Kevin and Jenney up very early. Cooked breakfast – potatoes eggs toast, fresh papaya and lychee fruit. And then waited and waited. The girls got up later, we fed them breakfast and we ate our farmers market Pineapple – using the fun Pineapple corer and slice cutter
Hoping for adventurer we drove to the dive shop to get fins – headed to Poipu beach to snorkel. To our delight and surprise even with a crowd there were fish everywhere in an amazing assortment of colors and shapes. That got the group really excited for the next few days.
It also made us hungry and ready to engage in a traditional Hawaiin delight – shave ice (not to be confused with shaved ice). With a multitude of shops to choose from, we did our best to opt for one that offered fresh fruit and local ingredients. Kevin and Logan, went all out for the coconut bowl and larger size, while Jenney and Teryn took to conservative patch. The treat did not dissappoint.
Tanks topped off we headed back to Waimea Canyon hoping for a quick hike. On the way we continued to listen to Kevin’s driving tour (it is as dorky as Kevin and the legends always including someone being dismembered, dying or both). We got a great history lesson of the off shore islands, which was cool. We made a number of stops (red dirt mini-waterfall, nature trail, etc.), and as a result we didn’t get a long hike in, as the sun goes down early (7:30pm), but overall we were happy with our pursuit.
Oh – And thank you to Abbie Beauchamp who during one of our hikes took a guided scavenger hunt through the house in Shelburne to find Jenney’s scuba card from 1991 – complete with 90s hair style – what a throwback.
We were successful in getting out of the Canyon before sunset. We took a quick stop to see a swing bridge and irrigation ditch from centuries ago. Still with a little time to spare before sunset we picked up Poke at an asian market and headed to Polihale State Park for a picnic and to really use the jeep we rented. The last 5 miles to the beach were super fun, with 4×4 required on rutted dirt roads! We had an opportunity for our first quiet beach moment – no crowds here in fact we would have liked to stay overnight, but due to overuse the park just reopened but for day use only. We had an opporunity here to catch our breath, saw a great sunset with a poke picnic dinenr. Then raced to get out of the park by the time the gates closed at 7:45pm. When we approached the gate at 7:47pm it looked closed, Kevin turned sheet white, but luckily it was the gate across the street. It was a very funny and stressful moment.
On the way home we took a brief stop at Kekaha Beach Park in the dark to have some cake.. still many locals having a fun evening.
Tired we headed back to the cottage to bed.
