Beautiful Kauai

Ahhhh Kauai, the Garden Island! This little piece of heaven is possibly one of the most beautiful places on Earth. We rented a condo on the north side of the island--a little town called Princeville. We flew from Maui to Kauai on Friday, June 7th and as soon as we walked in the condo and looked out the window, we knew we made a good choice. Our condo was on the second floor and literally 50 feet away was a steep cliff going straight down to the ocean. Here is the view from our bedroom, living room, and deck...

From the moment we walked in, we opened the windows and sliding doors and kept them open the full week we were there, listening to the ocean, the rain at night and, of course, the morning rooster on the front lawn. We were glad we rented a place on the north shore because the waves there in the summer are nice and gentle. Apparently where we were gets 20 to 25 foot waves in the winter! I like to surf but not on those kind of waves! Anyway, we got settled at the condo and went out to get groceries (cha-ching). After that trip I made a wrong turn out of the parking lot so I said, "Oh well I'll just turn around at that scenic overlook and go back." Well! We got to the scenic overlook and were stopped in our tracks by what we saw--an amazing view of the Hanalei River valley and its surrounding mountains.

Disclosure: All pictures of the scenery of Kauai do it absolutely no justice! This place is so gorgeous you just have to see it for yourself.

Here is the scenic overlook followed by another one we found the next day...

And on the morning of the first full day in Kauai, I went for a morning run and was greeted half way through by a beautiful rainbow:

In trying to decide how to blog about Kauai, I think I'm just going to have to really break it up into little sections. So first I will tell you how we hiked down "stairs" on a cliff with all our beach gear holding onto a rope...

When I read the description of the condo before booking it, some of the reviews talked about the stairs leading down to the beach (at the base of the cliff) being "very steep, but manageable." Ummm, well, very steep was true, manageable if you are not carrying what would typically be considered standard beach accessories, and stairs? Stairs? Maybe the first 7 concrete blocks were stairs but the rest really was rocky slope peppered with random 3 inch iron posts (where your foot should go, mind you), and a railing that started as a railing and turned into a "hold on for your life" slack rope. I hope my tone doesn't sound complaining as I write about this because my intention is to make it sound like we hiked down the first thousand feet from the summit of Mount Everest! Anyway, here is Chris and Brian before our adventure began...

Eventually the path evened out and after we passed the turn with the unprotected hundred foot drop to the ocean below, the finish line was in sight. The beach was called "Hideaway Beach" (Ha! No kidding...) and the only access to it is via said trail or kayak. The hike down was worth it and the snorkeling and swimming was great. Here are some pics from our beach morning...

We had a great morning and Chris was especially happy that there were chickens and roosters at the beach. In fact, there were chickens everywhere on Kauai! There are so many that there is a whole line of postcards and greeting cards devoted to the overabundance of chickens on the Garden Island... Anyway, we made our trek back up the mountain which Christopher handled even better than we did. The next day we found a much easier beach to handle called "Tunnels" that had nice snorkeling and two dogs who walked to the beach with their surfing owners and waited two hours in the same spot until said owners came back! It was so cool. Not to inundate you with beach pictures, but that's essentially what we did everyday for two weeks so here's another two...