This is why we loved Moloa'a so much -- we had the whole beach, and the turtle, completely to ourselves except for a lovely woman from Vancouver BC who was visiting with her husband and late-sleeping teenage son. You know you're a grownup when you make plans to watch the sunrise!
Mike had seen a cool time-lapse photography movie online, so I played around with the camera to see what I could do. Here are the results:
Today was our day to see the incredible Na Pali coast from the sea. The departure was from Hanalei, and we set out a little early so we could see the sights. We ran into our first Kaua'i traffic jam -- when you have to pave the only road, it can create a bit of a backup. We decided we'd rather be in traffic on Kaua'i than in traffic on the Tri-State, got out our books, and enjoyed the sun and breeze.
Hanalei ended up being our favorite town. It just feels homey, with the right combination of tourists and locals. Even the maintenance guy at the shopping plaza was interesting and friendly. We split a plate lunch of quesadilla as an early lunch, dutifully swallowed our Dramamine, then checked out the shops until it was time to check in for our trip. We loaded up our stuff into dry-sacks, hopped into the van, and rode to the beach where our captain was waiting with an outrigger to take us to the boat.
Just as we were cutting through Hanalei Bay, our captains spotted spinner dolphins playing in the bay and stopped to let us watch them cavort. This was fast turning into the Day of Sea Creatures -- with more to come.
We headed out past Hanalei, to where the road ends at Ke'e Beach and the Na Pali Coast begins. To describe Na Pali is really impossible. It even seems surreal when you're there looking at it. We pulled into a couple of amazing sea caves, including one that was open to the sky at the top. Our captains, who conduct tours in the summer and surf all winter, did a great job of narrating and storytelling. We got to our snorkeling destination and jumped in, to find ourselves just feet away from three sea turtles who were being cleaned by a bunch of small fish. Talk about cool. The water was so clear we could see to the bottom 30 feet down, and we were swimming in the middle of entire schools of fish.
After snorkeling we had a sandwich lunch and then a quick "Hawai'ian roller coaster" ride through the waves back to Hanalei. We were so glad we had done this trip -- I can't decide which was more amazing, the scenery or the sea turtle encounter.
Um, we did not eat dinner this evening. I had no idea that Dramamine feels a lot like Vicodin in a not-fun way. I laid down for a little rest before dinner, and woke up the next morning...
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