Sunday, February 21, 2016

It was the second to last day of our trip and we finally woke up to sunshine but it came with a catch… the surf and wind were the wildest they had been yet on our vacay… in other words, just another normal day on the island of Kauai.

We made reservations for Sunday brunch at Nanea in the St. Regis Princeville Resort down the road and getting ready was a breeze (haha, see what I did there!) because our electricity had been out for several hours. So we threw on some clothes, I put on my touristy lei, and we were out the door!

Since I didn’t waste an hour getting ready, we had extra time before brunch to mosey around taking photos of all the things on the island that I had been making note of during our trip to capture on camera. We took some obligatory photos at the colorful fruit stand in Hanalei; we got a close-up look of the endless vibrant green taro fields; we snapped a picture on the beach that didn’t include a backdrop of gloomy, dark clouds; and we stopped at a spot along the road that overlooked Hanalei Bay and the towering lush green mountains of the north shore.

And then we brunched. I don’t normally like brunch because if I’m that close to lunch, I want a cheeseburger and mac ‘n cheese — not waffles and eggs — but this buffet brunch was pretty amazing. $5 mimosas? Five please!

Since I was trying to get in as many Lappert’s Ice Cream visits before we left the island,  brunch was of course followed by ice cream… which was of course also accompanied by the usual island chickens.

Kauai Pie was my favorite ice cream flavor! It had coconut, espresso, chocolate, and all kinds of other good stuff. And of course it had to be in a chocolate dipped waffle cone… a huge no-no for my fragile braces!

The clouds that hung over the mountains in the distance during our brunch didn’t take long to roll in and by noon it was cloudy, rainy, and windy. Pie and I didn’t have any plans for the day since we already knew the weather was going to be pretty crummy, so we took a long, slow walk along Maniniholo Bay from Tunnels Beach to Ke’e Beach.

During our long hike, the weather got exponentially worse. I had openly expressed my hatred for the weather during our entire vacay in Kauai, but by day ten, I had no words left to express my disappointment and frustration in the weather, so instead, I flipped the bird to the ocean.

I should also mention that Pie and I had somewhat of a running joke about the less-than-ideal weather in Kauai. My painfully-cheerful hubby was playing Devil’s Advocate and kept insisting that the Kauai weather was nothing more than a “gentle island breeze”, but I kept pointing out that the weather data clearly indicated otherwise. Not to mention, the palm trees on the beach were practically blowing away.

Island breeze, my ass! Sunday’s “island breeze” was even worse than this Wednesday one.

Along our gusty walk on the beach, we found a baby chick that kept chirping incessantly because he had been separated from his flock. The highlight of our afternoon was hubby scooping him up with a leaf and reuniting him with another random family of baby chickens. Unfortunately, as we continued on our merry way feeling oh-so-heroic, not even a few feet away, we came upon another family of chickens feasting on some cracked open fruit. We realized we had clearly dropped off the baby chick with the wrong adoptive family.

On our way back home on the road, we noticed how impossible it was to truly explore the island because of all the “private road” and “no trespassing” signs down each road. We wondered what beautiful things lay hidden on these private properties. We would never know!

We finished off our day with Teriyaki burgers (the chicken at our table approved of our food choice), followed by cocktails and live Hawaiian music at a restaurant down the road.

Up next: We say goodbye to Hawaii… and Piney.