Kauai, Hawaii 2024

Trip Introduction

In May of 2024 we visited the one major Hawaiian island we had yet to visit, Kauai. Our plan included an Airbnb on the east side of the island and 9 days of only loosely planned activities. Our trip started with spending the night at a hotel near the Des Moines airport to make it easier to catch our 5:15a flight to Phoenix.




Wednesday, 05/15/2024 – Heading West

The day started early; actually, very early as James woke up and looked at his phone around 1:30a to discover our flight was delayed nine hours and we would miss our connection. American Airlines identified three options that would still get us to Lihue airport on Wednesday, but instead of one stop in Phoenix, we would have two stops at other airports. We opted for the 5a departure to Dallas followed by a flight to LAX and then, after a five-hour layover, a flight getting to the island around 6p. While the flight out of Des Moines left a little earlier, we were able to stick with our original shuttle time from the hotel to the airport. The flight to Dallas was uneventful, but since it landed around 7a, we still hadn’t shared the changes in our travel plans with the family. With a little over an hour between flights, we were just able to change terminals, get some McDonald’s, hit the restrooms, and send some texts before it was time to board the next flight. With the flight change, we were not seated next to each other on the second leg of the trip. However, we did learn that by regularly checking the app, we could find seats that opened up during the day. In the time we spent in LA, James’ seat changed 5 times and Julie’s 3. Ultimately, we were next to each other in the second row of the main cabin. We landed at Lihue airport around 5:30p. After waiting for our checked bag and our rental car, we made the 20-minute drive to the Pono Kai Resort (Ponokai.com). We checked in and shlepped our luggage to the second-floor condo we rented because of its view of the ocean. We unpacked and decided we were too tired to go back out. After some snacks, we couldn’t stay awake and went to bed around 8:30p, right at 24 hours from the time James woke up and noticed the flight delay message.




Thursday, 05/16/2024 – Getting Our Bearings

We slept quite soundly until about 7:30a. After climbing out of bed, we stepped out on the Lanai to watch the ocean under the cloudy skies and light rain. By the time we got around and looked though a few guides, the rain had stopped. We decided to walk and get some breakfast from a local shop in a center next to the resort. We walked down the Kuhio Highway looking at various stores along the main drag in Kapa’a. After about a mile, we cut through the library grounds to a bike/walking path the runs along the east coast of the island and passes right by the building we were staying in. It was now time to get some supplies so, armed with a list, we headed to the nearest grocery store. The prices reflect the fact that almost everything is shipped onto the island. With just the essentials in hand, we returned to the condo for some lunch meat sandwiches and chips for lunch. We double checked the directions for the two scheduled events on Friday before just sitting in the living area with the door open so we could listen to the waves as we read, played cards, and maybe dozed a little. Julie found a drive-in place nearby that served some good traditional Hawaiian food and had been featured on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives. The food was good, and we got quite a bit and ended up bringing some of the kalua pork back to the condo. We read and played cards before heading to bed around 10p.




Friday, 05/17/2024 – A Tasty Morning

Friday was one of the few days we had scheduled activities before heading to the island. We left about 7:45a and headed to a nearby café for breakfast. James really enjoyed his French toast made with Hawaiian sweet bread with caramelized pineapple and coconut syrup. We then headed up into the hills near Kapa’a to Lydgate Farms for their botanical garden tour and chocolate tasting. We were booked for the 9a tour and had a fun guide, Samuel. We learned many aspects of the chocolate business and, while he did not condone “big chocolate,” it was clear our guide thought craft chocolate was a superior product. We had the opportunity to try 15 different types of chocolate and four different “exotic” fruits. The strongest message was that most commercial chocolate is blended to create a consistent taste from batch to batch; in reality, when you’re willing to accept taste variation, chocolate becomes less bitter and offers a wide array of complex flavors in a single piece. It did start raining in the last of the three hours of the tour. As we drove back down to the coast, we got a call notifying us the sunset dinner cruise we had booked was being cancelled due to the weather. We rescheduled it for Tuesday afternoon and spent another afternoon relaxing at the condo. After a snacky dinner, we watched a movie and cake baking competition show focused on LEGOLAND California’s 10th anniversary before turning in for the night.




Saturday, 05/18/2024 – Rain, Rain Go Away

We woke Saturday morning to consistent rain showers. This limited what we were willing to do so we spent part of the morning looking at the list of possible activities in our OneNote planning file and made some reservations for later in the week. The rain let up a little before noon, so we walked to a nearby café and ate lunch. The rain picked up while we ate but let up again (didn’t stop) right as we finished and returned to our home base. We talked about going out and seeing some sites, but really didn’t feel like driving in the rain so we lazed around the condo reading, playing Uno, and listening to the waves crash on the shore. Around 4p we noticed it had stopped raining and decided to try and visit a couple waterfalls with drive-up observation points. We first visited the lookout point for Opaeka’a Falls. Across the road there was also a spot where you could look out over the valley where the Wailua River runs out to the ocean. We then drove a little more into the backwoods to look at Wailua Falls. We stopped at a shopping area on the way back to get some steps in while the weather was reasonable before returning to the condo for the evening.




