Hawaii: Humpback Song and Sunsets

Let's start with yesterday...

Yesterday I got up early, not that it really mattered because I was still somewhat running on Central Time, but also...the chickens.  Kauai has chickens everywhere.  I can only assume they were brought to the island for food purposes, but some got loose at some point.  But anyways...the roosters like to start cock-a-doodle-dooing at around 4 am.  I can only figure the locals get used to this in the same way you can get used to the sound of airplanes or trains.

But back to what I actually did.  So I started out the morning by doing a kayaking trip up the Wailua River to a point where you pull out the kayaks and hike a mile through the mud to Secret Waterfall (I can't remember its Hawaiian name).  I have never experienced so much mud in my life!  Our guide Judah kept telling us to "Embrace the mud" and so embrace the mud we did.  I saw people who definitely weren't expecting all the mud...but then again neither was I, but I was prepared with the right type of shoe.  At the end of our trek through the mud was a beautiful waterfall.  The water was cold, but after a bit you couldn't really feel anything anymore so it didn't matter.  The kayaking trip was interesting.  Pretty.  But it turns out I'm not very good at kayaking in a kayak meant for 2 people.  It took me and my partner a bit of time to figure out how to get on the same kayaking page.

After I got cleaned up (though I still found some mud on my legs this morning that somehow missed my shower scourge), I headed up toward the north end of the island.  Kauai is such a beautiful island.  Judah told us there are only 70,000 full time residents on the whole island.  Lihue (Lee-who-a) is the largest town on the island.  My hostel is located in Kapa'a (Kah-pah-ah).  But I drove up north through Princeville to Hanalei.  In Hanalei I walked around through the shops and scoped out the food.  I had already eaten in Princeville, but did manage to find it in me to eat my first Hawaiian Shaved Ice (on this trip...I've had it before, but not on Hawaii).  After touring the north side of the island, I made my way back to Kapa'a.

Today I had scuba diving on my mind.  This morning I did a two tank dive off the south shore.  It even turned out to also be part whale watching tour too!  We saw 4 turtles on our first dive and some fish I wasn't familiar with (and some I was).  During our surface interval and journey to our second dive site, we saw some whales breach.  Not full on insurance commercial breach, but surface and blow out their blowhole sort of breach.  Our  boat captain said they make their way to Hawaii from Alaska every winter and stay here until March or April.  He was surprised they were still around.  Underwater you could hear them singing!!!  Our second dive was even better than the first.  Turtles everywhere!!!  Big turtles, little turtles!  Sleeping turtles, swimming turtles!  So many turtles.  I post some pictures when I take a look at my GoPro videos and pictures.

This afternoon I changed my plans.  Originally I had planned to stay around the area I was diving, but I decided to head to the western shore and up to Waimea Canyon.  Waimea Canyon has been called the "Grand Canyon of the Pacific" and it really is something else.  Waimea Canyon is perhaps best known for filming done for Jurassic Park.  I hiked the Canyon Trail today, but plan to go back for more tomorrow...as long as my legs are up for it after everything I did today.

I decided since I was out on the west coast of the island that I would just go ahead and drive the road until the end, so I did.  I have no traversed the island from the northern town of Hanalei, all the way around to the turnoff for Polihale State Park.  My rental car wouldn't be able to handle the pothole-filled gravel road all the way to Polihale SP so I turned around and went to Kekaha Beach to watch the sunset.

Hawaii: I'm Here!

I have finally made it to state number 48.  I've been sitting at 47 states for something like ten years.  I am finally crossing another one off the list!  Thanks to some friends who pointed out cheap flights to Hawaii this spring from Wichita, I decided to take a trip further than about anywhere I've gone before.  I've never been this far from land...ever, as far as I know.

Early yesterday morning (March 27th) I woke up and journied from Wichita to Dallas.  That flight was smooth.  We were flying on one of the old MD-80s.  The great thing about that plane is because it is old, the seats are still actually fit for people.  There was no shoulder contact.  No thighs touching.  It was fabulous!  That airplane also knows how to get off the runway in a hurry.

I had been a bit worried about a slightly short lay over in Dallas, but as we arrived there about 15 minutes ahead of schedule, that gave me plenty of time.  I was able to get some snacks before getting to my gate.  I sat around and people watched.  The cutest moment of the day involved a baby strapped to the chest of a mom hurrying through the airport, obviously late.  The baby was bouncing up and down on his mother's chest as she ran through the airport and that kid was loving every minute.  His smile was huge and he was laughing...his mom meanwhile, looked rather frantic.  Eventually we boarded our 777 to Honolulu.  And then we sat...and we sat some more...in the end we sat on the tarmac for nearly 2 hours thanks to a communications issue.  The pilot said something like the airplane has 6 ways to talk to other planes and we need at least 3 of them working...we needed to get one more going so we needed maintenance to come around to help.  So we waited a while for them.  Then we had to wait for them to get word to all the air traffic control centers along the route that one of our systems was out and if they wanted to get a hold of us they'd need to do it some certain way.  That took longer than expect.  In the meantime, I got nearly all the way through Ralph Wrecks the Internet in that time.  Four movies after getting on the plane, we finally landed in Honolulu!

I stayed at the Polynesian Hostel Beach Club about a block from the ocean in Waikiki.  The location couldn't have been better!  As soon as I dropped my stuff off, I changed into my swimsuit and headed out.  In the end I only got in partway.  I had forgotten to bring a towel with me to the beach so I figured the less of me that needed to drive off on its own, the better.  I wandered a ways in both directions before eventually seeking out some place to eat.  I ended up in a food hall and had a delicious Teryiaki Burger while listening to a fantastic young woman play the guitar.

As I had been up since 4:45 am Central Time and it was around 7:00 pm Hawaii time (12 CT), it was definitely time for bed!

Since I got a lot of sleep, I ended up waking up around 5:30.  Eventually a little after 6 I decided to get up.  I went down to the beach just after the sun rose (Waikiki is not on the sunrise side of the island).  It was empty except for the runners and peaceful.

After heading back to the hostel for some breakfast, I boarded a city bus to head to Iolani Palace.  Iolani Palace was the home of the Hawaiian royal family.  Overall the monarchy of Hawaii was rather progressive and very keen on modern technology.  While a king ruled for much of the dynasty, the queens were just as important.  Queen Kapi'olani, upon realizing that the Hawaiian population was declining (thanks to Western diseases), she began a hospital for women and children that is still going and is named for her today.  Also, did you know that Iolani Palace has electric lighting before the White House?  They also had running water and flush toilets before much of the world.  

My introduction to the Hawaiian royal family came in the form of a Royal Diaries book about Kai'ulani, the last princess of Hawaii.  It was neat to see where she and her family came from before the Americans illegally took over the country.  I mean, really, the Americans who had come to the country were terrible people...but then again, looking at our history, we shouldn't be too surprised by this.

Since the Hawaiian government left the Palace in the 1960s for their new capitol building, they have been restoring Iolani Palace back to how it was in the days of King Kalakaua in the 1880s.  Inside the palace they have a couple of the gowns displayed that the queens wore.  Below is my favorite one!  Peacock feathers!

I'm now at the airport waiting to board my plane to Lihue, Kauai.  Everyone I've spoken to who has been to Kauai says it is their favorite island.  It is known as the Garden Island.  Also, buildings on the island are not allowed to be taller than the palm trees...or at least that is what I've been told.  More coming soon!