On our last full day in Kauai we decided to have a slow day. Kelsey started with yoga on the beach (which was really more glorified stretching for an hour) and Jake went for a run to the Spouting Horn, which is a landmark about two miles away from our hotel. We stopped in at our new favorite breakfast place, called The Little Fish, for coffee and açaí bowls and then headed down to the beach. Kelsey noticed a note on the sign in front of the beach warning about jellyfish being in the area, so she decided not to spend much time in the water, and instead read a book on the beach for the most part. She didn’t mention this warning to Jake, who spent a lot of his time in the water, which seemed to be, luckily, jellyfish free.
When happy hour was nearing we headed back up to the room to shower and change and then head to the ocean-front bar. A few cocktails later (Mai tai count: Kelsey-23, Jake-11), as we were paying, jake spotted a whale just off shore. We watched it move slowly from one side of our little beach to the other - it seemed like the water was too deep for it to dive, so it spent more time at the surface than we were used to. It had scarcely passed out of sight than more spouts were spotted - this time a whole pod was traveling past our beach! We’d never seen this many together - it must have been 5 or 6 whales in the group, though a little further from shore. The train continued, as another group followed this pod - 2-3 more humpbacks wandering into the shallow water of our beach. The final group had at least one playful whale however, as to our surprise, the whale breached repeatedly as it passed - 5, 6, 7 times leaping from the water and splashing down, enough for both of us to get videos and photos. Though whale watching in Maui had been fun and we’d seen a dozen whales, we saw more (and more active) whales from our bar as Kelsey finished her final Mai tai of the night. What an evening! All this as the sun was slowly setting and the clouds were turning pastel colored.
We had dinner at a spot we’d been looking at, and Jake accidentally ordered a silly drink served in a hollow pineapple, the first of the trip. Would it be the last? A cool thing about the restaurants is that they are very modern in their approach to allergies and dietary restrictions - most places have a gluten free designation on their menus, and several places have carried modern vegetarian patties for burger substitutions. It may be because Hawaii gets so many visitors from California and related areas that are pretty demanding in their food requirements.
Assorted memories from Kauai:
The drive to our hike the other day had markers for each mile. So as we drove, we could see our progress as “mile 1”, “mile 2” etc. The trail also had markers every quarter mile so we spent the whole morning counting up (to mile 15 and mile 3) and then back down to 0.
There have been a few places selling “dirt shirts” - shirts dyed red with Hawaiian dirt
Volcanic rock is everywhere, black and almost looking like coral in the way it gets worn down by the water
Weve heard the same Hawaiian songs like 1 billion times (favorites include Hawaiian roller coaster ride featured in lilo and stitch, a song that goes “I this land my father knew…”, and, surprise, “somewhere over the rainbow” by IZ).
Chickens. Everywhere.
Beach chairs with little flags you put up when you want to order a cocktail
