Thursday - Poipu and Wiamea Canyon

We ventured out to the south end of the island today... we wanted to go see Poipu beach community and the Waimea canyon and hope for better weather than our side of the island. We ate breakfast at the condo and then took off for the day... we went to the Shell Factory in Kapa'a for a little souvenir shopping. We then headed further south and set Poipu as our next location. We drove around Poipu and saw emergency vehicles by the beach... we later heard there was a shark sighting on the beach, which would explain the increased activity we saw. The homes we saw were incredible (slightly out of our price range) so we went looking for Puka Dog... a specialty hot dog stand. We found it in the Poipu Shopping Village, so we stopped for lunch. We luckily got in line just in time to beat the tour bus that showed up. The food was good, but there were a lot of choices for relishes and sauces, so if you are adventurous, you might pick the wrong combination. :-) We had dessert at Papalani Gelato...



We then headed for Spouting Horn... a natural geyser driven by the crashing waves. The weather was quite windy and sometimes rainy, so we didn't stay long after snapping a few pictures; and a little souvenir shopping, of course. Before going to the canyon, we took advantage of the beautiful beach at Waimea and took our shoes off and strolled the beach for a while. Once again, since we were on a beach and didn't bring our swim suits, Kyle wasn't very happy. He would prefer to be in the water, 24/7. We should have named him Flipper, instead.



We then headed to Waimea Canyon, which is called the Grand Canyon of the Pacific. We drove up, and up and up the road... ending at an elavation of 3400 feet. The temp had dropped 20-30 degrees, so luckily we had our sweatshirts with us. The cloud cover prevented any great viewing, so after a few pictures, we took off for warmer and lower elevations.




We headed straight for Jo-Jo's Shaved Ice stand in the town of Waimea. We met a nice couple from Chicago who is staying on Kauai... they have already been here for a couple of months... it is amazing how many people you run into that came here by accident and keep coming back or just decided to pick up and move here. On our way back to our side of the island, we stopped at Wal-Mart for a little shopping. There is real civilization here... we saw Costco and Macy's, too.
We came back to Princeville and had dinner at the condo and to relax to get prepare us for our final full day on Kauai (Friday).