Hawaii Day 6 (Thursday)

Not a bad view to wake up to eh? Nice thing about the rain, it's followed by some awesome rainbows. We decided to go up to the North side of the island. We had been wanting to since the beginning of the week, but hadn't gotten around to it. We had really wanted to try some snorkeling at one of the AWESOME beaches they have on the north side, but the tide red flag warnings were out. The waves were rough. We dressed in our swim suits just in case we found a place to play in the water, and we headed out to do some sight seeing. 

 This is the Kilauea Light House and the national wildlife reserve. They have nesting areas for all sorts of birds. I guess from the point you can normally see whales and other animals as well. I really wanted to see some whales, but we lucked out. It's ok the views were amazing, and we did see some whales earlier in the week. I guess we were there at the very end of their migrating season, so you don't see them as much. 

The light house had some cool stories in the visitors center. They are raising money to restore it. It was built in 1913 and is almost finished being restored. You pay a few bucks to go out by the lighthouse, and the money goes to the bird refuge and rebuilding the light house. I didn't take any bird pics, but there was a bunch everywhere. 

 A bunch of animals in the area

Some of the pretty views from the point

 I know it's kinda a silly picture, but it was amazing to me how little this boat looked on this huge ocean. 

We got back in the car and kept driving, stopping at all the view points we could. This was in Princeville, the city where everyone stays up north when they go. 

 This was Hanalei Bay. We later drove down to the beach and it was the most beautiful beach. I think it was so different, cause the green Hawaiian cliffs were right there making it kinda enclosed in. We wish we could have spent the day there, but it definitely was a surfing beach with big waves. 

 We decided to try some lunch up here while we were in Hanalei. We stopped at a sandwich place that was way overpriced and we weren't impressed by it. When we were done we decided to drive back down to the same Poipu beach we snorkeled at earlier in the week. The traffic was nuts getting back and it took a while. There really is only one road around the island. No main highways, etc. Everyone just cruises, so as you can imagine that part drove Adam crazy. :)

We loved these signs, they were all over the island. 

 We had so many coconut flavored things while here. Everyone asked if we ate pineapple the whole time, but this island didn't have a ton. I guess some of the other ones like Oahu have the Dole pineapple farms. We did have a lot of coconut flavored yummies. There were always coconuts underneath all the trees here. A lcoal talked to me about the Mango tress being in bloom and giving all the tourists allergies, but I didn't get any or see any. But I wasn't sure what a mango tree looked like. She told me they were everywhere, cause the locals love their mangos. :)

One of us usually walked the beach when it was time for Milo to sleep while the other laid out or snorkeled. We joked when we got home we'd have to switch his white noise fan for a ocean sound maker, cause he was used to it putting him to sleep. 

 Not a bad place to enjoy walking with a sleeping baby. Daddy got Milo to sleep while I snorkeled some more. I was more adventurous this time and was out there for a while. Too bad the beach was more busy and there weren't as many fish. I think if I had more opportunities to do it, I would have been a pro. ;) If Adam could have been with me I would have ventured further out. 

After the beach trip we went to the hotel, showered up and went to our farewell dinner at the hotel. It was out on the beach by the ocean. Adam and I enjoyed some virgin Pina Coladas. They really were yummy. They had them for the kids, so we enjoyed them as well. Milo enjoyed them too. Afterward Milo passed out and it made our night relaxing and enjoyable. 

They had a buffet with all sorts of yummy foods. I tried some new fish I haven't tried before. I also had some awesome crab legs and Salmon. Adam had some steak and some really good fruit, grilled Asparagus. For dessert I tried the coconut cream pie. I've never had it before, and it really was soooo good. I'm not the biggest coconut fan, but I was sold. 

Kay and her family came and sat by us again. It was kinda nice to have a good "farewell" dinner with them. They were really nice people. They had a live band and dancing, but it eventually started raining so we headed in. We were ok with that, cause we were tired and had to pack up a bunch of stuff to check out the next day.