This morning we decided to take a little road trip up north. Everett and Sierra were pretty much at 6am, before sunrise today, so I took about 15 minutes before the clock turned yellow and made breakfast. Due to the noise and commotion, Shannon was up close to 7am, and we made off close just after 8am.
I don’t remember Everett crying all the time unless he was held, but Shannon says that he was. For some reason Sierra seems worse. Well, in the car seat, she cried all the way to Kilauea Lighthouse before she slept for a few minutes while we did some sightseeing out of the car.
We told Everett that this was Capt’n Turbot’s (from Paw Patrol) lighthouse, and unfortunately, the lighthouse was closed on Mondays so we could only see it from afar.
We continued on over some one-laned bridges, scenic lookouts to interior fields framed by lush green mountains (no Everett, not exactly the same kinds that Everest lives on), and others looking out to waters with big surf and waves. Like Oahu, the northern coast, especially in the winter, is rough.
The towns we drove through were quaint as well. Low houses lines the “highway,” which was more like a residential two laned street. Hanalei looked like a nice place to stop and stroll if we weren’t towing small kids along.
We stopped at Wainiha Beach, the one just before the stream, to stretch our feet. This turned out to be a good place for Everett to do some exploring. Although cold, the stream created shallow flats of sand that were the right depth for Everett to do some walking and get his feet wet. As the stream emptied out to the ocean, the surf pounded the lava rocks at the mouth creating some big splashes.
Further down, we parked at Haena Beach and walked in the gaping Maniniholo dry cave. Everett thought maybe it was scary, but in the end decided that it wasn’t (“Nope!” he says) and that it was cool. The beach itself was not swimmable again because of surf, but interesting to watch the waves for a few minutes.
All the way at the end of the road was Ke’e Beach, within Haena State Park. There wasn’t enough parking here for all the tourists who were here for the beach or for the hike. We had a quick glance before deciding to turn back to find some lunch as it was too crowded. One good thing about waking up at an obscene hour is that you get a lot done in the early morning beating the worst of the crowds. On the way back, a stream of cars crawled west towards Haena State Park. Where would they all fit?
Sierra’s crying continued all the way to the St. Regis Hotel. Princeville is like a super posh gated community with pristine landscaping and golf course greens. It’s somewhat opposite to what seemed like more authentic Kauai found driving through Hanalei. This area was expensive. At the very end is St. Regis Hotel. There is no parking, but pulling up, the we were offered a complementary (and mandatory) valet when I inquired about having lunch on the property. We also wanted to use the beach.
The St. Regis was a thousand times more welcoming than I anticipated. I thought we’d be turned right around and shown our way out, but they parked our car close and gave us directions to take two elevators down to the beach level where a bar and grill were. The lobby of the St. Regis was grand with huge windows looking out to the water and across Hanalei Bay along Napali coast.
We had an average lunch down at the restaurant passing by the “rich” guests of the hotel who were enjoying the pool. Everett wanted to take a swim too, but I told him we weren’t allowed. Everett is doing way better out eating now. He doesn’t us a high chair as he feels too constrained to sit on one position. Instead he likes eating on his knees in an adult chair, right up at the table. We were given a coloring book, and we ordered a pulled pork sandwich, fish tacos and fish and chips for Everett. The bill was about $100 Canadian, so that valet wasn’t really free all said and done.
Utilizing the nice washrooms to change both Sierra and Everett, we then went down to Puu Poa beach and had an excellent time. The beach is small, and on our visit, surprisingly not crowded at all. We had our nice space under a giant tree which provided a lot of shade and Everett, more adventurous every day in the water, ran around the sand, got splashed by bigger and bigger waves, kicked sand, and made some sand castles.
We played until Everett wanted his swim shorts off. We discovered it was full of sand. He wouldn’t put them back on, so we decided it was a good time to return to the condo. He should sleep well tonight. Both kids fell asleep on the ride back to Waipouli and it was the quietest ride we’ve had that we could ever remember.
We made some dinner and then had a relaxing swim at our pool. Shannon went with Everett this time. Sierra cried our entire dinner because she couldn’t be held, and continued crying until I changed her into a swim suit and picked her up so she was upright. Then she stopped and everything was ok. She was find the whole time we were in the pool too, going down the river, under the waterfall cave. We tried putting her in an inflatable baby swim tube, but despite being upright, she cried. I held her and the was immediately better again. Sigh.
Everett as I said was getting more adventurous. He did a couple of rolls in the swimming pool with his inflatables. In the smaller warm pool / hot tub, he would stand on the sitting ledge and step off pushing himself towards the middle of the pool where the current would push him around floating until he reached an edge again. I’m glad to see him get more comfortable, and it’s really interesting to see this progress that he’s making.
