Last time I posted it was about the great time my friend Will and I had and the friends we met, Ryan and Stephanie. After Will left, I had about a week to myself before again welcoming some very special visitors…my parents! I’ll make a minor note that the blog will get a little chronologically out of order since I’ll write about my parents visiting in this post and then about the week in between Will’s visit and my parents coming in a future post, which I think will be generally about what my life has been like out here when I haven’t had visitors and less grounded with specific dates and times like last post and this one. Apologies in advance for the number of photos and videos I’ll bombard you with in this post. It wouldn’t be a parents visit without Mom taking a million pictures, and I’d be remiss not to include them. Without further ado, here’s my recount of my parents’ visit from February 4-13.
The story (at least from my perspective) really starts on Saturday February 5, since my parents’ flight got in late on Friday and we didn’t meet up until Saturday morning. We met for a walk along Waikiki beach and saw some of the popular sections and walked through the glamorous Hilton Hawaiian Village resort. It was fun to see my parents’ amazement at the beauty here. I still have moments where I’m taken aback at how beautiful this area is, but, despite trying to fight it, I’ve been slightly numbed to it over time. It was refreshing to see their appreciation of it.
For lunch we walked along the very touristy, commercial Kalakaua Ave to the International Market, a pretty outdoors mall with open air and trees that make it feel like a mix between a jungle and a normal mall. We enjoyed lunch at a restaurant called Shore Fyre which featured live music from a singer and guitarist. In the afternoon, we took our rental car and went around the eastern part of the island up to the windward coast on the north. We first stopped at China Walls, which I mentioned last post, to see the cliffs and swim.
We continued on to Makapu’u Lookout, which gives a nice view of the coastline and turquoise water.
It was also a popular spot for paragliders, and we saw a few taking off and flying around.
We tried to hike the Makapu’u Lighthouse Trail but the parking lot was full so we kept going to Nu’uanu Pali Lookout, a famous lookout on a well-known highway of the island. The lookout looks towards the windward side and has a wide view encompassing the largest suburb, called Kaneohe, and some other cool landmarks including a quarry, some small islands off the north coast, and more.
In the evening, we had dinner and drinks on the lanai (balcony) of our Airbnb overlooking the Ala Moana harbor. I appreciated the view because my own Airbnb looks out at Diamond Head, and I have to lean somewhat precariously out the window and turn my body to see the ocean. The view here was easier to enjoy from the safety of our lanai.
We started Sunday off with a sunrise hike on Lanikai Pillbox Trail. There are a few pillbox hikes on O’ahu, and they’re named after the fixtures along the ridges that were used by the military during WWII, called pillboxes. We weren’t the only ones with the idea to do this hike at sunrise; we saw many people walking towards the trailhead in the darkness of the morning and some people already along the top of the ridge hiking with headlamps. The first part of the hike is covered and it was quite difficult to see because the natural light is blocked out by trees, but after a few hundred feet we were along an exposed ridge with beautiful views. Some of the hikes along ridges here can be brutal because of the heat, but we were early enough in the day to avoid it. This hike, like many of the ones I’ve done here so far, is really cool because you have great views of the ocean as well as the mountains in the interior. One of the first views we had was of these two miniature islands called the Mokes. They’re too small for anybody to live out there, but it’s popular for people to kayak out there for a picnic lunch.
The hike is a short one, just a mile to the top, so we summited in time for sunrise. The pillboxes, which are great viewing spots for the sunrise, were too crowded with people. Luckily the ridge keeps going so we were able to easily get some space to ourselves where we could still see the sunrise.
As the sun was rising there were some showers moving towards us that produced some nice rainbows, which are so common here that they're hardly worth capturing.
We rewarded ourselves for finishing the hike by going to Lanikai Beach, which is just a walk away from the trailhead. The sand there, like the sand at neighboring Waimanalo Beach, is some of the finest sand I’ve ever felt. It’s a great beach for lying out in the sun and relaxing since the sand and water could be taken straight from a postcard.
