Day 2 - Waimea Canyon

This morning we took a break from eating breakfast out and started off with some cereal. Can't eat out every meal!

Then we headed out to the paved path behind our resort for a three mile jog. We started about 10:50am local time, but it was really sunny and hot out already. It felt good though, since "vacation eating" isn't exactly conducive to a svelte waistline. :-|

Then we cleaned up and headed out...just in time for lunch! We hit up a sandwich shop called Deli & Bread Connection on the way to the south side of the island.

It is supposedly the best sandwich place on Kauai. I had a lobster roll and Todd had a salami sandwich. This place had a unique espresso chocolate cookie so of course we made sure it's ok. And it was. :p

The dessert didn't end there because we stopped by Jo Jo's Shave Ice stand in Waimea, across from the high school, which is supposedly the best shave ice in Kauai.



We had green apple flavor on top of vanilla ice cream. It was good but honestly it tasted about the same as the shack next to our hotel so what do we know? One thing I will say that is AWESOME about Hawaiian shave ice is the brilliance of putting ice on top of ice cream. I hate it when ice cream melts on me while I'm eating it, and this totally stops that from happening! It's simply brilliant!

Then we proceeded on the long drive across the south side of the island on the way to the Waimea Canyon. Often called the “grand canyon of the Pacific”, it's a spectacular sight that pictures don't do justice. We stopped for a photo at a lookout point on the way up.


It is a 4,000 ft climb up to see the Canyon. After the mile 10 marker, we pulled into the Waimea Canyon Lookout. The views from there really were spectacular. As many photos as we took, the views just could not be captured on camera.












Both times we've been up there (we went in 2003), it got windy and cloudy as we climbed upwards. Up at the lookout, it is a good 10-15 degrees lower than at sea level. Although, there were still a ton of wild chickens up there, LOL. Our guidebook said the wild chickens actually thrive up there because there's less competition for food.

After the Waimea Canyon Lookout, we drove another three miles up to the Pu'u Hinahina Lookout.


From the Pu'u Hinahina Lookout point, we also caught a fuzzy glimpse of the island of Niihau. Nobody is allowed to go there except for the 200ish natives that live there.

The drive down the mountain also provided plenty of stunning views.


On the way back we stopped in Old Koloa Town because Todd wanted to visit a local t-shirt shop there. Why? Because on Sunday, after we unpacked and he was trying to find a new shirt to wear, he sheepishly told me that besides his two running shirts, he had forgotten to pack shirts! I told him maybe he thought he would make like a native and go topless for the whole trip, ha ha!

We had read about this t-shirt shop called Pohaku T's. They design and make the tshirts locally here. We try to support local small business when we travel, so we decided to go there instead of the myriad of "Crazy Shirt" stores around. Todd found some very cool shirts. The owner of the store told us the stories behind each tshirt, because her husband designed them. They moved to Kauai like 30 years ago, when her husband got burned out as a Physiology Ph.D. Then he started designing tshirts and selling them. No wonder Todd liked the tshirts, they're "brainy" shirts, LOL.


While in Koloa, we grabbed dinner at Tomkat's Grille in Old Koloa Town. We had actually gone there on our last Kauai trip but had forgotten. It's only ok, bar-ish food. We shared a chicken caesar salad and some chicken fingers.




We also found the Island Soap & Candle Works store, which we remembered from our visit in 2003. We went in to enjoy the scents.


Finally, it was back to the condo to rest and enjoy the hilarious movie from the 80s, "Better Off Dead". Todd brought several DVD's from home, because like we said earlier in the week, Kauai has no night life after dark. The island literally shuts down and there's nothing to do.