into what looked like (and probably was) a gorgeous rainforest. There were vines hanging down from trees and walls of vines stretching up the sides of cliffs. We came to another river that looked deeper than the last and that's where we stopped. We found out later that this area was the road back to the Keahua Arboretum September 4- I got up and poured myself a glass of orange juice and sat down on the couch to read. When I reached for my glass, I grabbed a gecko instead and, of course, I screamed. There are little bitty geckos all over the place here! They're cute as long as I don't have to touch 'em. We headed to the North Shore today. Our first stop was the Guava Kai |
| Me and Opaeka'a Falls |
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| Henry on the road to the arboretum |
| Plantation. Wow, was that place ever a thrill a minute! LOL! It was basically a little over-priced gift shop with free guava "juice" (tasted more like kool-aid) and a nature trail. The nature trail was kind of nice, but short, with lots of different varieties of trees. At least it was free! We drove through Princeville and Hanalei. Hanalei was SO pretty with lots of green and beautiful mountains! We ended up at Limahuli Tropical Garden. We read that you could walk through a "lush tropical rainforest" and that sounded really cool. But, it felt more like a regular forest with slightly different foilage (not as pretty as the road we drove down for free the day before). It was nice, but not worth the $20 we paid to get in. We wanted to go snorkeling somewhere on the North Shore, but while we were eating lunch, there was an announcement on the radio that swimming on the North Shore wasn't safe from September through December. We had wondered why we hadn't seen anyone in the water. So, we headed back towards Kapa'a and went snorkeling at Lydgate Park. They have an area that's surrounded by rocks so it's pretty safe for swimming. We saw a few fish and I was afraid we were going to see a shark (I have an irrational fear of sharks). It was the first time I'd been snorkeling, but Henry's a diver, so it was nothing new to him. |
| Henry and a mountain at Limahuli Gardens |
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