After getting breakfast in town at a place called Big City Diner, we checked out Kailua Beach, which is bigger than Lanikai and had more people out and about. There were many people there picnicking, playing in a shallow lagoon, walking along the beach, swimming in the ocean, and, best-of-all from a spectator’s perspective, kitesurfing and windsurfing.
Our next stop was going to be the Maunawili Falls Trail, but at the last second we decided to go to Ho’omaluhia Botanical Garden first. The vegetation in the garden was alright, but the surrounding mountains around the valley we were in were more impressive.
We continued on to Maunawili Falls Trail, starting from a lookout on the Pali Highway we drove on yesterday. This hike was longer; it’s 6.3 miles total for the out-and-back, but we probably did closer to 7 miles since we missed a turn. The hike was through a valley and we were surrounded by sheer cliffs for much of the hike. The last mile was a steep descent that led us to a stream. We followed the stream for a few minutes and arrived at a waterfall with a swimming and jumping spot.
We caught our breath at the waterfall before heading back around 4pm so we could hike in daylight. We were tired after a long day in the sun with a couple hikes and beaches and got dinner from the grocery store to eat again on our lanai.
On Monday I worked in the morning while my parents explored on their own. We went to the Pearl Harbor museum at noon and saw one of the exhibits called the USS Arizona Memorial. In the afternoon we went to the airport to catch our flight to Kauai, the westernmost major island of Hawaii, where we spent the rest of our vacation. When we got to our Airbnb in the town of Po’ipu, I wanted to get in the ocean but it was dark, the waves were really choppy, and we’d heard about strong currents and riptides on Kauai, so I held off.
I had the full day off work on Tuesday and we used the day to explore Waimea Canyon, also known as the Grand Canyon of the Pacific. Although it’s much smaller, it’s certainly comparable in beauty. Before even getting to the canyon, I was surprised by Kauai’s natural beauty. I’d heard from everyone who’s been that it’s the prettiest island and so gorgeous. I was wondering how it could be any more beautiful than O’ahu and I was a little skeptical that it would live up to the expectations, but it lived up to the hype and exceeded it. The island is much more rural than O’ahu; everywhere you look there’s a beautiful mix of blue (from the ocean or sky), green from the mountains and valleys, and red from the landscape. The red dirt or clay reminded me a lot of Sedona, Arizona and the island kind of had a desert feel with how open it was. Except it’s really not at all a desert and is one of the rainiest places in the world, which is why everything is so lush and bursting with color. Somehow even though it gets so much rain, it doesn’t usually rain in the places where people are, and we only had a couple sprinkles while we were there. Waimea Canyon is on the western side of the island and there’s only one main road that runs around most of the perimeter of the island, so it was about a 45-minute drive to get there. We passed by many open fields and valleys on the drive there and we could see mountains from anywhere on the island.
The canyon reminded me of the Grand Canyon in many ways, but it’s not nearly as vast. Still, it’s beautiful and offers several great hiking trails.
The first hike we did was called the Waimea Canyon Trail. The trail goes down into the canyon along the red rock. The first part of the trail is covered but then it opens up for most of the rest of the way.
Near the end of the 1.5-mile trek down there’s one pool that’s deep enough for swimming and I took advantage and got in the crisp water. We kept going down to some breathtakingly beautiful lower waterfalls and pools. There were some waterfalls like infinity pools, with the waterfall looking like it disappeared off the edge of the canyon.
Our next hike was the Kalepa Ridge Trail. The trail goes along a ridge that goes from the canyon towards the ocean. On the descent down, there are amazing views of cliffs and valleys between the canyon and the ocean. Some of the cliffs are sheer drops, while others are shallower, and there are lots of valleys and green hills below. Additionally, you can see the ocean the whole time, so there’s always a gorgeous mix of blue from the ocean, green from the vegetation, and red from the dirt and rocks. The views on this hike were some of the best of the vacation, if not my whole life. I’ve been at a loss for words to describe the unimaginable beauty of the whole island, but this area especially.
