Paradise-day seven

For breakfast this morning we decided to change it up a bit and take some advice from our tour guide yesterday. We hit the Feral Pig for some breakfast. 

Joe tried their kailua pork hash and I had some amazing banana bread french toast. I will have to try this at home. It was so good. 

After breakfast we headed over to the Kaua'i Lagoons Golf Course. Joe played 18 holes while I drove the cart and read a book. The course was beautiful. Not a bad place to play golf. 

We stopped for lunch at the clubhouse on the course. I had a very large tuna salad sandwich and Joe had a Spam Musubi, a local favorite. It's grilled spam wrapped in rice and seaweed. 

Not a bad way to spend the day. 

After a little rest, we headed out to dinner. A few people we know had suggested we eat dinner at the Beachhouse one night. So we tried to get a reservation, but were too late. The only openings they had for either Saturday or Sunday were after 8pm (I know it's not that late but when you are getting up at 6am, it is really late to eat dinner). Plus we wanted to watch the sunset and that would have been too late. They suggested we come and sit in the bar, which is open seating, sometime between 4:30 and 5pm. So that is what we did. We sat down at a little before 5pm and were told dinner did not start until 6pm. So we decided to sit and wait. In the meantime, we ordered some drinks. 

What a view.  

We did have some entertainment while we drank. There were quite a few people surfing near by.

We did end up ordering dinner where I had the most tender filet I have ever had. It was so tender and flaky you could peel it apart with your fork. It was great!

We ended up staying there for 3 hours, just eating and watching the sunset. I think we may have had the best seat in the house. 

Beautiful sunset!

Paradise-day six

We started the morning with the buffet breakfast at the hotel. Then we got ready for a great adventure. Today, we participated in the Outfitters Kauai Kipu Zipline Safari. It was an all day adventure!

We started kayaking down a river for 2 1/2 miles. It was beautiful. 

Then we hiked through the jungle to our first swimming hole. It is where they filmed Pirates of the Caribbean 4 (although I just saw that movie after we got home and it doesn't look familiar). 

They had a rope swing to get you into the water. 

Yes, I did it too. Once. Joe did it twice. 

Then we hiked to our next trip, a ride on a tractor trailer. 

We drove through open fields. This is where Raiders of the Lost Arc was filmed. The part where Harrison Ford is running down a hill to his plane (or so they said). 

We stopped for a nice picnic lunch and then it was time for a real adventure. Zip-lining!

The first one single trip down the zip-line. It was pretty fun. 

The second one was a double zip-line, so Joe and I went at the same time. To get off, they put up these ladders and pulled you down toward them. 

On this one, you had the chance to ride upside down. Joe took advantage. I stayed right side up. 

Then we took a short walk to another swimming hole. This one had a zip-line entry and an 18' platform jump. We both tried it all. 

Then it was another walk back to the water...

....where we have a nice boat ride back up the river to the start. It was a great way to spend the day. 

We had an appetizer and drinks dinner at a local place one of the guides recommended, Kalapaki Joes, when we were done. Then finished the night at Kukuis bar at the hotel for more drinks and a nice dessert. What a day!

Paradise-day five

We woke-up for the first time at the Kaua'i Marriott Resort and took in the view. While not as breath taking as the view from the first hotel, it was still a very relaxing view. 

After a buffet breakfast at Kukui's, the restaurant in the hotel, we ventured out to stock-up on snacks at the grocery store. I also had to buy a long sleeved shirt for the afternoon. 

We completed our errands then grabbed a quick lunch from Aupaka, the beach bar by the hotel pool,and headed out for our day's adventure, a helicopter tour!

We arrived a little early, so after we checked in we took a trip down to a scenic overlook. Very pretty.

Then it was time to take-off. 

We opted for a private (meaning just the two of us), open door helicopter tour. It was amazaing. It took us all over the island. 

We saw Jurassic Falls (used in the movie Jurassic Park).

These are from the Na Pali coast which is why we took the tour. You can only access it by air or boat. 

Flying in a helicopter was a lot less scary than I though it would be. The pilot was very experienced and kept it pretty gentle. We even flew through pouring rain with the doors off and didn't get wet because we were moving so fast. It was amazing. 

There wasn't much else we could do today that would live up to the tour. We took a dip in the hotel pool....

