Friday, August 18, 2017
Friday was the last day for my brother to see the sights on Kaua’i before leaving back home. Although I had really wanted to hike the Na’Pali Coast again on the Kalalau Trail, we simply didn’t have time for this eight-hour activity with my brother.
But I didn’t want my brother to miss out on the equally awesome activity of at least viewing the Na’Pali Coast from the Kalalau Trail, something that could be done by just hiking the first half-mile of the steep trail. After that, we could easily retire to the famous Tunnels Beach nearby, which is known for its awesome snorkeling.
But first, Piney!
During our last trip to Kaua’i, hubby had purchased a $1 pineapple on the first day of our trip, which he didn’t even eat. I ended up naming him Piney (can you tell I easily grow attached to inanimate objects?), took him everywhere we went, and finally had to part with in a tragic way on the last day. I swore I wasn’t going to go through this pain again, but who was I kidding?
On our way to the Kalalau Trailhead, I insisted hubby pull over at a fruit stand so we could purchase a pineapple, mainly for the purpose of taking a few cute pics with.
Since we were arriving to the Kalalau Trailhead mid-morning, we had to park somewhat far down the road, which added another half-mile to our quick, half-mile trip up the Kalalau Trail.
Before the start of our short hike, hubby snapped a funny picture of me annoyingly waiting for people to get out of the way from the trail sign who were either doing ridiculous stretches or putting on sun screen while I was clearly trying to snap a quick photo. I conceded and pouted all the way up the steep trail.
After our abbreviated tour of the Kalalau Trail, we retreated to Tunnels Beach nearby. Tunnels Beach in the summer time was nothing like what it was during the winter. I finally felt comfortable swimming over the reef with the summer tide being a little bit higher and not nearly as rough.
In fact, I enjoyed snorkeling at Tunnels Beach so much that I ended up with a mad sunburn on the back of my legs that I didn’t notice until later in the day. As if unconditioned summer nights in Hawaii weren’t hot enough. And as if the sun burn wasn’t enough, I also had a nice crease from the snorkel mask that lasted the. Entire. Day… as you’ll notice later in our dinner photos.
After obtaining my awesome snorkel mask tattoo and snorkeling sun burn, we grabbed lunch and headed to the airport to send my brother back home. We had just enough time to visit a couple of Kauai’s most popular waterfalls on the way to the airport that required practically no walking to visit.
After dropping my brother off at the airport on the other side of the island, we made good use of the long drive by visiting a burger joint on the east coast that was highly recommended by the guide of our kayaking company.
This burger joint ended up being much classier and tastier than we were expecting. I was so sad that I had no room for dessert, even though hubby and I had shared a burger and fries. Needless to say, we went home that night with full bellies and tired bodies… oh, and a snorkel mask tattoo that would hopefully be gone by morning.
{ E M & P I E } 