The ridge we hiked along is quite narrow at points, but the trail usually has enough leeway on one side that a misstep wouldn’t be catastrophic. We made it out to the point, a little less than a mile from where we started. Apparently there’s an unofficial continuation of the trail, but it looked pretty hairy and I think we’d had our adventure fill as it was.
Our third hike of the day was Pihea Trail, which starts from the lookout farthest into Koke’e State Park. This trail was along wider ground, as opposed to a ridge, and it was full of vibrant vegetation. This trail really reminded me of Sedona beause we were hiking right on red rocks the whole way. The hike gives many of the same views as what we saw on the Kalepa Ridge Trail, though they’re not quite as immersive. We could also see the mountains towards the center of the island, including Mount Kawaikini, the tallest mountain on the island, and Mount Waialeale, one of the rainiest places on earth.
We felt like we got to see most of the park pretty well throughout hikes and were thoroughly stunned by how beautiful it was. The three hikes were each very different from each other and gave unique views into the different treasures of the park. After Waimea Canyon, we got takeout and had dinner and drinks on our patio. I walked to Po’ipu Beach, a pleasant beach that was full of people enjoying the sunset, and got in for a dip.
We started Wednesday morning off catching the sunrise at the beach and spotting our first sea turtles of the trip.
Then we walked to the Heritage Trail, which is a walk/hike through some sandy areas and then along the cliffs of the southern shore. Before the hike even started, we walked by a glamorous resort on the oceanfront that, like many of the ones in Waikiki back on O'ahu, was surprisingly open to the public.
The trail has many different branches so you can choose whether you want to be more inland and have a direct route back or meander closer to the cliffs. We walked out mostly along the cliffs to soak in the better views of the ocean and mountains in the distance.
We made it about three-quarters of the way through the trail before turning around to make it home and get ready for our afternoon event: a catamaran ride along the Napali Coast. The Napali Coast, on the northwestern part of Kauai, is the most rugged area of the island and inaccessible by road. The only way to see the coast is along one hiking trail, or by boat or helicopter. We took off on our catamaran from Port Allen, in southwestern Kauai, and started heading north. The boat felt crowded at first with 49 tourists and 5 staff members, but as the ride began and people dispersed to different areas of the boat it felt more spacious. During the first part of the ride we paralleled lush green hillsides. Our good fortune with wildlife spotting continued as we saw a pod of spinner dolphins and several whales, including a mother and her baby.
The second part of the journey was along the more dramatic coast with jagged cliffs, tall waterfalls, and striking valleys and beaches. We passed some beautiful caves that apparently can get crushed by waves and essentially become washing machines when the swell is higher. The swell was only 6-7 feet today but we could still feel it rocking us on the boat. I thought the coolest place we passed was a tunnel called Honopu Arch in the side of one of the cliffs that connected two stretches of beach on opposite sides of the cliff. After two hours on the boat we made it to Kalalau Beach, which is the end of the Kalalau Trail, the 11-mile hike that is the only land route to see the Napali Coast. The beach and the whole section of coast were lovely. There were a couple beautiful beaches next to marvelous cliffs and perfect waterfalls. For perspective, in the first photo below, the waterfall that's barely visible above the right side of the beach is 100 feet tall.
The ride back was delightful; we were served salad, an entrée of steak and shrimp, and key-lime cheesecake for dessert, with delicious island cocktails on the side. The sun set just before we got into port, wrapping up our lovely outing.
On Thursday we went on the Heritage Trail again, took some different paths, and made it all the way to Makauwahi Cave at the end. We crawled through the entrance to the cave and after a short stretch of being in a confined space, we popped out into a marvelous garden.
