Honeymoon Day 5- Part 1

For months we wanted to see the Waimea Canyon, the "Grand Canyon of the Pacific." This was one of the reasons for picking Kauai as the second island to visit during our honeymoon. I read a lot about this site and saw many pictures prior to the trip. It was more beautiful than I imagined. The road towards the canyon was also beautiful. We stopped at every change that we got and at Kehaha beach park on our way to the canyon.

Kehaha Beach Park

A quick stop at Kehaha Beach Park

We stopped at all of the overlooks to see the Canyon. At each stop the colors of the Canyon and the surroundings changed dramatically as well as the weather.  

Our first sight of the Waimea Canyon

The last stop of the canyon was a the Kokee State Park where we had an impresive scenic point of the Napali Coast. This is as far as the road goes on the west side of the island.  Our adventorous side was ready for a hike on one of the many trails. We picked an easy trail according to our book and walked for about 1 mile. It was a moderate hike and we had a better look at the Napali Coast.

"Hiking"

On our way back, we decided to try another trail. We took advantage of our 4x4 jeep rental and drove to a closer start point. This trail was the cliff trail and it was about 0.2 miles and easy.

View from the end of the Cliff Trail

View from the end of the Cliff Trail

Honeymoon Day 4, Kauai

After days of non-stop island fun we decided that it was time for a slow day. We planned to just relax on this day. We woke up early like we did every day in Hawaii. We had breakfast by the pool and headed to lay down. I later took a short nap on Kalapaki beach right outside our hotel.

After a couple of hours of relaxation we were ready to explore the island. We decided to go to the South Shore to visit Poipu Beach. The road to and from Poipu Beach was beautiful. I bought a post card with a beautiful picture of this road that says "Highway to heaven".

When I was looking for a hotel for our honeymoon, I considered the Sheraton Kauai. It was my top choice except that it was under remodeling until September and the main pool was closed.  After seeing the hotel and the beach I am glad with the choice that we decided to stay at the Marriott Kauai. Poipu Beach was beautiful, but a little crowded.

We had lunch at Brenneckes across Poipu Beach. We had a couple of Mai Tais and then headed to the beach to work on our tans. Brenneckes is a nice, casual restaurant with a large balcony overlooking Poipu Beach.

View from Brenneckes

Everywhere in Kauai there were roosters walking around. EVERYWHERE. I got a magnet that says "The real Kauai" and it is a picture of a rooster.

Rooster at Poipu Beach

Poipu Beach

After too much sun, we started driving around. We took a wrong turn and found a cliff with a beautiful view. We wanted to visit Koloa, a small town. We asked locals were the best beach around was. They told us to go to a Beach at the east end of Poipu Road. We were lucky to have a 4x4 jeep to get there. The paved road ended and we followed a long dirt road. We were too late to make it to the beach. The beach parking lot closed at 6:00 PM and there was a sign saying that gate gets locked at that time. We kept driving on the opposite direction of the beach and found a stable followed by another dirt road that lead towards the water. I later found a map with the information and the address of CJM Country Stables.

Another Beach in the South side of the Island

The following pictures are the ones that we took from the end of the road past the stable and got lost on purpose.

Honeymoon Day 3 - Part 2 - Aloha Kauai

We arrived to Kauai at 5:00 PM. For this part of the trip, we upgraded our car to a 4x4 jeep. It was only $15 per day extra. This was probably one of the best decisions that we made for this trip. We read that most of Kauai is not easily accessible. We planned to do a helicopter tour as well as a Catamaran ride. We had 5 nights in Kauai and we only planned for 2 activities. This is what a real vacation should be like, not like I always do planning 100 things for 5 days.

We checked in at the hotel and this time I made sure that this time I was registered. We stayed at the Kauai Marriott Resort again and I didn't want to get the same thing that happened in Waikiki happening to me again. The Marriott Kauai is located in Kalapaki Beach. This beach is never mentioned in travel books as one of the best beaches in Kauai, but it is beautiful and not so crowded. The hotel was also beautiful and HUGE. We could not figure out the style. We kept saying the hotel designer had an crisis between asian and roman styles and just decided to combine both styles.

The gardens were my favorite part of the hotel

I love to look at Koi fishes

The hotel had an activity to feed the Koi every day at 9:00AM. I was there along with the kids.

The hotel Lobby

Kauai's island map shows all the movies that have been filmed there. It is really an island that is perfect for a movie. Maybe I spent too much time in Islands of Adventure to imagine what it would be like to live in Jurassic Park times. After walking around the hotel, we went to the beach to relax for a little before going out for dinner.

For dinner, we asked a valet for directions to find typical Hawaiian food around. He told us to visit Sone's at the Kukui Grove Shopping Center located about 10 minutes away from the hotel. We drove there, and the food was terrible. The place was packed and we assumed that it was going to be good. I knew that Hawaiian food wasn't great, but this was bad. We stayed around the shopping center because they were having live music. Andre ended up eating McDonalds which he hates, and I had frozen yogurt. I could eat dessert as my main meal every day. When we returned to the hotel, our new friend the valet asked how was dinner. We couldn't tell him that we hated it, so we lied and said it was great. This was a bad idea to ask locals for their favorite food. At least we tried.