Sunday, 05/19/2024 – Visiting the Northwest

One of the few things we booked before our trip was the park-and-ride shuttle on the north side of the island into Ha‘ena State Park. As roads go, this is the end of the road on the northwest corner of Kauai. Wrapping around the west side you have very steep valleys running down into the water. Inside the park is a relatively small beach (Ke’e) and the trailhead for a hike that follows the terrain. Julie made it a little way on the trail, then decided the rocks were too jumbled and so she turned back. James continued to the one-mile mark on the trail that had lots of rocks, but also flat spots that were muddy due to the recent rains. It took him about 1 hr 45 minutes to get to and back from that 1-mile marker on the trail. There were some small waterfalls along the way as well as a couple of nice overlook spots.

After James tried to clean up a little from his hike, we headed back to the shuttle and got to the car around 11:40a. We headed back east looking for a park area we noticed on the way out that had several food trucks. As it turns out, both of our memories were foggy so once we finally found it, on the outskirts of Kapa'a, we just kept going a little further and ended up eating at a sit-down restaurant. We followed lunch with some gelato, which James had drip out of the bottom of his waffle cone onto his already dirty, sweaty shirt. At that point we both just wanted to get inside for a bit, so we returned to the condo where we relaxed through the rest of the afternoon and evening.




Monday, 05/20/2024 – Visiting Waimea Canyon

While on Sunday we visited the far northwest corner of the island, on Monday we drove toward the southwest corner. We didn't make it to the end of the road but turned inland to visit Waimea Canyon State Park. The canyon is regularly compared to the Grand Canyon in color and beauty, if not the scale. This did of course require driving up into mountains on roads that, while not the worst we've travelled, did contain a lot of 15mph turns with an overall speed limit of 25mph. The good news was there were trees along the side of the road, so you really didn't know if you were close to a cliff edge or not. Once we got up to the Waimea Canyon Lookout (elevation 3400 ft), the view was spectacular. The sun was out with just a few clouds in the sky. We spent some time taking pictures and then headed further into the park finding a second lookout, Pu'u Hinahina, that also had a trailhead for hiking. We took some pictures and James decided to take a few minutes on the trail. He didn't make it far before slipping in a muddy spot and getting his shorts dirty. After trying to clean up some of the dirt, we headed a little further passing into Koke'e State Park. We stopped at their nature lodge and ate lunch allowing James to do a little more cleaning. The road was getting rougher, and some clouds were moving in, so we decided to head back out of the park. We stopped at a picnic shelter that had an open view across the road to get a couple more pictures. We also decided to stop again at the Waimea Canyon Lookout to get some pictures now that there were clouds in the canyon. Once that was done, we got back in the car and drove the hour or so back to our condo. A little after 5p we walked down the trail near the complex and found the food trucks we had noticed the prior morning. Most of them were closed, but James got a smoothie and consumed it on the walk back to the condo. We spent the rest of the evening relaxing before heading to bed.




Tuesday, 05/21/2024 – Gardens and Boating

After arriving on the island, we booked a tour to visit both the Allerton and McBryde Gardens which are part of the National Tropical Botanical Gardens (NTBG) system. These two happen to be right next to each other on the south side of the island. We left the condo a little after 8a so we could check in by 9a for the 9:30a tour. After a little hiccup where Google Maps tried to take us on closed muddy roads to get to the gardens themselves instead of the nice, paved roads to the visitors center, we arrived in time to use the restrooms and apply bug spray since the staff was very open about there being a mosquito problem in the valley where the gardens existed. After a brief introduction by our tour guide, we hopped on a 27-person bus and headed to the gardens. The McBryde portion of the gardens are the inland side of the valley and fill what was once a sugar cane plantation. It is a research and collection garden meaning the only real organization is they try to group plants in similar species. We rode in the bus for about an hour as the guide talked about the various areas we were passing through and some of the plants. We saw one tree species that no longer exists outside of protected areas and even then, there were only about 50 being maintained inside three of the five NTBG parks. When we got off the bus, we actually passed through a portion of a neighbor’s field (with cows roaming around) to find a beautiful waterfall tucked back in the corner of the park. After the waterfall we headed to the Allerton Garden portion of the tour. The Allertons purchased 65 acres of ocean front property from the McBrydes in 1938 for $50,000. They built a small house with 3 bedrooms, and then developed a very specific garden plan on the rest. The trust that went into effect when the last descendent passed mandates the NTBG maintain the house and plants as they were at that time. The Allertons had created “rooms” in the garden where they entertained guests. There were also a couple scenes from Jurassic Park (original) filmed in the gardens. After our tour ended, we drove to the nearby Spouting Horn blow hole to watch waves crashing into a lava tube shoot water up into the air.

