kauai

The other day, I shared some photos of my quick trip to Kauai to visit family. The rest of my time in Kauai was exploring the east and south sides of the island.

In Kapaa, we visited the Poli’ahu heiau in the Wailua River State Park. A heiau is a sacred place, and Poli’ahu is one of several heiau in the park. Collectively, they have been named a US National Historic Landmark District and are on the US National Register of Historic Places. This is the whole heiau from afar. Kapu essentially means taboo.

The Wailua River runs through the valley below

We wandered over to Old Koloa Town on the south side. Koloa is Kauai’s oldest plantation town and Old Koloa Town has restored plantation buildings, now filled with tourist shops, but still interesting to see. As my mom’s side of the family came to Hawaii as plantation workers in the early 1900s, I really like going to old plantations to get a sense of what it was like at the time.

It’s basically a low key shopping center now. This is inside the restored area. The area was cute and didn’t feel tacky.

The Yamamoto Building

The Koloa Hotel

It was unbelievably hot and humid, so the highlight was guava and passionfruit shave ice! I miss shave ice so much.

Just down the road a bit in Poipu was Spouting Horn, a blow hole.

The coast all around it was beautiful

I’m attempting to embed a video I took for Instagram on here. I hope this works! (Sorry it’s a little shaky. Believe it or not, this was one of the first videos I’ve ever bothered to take on my phone.)

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Plumeria outside the hotel. Gorgeous colors!

And last but not least, I discovered a new dessert! This is butter mochi, brought to my aunt’s house by her friend. I haven’t tried it yet, but I found a recipe. Please let me know how it turns out if you make it!

I do miss Hawaii and I can’t believe I let 15 years go by between visits. I really want to go back and visit my cousins and aunt on Kauai, and lots of other family on Oahu, soon.

I took a very quick trip to Kauai to visit family a couple of weeks ago. I hadn’t been since I was a little kid and it was really nice to visit again, even with the crazy intense heat and humidity from the hurricanes. Kauai is small but beautiful.

One day we drove to Hanalei, over on the north shore. On the way, we saw the Kilauea Lighthouse, which was unfortunately closed but we could still see it.

And we were treated with seeing actual nene, the Hawaiian goose, which almost went extinct. I’ve been to Hawaii many times and don’t remember ever seeing one before.

As you go down into the Hanalei Valley, there are beautiful lookout areas

This is the famed Hanalei Valley Lookout, but I actually thought the one above, which was right across the street, had prettier views

There was a mama and baby chicken wandering around

I think the mountain in the middle that’s under the clouds is Mount Waialeale (why-ah-lay-ah-lay), one of the rainiest places on earth, but don’t quote me on that

Right before you get to Hanalei, you cross a one lane bridge, but everyone is polite and takes their turn

It may not seem very Hawaiian, but this is the beautiful Wai’oli Hui’ia church, built in 1834 in the American Gothic style. It offers services in English and Hawaiian.

It was raining in Hanalei so I didn’t get many other pictures there.

Back in Kapaa on the east side of the island, we saw the Opaeka’a Falls. My family has to pass by these waterfalls all the time. What a hard life, right?!

I forgot how many chickens there are wandering all over Hawaii. They were everywhere! This is the beach near our hotelMore pictures coming soon!