We spent some time in the afternoon at Shipwreck Beach where the trail begins. We got lunch from a place called Puka Dogs that did hot dogs with sweet relishes and jams. I had one with mango and one with pineapple and both were delicious. I went snorkeling after lunch and saw some cool fish in the shallow waters and I even thought I saw a shark in the distance and booked it back to the beach. I’m 99% sure it wasn’t a shark but it got my heart racing. In the afternoon we did a self-guided tour of Kauai Coffee Company and then we stopped at an attraction called Spouting Horn where water crashes into a cave and sprays water out of a hole at the top of a cave, similar to how a whale blows water up in the air. We ended the day how we started it, watching the sun from Po’ipu Beach.
On Friday we left our Airbnb in Po’ipu on the southern of Kauai and traveled counterclockwise around the island, stopping at Kapa’a on the eastern shore of Kauai. We rented bikes and went on a pretty bike path along Kapa’a Beach and the east coast. We had to wait an extra hour for a bike with fat enough tires for me, but it was well worth the wait.
Just kidding, that was the first bike they gave me but it worked out well. The round trip was nine miles and we stopped at one of the beaches on the way back for a dip. The water was amazing, turquoise blue and warm, yet still refreshing.
We got lunch to go from a place called Pono Market and then did Sleeping Giant Hike, a 3.8 mile round-trip out-and-back hike that gave good views of the ocean and mountains. The hike was fun and decently challenging with a couple rock scrambles and consistent elevation change throughout.
In the evening, we checked into our new Airbnb in Princeville, in the northern part of Kauai, and took some food and drinks to nearby Hanalei Bay as the sun was setting. We couldn’t see the sun behind the mountains, but we could watch the talented surfers and boogie boarders instead. Many of the people shredding it were kids, some of them probably only 9-years old. (Enjoy the unrelated commentary from my dad in the background.)
The beach was really wide and sparsely filled, but it still felt lively with the amount of activity it had. For dinner, we ate at a barbecue restaurant called Chicken in a Barrel and it was positively delectable.
We got up early on Saturday to drive over to a parking lot in Hanalei where a 6:30am shuttle transferred us to Ha’ena State Park. The park is along the Napali Coast and home of the 11-mile Kalalau Trail. We hiked the first two miles to Hanakapiai Beach. The hike had great views and the terrain was a good challenge.
Hanakapiai Beach had large black volcanic rocks in place of sand and the waves were treacherous, plus we’d heard several warnings about how dangerous that beach was so none of us got in.
Though I did get in for a swim in the calmer Ke’e Beach at the trailhead before catching the 10am shuttle back to Hanalei.
In Hanalei, we poked around the cute downtown area and got food and a couple Hawaiian shirts for my dad and me. We spent the early afternoon at Hanalei Bay, watching surfers, swimming, and I tried my luck at boogie boarding. I could ride some in but I didn’t have any success with barrel rolls like the youngsters we watched the other night. The rest of the afternoon was mellow and we went to Hideaways Pizza Pub for dinner.
On Sunday we walked around Princeville in the morning. I tried to get to a cliff-jumping and swimming area called Queen’s Bath but didn’t have enough time because we needed to check out of our Airbnb. After walking, we packed up and drove to Lihue airport where we said our goodbyes. The flight for me was just half an hour back to Honolulu, but my parents had a long day of travel, stopping twice before landing in CT.
It was really amazing to be in a place as beautiful as Kauai for a week. I feel like we made the most of our week and saw most of the big sights around the island (shout out to my mom, who did all the research and planned this fantastic vacation). And of course, having the company of my parents was perfect. The area and the social scene are still pretty new to me so it was comforting and heartwarming to be around familiar faces for a week. The only thing is next time they visit they need to bring Shane and David, although the waves might be a bit big for them. That’s the story of my parents visiting Kauai; I’ll be writing another post soon about what life has been like without visitors here. Thanks so much for reading!
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