...had dinner and called it a night. It was an exciting day!

Paradise-day four

We woke-up on our last morning in Kapolei and had a leisurely morning reading and watching the waves. We sat at our customary table for the breakfast buffet one last time.

Then we packed up and headed to the airport. We followed the Garmin to find a gas station near the airport, which was a mistake. But we did end up finding a fun lunch place. It was called da Big Kahunas. They had really good sandwiches. Joe had da Sumo Special. 

So much for a light lunch before we got on the plane-whoops!

It turned out to be a good idea. We got to the airport about two hours before our scheduled flight. We sat at the gate listening as flight after flight to the islands was either delayed or cancelled. 

Our flight time came and went and the take-off time kept getting later and later. Finally, after many announcements, conflicting stories from the gate agents, and two drinks at the airport bar, we boarded our flight to Lihue (three hours late). 

After the 27 minute flight, we were here. 

Ready to start the next part of our trip. 

Paradise-day three

Tuesday morning, we woke bright and early. With the time difference (4 hours) we were having a hard time sleeping-in. I don't think we slept past 6:30am the entire trip. It was nice to wake-up every morning without an alarm, though.

We started with breakfast by the shark pond again. This morning, though, brought on a new perk. Joe found a juicer on the breakfast buffet. He had fun squeezing strawberries and pineapples to make fresh juice. It made the great breakfast buffet, that much better.

Today was the day we had our reserved tickets to see the USS Arizona memorial. We had to be there an hour before our scheduled tour (per the reservation) but there was a lot to occupy our time. In addition to booking our tour tickets, I had purchased audio tours for the whole area. They have artifacts and photos from the time period and event.

The tour starts with the "Road to War Museum" where they talk about Oahu at that time and the events that led up to the war, including the code breakers and Japanese Expansion plans.

They had models of the USS Arizona and the USS Oklahoma. They even have a model of the Japanese carrier force that attacked Pearl Harbor. The amount of information and photos they had from Japan was amazing. 

Then, we went through the "Attack Museum". It started with the Japanese planes taking off their carriers and went through the entire attack. It even showed actual footage of the attack and had a lot of artifacts...

including this actual Japanese torpedo that never detonated...

and the draft of the speech President Roosevelt gave after the attack. It had his handwritten edits including changing the word "history" to the famous beginning "infamy". 

After the museums, we got on the boat to drive out to the actual memorial. 

That is the USS Missouri in the background. 

Inside the memorial, they have a wall with the names of all the victims of the USS Arizona.

This is the full memorial. It spans over the sunken ship. 

Back on the shore, they had an anchor from the Arizona. It was massive. Overall, it was a really moving experience and a must see for those traveling to the area. 

After visiting the memorial, we picked a place to eat dinner on the other side of the island, so we headed out. We were going to get to the restaurant two hours before it even opened but we couldn't think of anything else to do and we didn't want to go back to the hotel (on the opposite side). Lucky for us, on the way there, we passed the Dole pineapple plantation and thought it looked like a great place to kill a few hours. 

We wandered around the market inside and found they sold ice cream. Since we didn't really have lunch, we thought that sounded like a good idea. As we waited in line, we saw they had a pineapple split. Joe was really excited that it came in a real pineapple, so that is what we ordered. We had no idea it would serve four. 

It was three servings of pineapple ice cream, over diced pineapple, in a pineapple, topped with chocolate, carmel, and strawberry sauce. Yum!

It was pretty hot outside so it melted quickly, but we finished the whole thing. 

Then walked around outside for a while. Of course, they had pineapple plants all over.

I didn't know pineapples grew like this.

They also had a train called the Pineapple Express. We got tickets that boarded at 4:20pm. We thought that was funny. 

The train took you around the fields where they also grow bananas, koa trees, papayas, sugar cane, and macadamia nuts. It was a good side trip to bridge the gap between Pearl Harbor and dinner. 

When we were done at the Dole Plantation, we continued on our way to dinner at Haleiwa Joe's, another recommendation from Joe's friend. 

They had a drink called the Outside Double Up. It's pretty much a Mai Tai for two. 

They also had a huge piece of prime rib. I couldn't finish it, but it was delicious. 

Great way to spend our last night in Kapolei.