We found a spot to eat and walked around a shopping area before heading to Blue Dolphin Tours. We had a 2:30p check-in for the sunset dinner cruise along the Na Pali coast on the west side of the island. This area has steep cliffs and valleys that come right to the water so many places are not accessible except by boat. From the south side of the island, the tour took us around the Navy’s Pacific Missile Range Facility on the far southwest corner of the island; there was a C130 taking off as we approached the point. After making the turn north, we passed some beaches and started to see the cliffs. The “small” ones extend over 1000 feet straight up from the sea. While moving along the coast we also saw a pod of Spinner dolphins as well as a sea turtle (couldn’t get a good shot as it swam by the boat). The scenery was amazing and with the partly cloudy skies, the sun really highlighted the texture on the cliffs. The boat docked right at 7p, and we got back to our condo a little after 8p. Having used a lot of sun block and mosquito spray plus catching the occasional wash of saltwater spray on the boat, we both decided to take showers before heading to bed.




Wednesday, 05/22/2024 – A Quiet Day

We didn’t have anything planned for Wednesday, so we slept in. The sun was out, and the weather was a little warmer than it had been earlier in the week. Julie wanted to get malasadas for breakfast, so after looking at options, we headed to a bakery in a shopping plaza a few miles down the road. Unfortunately, they only made them Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday so we settled for egg sandwiches. We returned to the condo and decided to walk along the shops again in old town Kapa’a. We picked up a few items before spending the early afternoon enjoying the breeze coming onshore. Later in the afternoon we decided to drive to a nearby arboretum. The Keahua Arboretum is at the end of the road with picnic shelters and a parking area. There is a stream running through the area and several trailheads. We walked along the stream and by a couple of the picnic areas before heading back down to the ocean. We found a scenic overlook where a lighthouse used to stand and watched the waves crash for a little bit before heading back to the condo. Other than a short foray out to get supper, we spent the rest of the day playing cards or reading.




Thursday, 05/23/2024 – Sites on the North Shore

James woke up early and got a few pictures as the sun was rising through banks of clouds offshore. We made sure we got to a nearby bakery before they sold out of malasadas and then headed north to visit the Kilauea Lighthouse. We had reserved tickets to get in around 10a to this restored facility that sits on a spit of land sticking out into the water on the northeast corner of Kauai. The lighthouse is inside a nature preserve so there were many different birds in the skies as well. After the lighthouse, we continued west along the north coast to Hanalei Bay to look at the restored pier. The bay is known for its shallow water beach and there were many people enjoying the day there. From there we began to go back east stopping at Anaina Hou Park where we played a round of mini golf (Julie won 52 to 55) and a pizza lunch from one of their food trucks. We returned to the condo a little after 2:30p for some rest on our last full day on the island. We did go for a walk around 4:30p, but we tried to finish up some of the food and juice we'd purchased for our evening meal and just relaxed the rest of the evening.




Friday, 05/24/2024 – Leaving the Garden Island

Our flight wasn't until late in the evening, so we spent the morning doing morning things and then getting all our things packed. We had to be out of the condo by 11a and we tried to stay as long as we could. We dropped off the resort keys at 10:55a and headed to a couple local shops we identified to possibly kill some time. Neither took as long as we had hoped, so we ended up at the Kilohana Plantation, where we had lunch reservations, about 45 minutes early. There were other shops on the property, so we spent time looking at the rum shop, sweets shop (which smelled really good), and several small shops with different types of artwork. Lunch was really good, and the setting was picturesque. We walked through a couple more shops before heading into a local shopping plaza where we killed another couple hours. We spent some time driving around the Lihue area looking for a park and ended up near the airport at an old shipping pier that’s now a state park. We saw some turtles, the ubiquitous chickens, and several feral cats. A little after 5p we left the park and headed back into town to fill the rental car with gas and grab a bite. We dropped the car off, rode the shuttle to the terminal, checked one bag, and made it through security a little before 7p to sit and wait for our 9:45p red-eye flight to LAX.




Saturday, 05/25/2024 – Planes and Airports

We both slept some on the flight to LA. We had a little over 90 minutes to walk between terminals and find something for breakfast before getting on our flight to Dallas. When we landed in Dallas, we had 2 hours and only needed to go 3 gates, so we walked half way around Terminal B at DFW to the McDonalds; as we were waiting for our food we were informed via text message there had been a gate change. We got quite a few dirty looks on the tram with our hot fries smelling the place up as we rode around to terminal C. Our flight into Des Moines was smooth. We ended up getting a cab home because Uber prices went from $40 to $65 while we were waiting for our luggage plus, we didn't have to wait 30 minutes for a cab to show up. We walked in the door of our own house around 5:45p, about 26 actual hours from when we walked out of the Kauai condo. All James could think about was how much the grass needed to be mowed.



We really loved our time on Kauai. We needed the break and the weather the first couple days actually helped us shift into a relaxed state of mind.