Day 7 -- Kauai, Hawaii

06/16/16 Thursday

Today, we plan to spend half the day at Waimea Canyon which is known as the "Grand Canyon" of the Pacific and Koke'e State Park,

Waimea Canyon is located in the western part of Kauai and there are 2 roads that we can take to the canyon, both from the southern part of the island.

1. Waimea Canyon Road (State Highway 550) from the town of Waimea
2. Koe'e Road (State Highway 55) from the town of Kekaha

Both roads offer nice views of the coast, so you could take one road up to the canyon and the other road down. It will take 30-45 minutes to reach the first set of several lookouts listed below.

The Waimea Canyon Lookout which is located between mile markers 10 and 11.
The Pu'u Pele Lookout is located between mile markers 12 and 13.
The Puu Hina Hina Lookout is at mile markers 13 and 14.
The Kalalau Lookout is located at mile marker 18.

Be sure to drop by Koke'e Natural History Museum which is open daily from 10am to 4pm. You can learn about the forest and Alakai Swap before you start your hike.

Before we started with our journey to Waimea Canyon, we decided to stop by the Spouting Horn since it was 10-15 minutes away from our hotel. There are several shops around selling handmade souvenirs.

After the Spouting Horn, we continue on to our journey to Waimea Canyon. On the way there, we saw a couple of beautiful beaches. One of them is the Poipu beach.

Since there is only a couple of places selling food in Waimea Canyon (a small stall at Waimea Canyon Lookout and a restaurant at Koke'e Museum), we decided to buy our own lunch on the way there. We stopped by Kauai Kookie store. They sell all kinds of sandwiches, masaladas, breakfast, cookies, yogurt, etc.

After buying our lunch, we went up the Waimea Canyon Road and it was a very scenic drive. The road is a little curvy but it's not too hard to drive. If you ever drove on the "Road to Hana" in Maui, then this drive is so much easier in comparison.

On the drive up, we stopped by the Red Dirt Waterfall.

Then we went to the Waimea Canyon Lookout. At the lookout, we encountered the first place that sold food. It's a small stall that sells fresh fruits and some snacks.

At this lookout, there was a native there explaining the history of Hawaii/Kauai. It was very interesting to hear the history.

Next we went to the next lookout before reaching the Koke'e Museum. There is a large grass area there and the kids have fun running around after sitting in the car for a while.

There is another lookout if we keep going which is the Kalalau Lookout where you can see the canyon and the ocean. Unfortunately, due to the time constraint, we skipped the lookout. I saw the pictures online and it's very beautiful. So, if you have time, you should definitely continue on the journey to check it out.

So, we made our way down as we had planned for the Wailua River Cruise. On the way down, we stopped by Pu'u Ka Pele picnic area as it has a good view of the Waipoo waterfall. It was extremely windy there, so the kids and Anthony stayed in the car while I went to check it out.

We had a good ocean view while driving down.

We passed by the town of Haleiwa where Jojo's Shave Ice and Porky's Kauai are at. I really wanted to stop by to try out the food and shave ice but unfortunately I can't. We were short on time as we had to make it to our river cruise.

We also saw Kauai Coffee Company on the way and it's one of the places that I was recommended to go but we didn't have a chance to visit.

We were able to made it on time for the last river cruise which was at 3:30pm. The Wailua river cruise is by the Smith's family and they also offer a luau. We didn't go to the luau here and went to the one at Kilohana which was highly recommended by my coworker.

After we got our tickets, we sat at the main lobby to wait for them to call us. Within a few minutes, we were told to start getting on the boat.

It was a very calm boat ride and we saw many people kayaking. One of the other things that you could do is to kayak along the river and hike to see a waterfall. We thought about doing it but after thinking hard, we decided against it because each adult has to go with 1 child and I am pretty sure that none of my kids are going to kayak, so I will end up kayaking the entire time. I don't think I have the energy to kayak for that long and hike as well.

The view on the river was beautiful with greenery around. Very calm and relaxing ride.

After ~20 minutes, we reached the other side of the river where the Fern Grotto is.

We had to walk ~5 minutes to reach the Fern Grotto and there was a group of performers waiting for us.

The guide gave us a little history of the place. Grotto means shallow cave and there are many people who came to have a wedding. Initially, visitors were allowed to visit the cave and have their wedding there. But after the heavy rain in 2006, there was damage to the cave so the state deemed it unsafe to go there. They built the observation deck so that we can stand and view the Grotto.

One funny thing that the guide mentioned is that visitors come to Hawaii to get married while the locals go to Las Vegas to get married.

Then they started singing the Wedding Song in Hawaiian language and we were asked to kiss our love ones after the song ended.

When the song ended, we walked back to our boat and began the journey back. The same group of performers went onboard with us and started performing. They sang many songs and even taught us how to dance.

Look at Anthony trying to follow the moves.

After the boat ride, we hurried back to the hotel as we made reservations to have dinner at Tidepools. I have a separate post about the restaurant.

After dinner, we went to check out the spa as I have it reserved for Saturday. So along the way, we took some pictures.