Continued from Kauai Day 1.

Good morning. Early mornings and early evenings look so similar here in Hawaii.

Breakfast on the balcony, nice.

The past few days, I’ve been watching the weather report closely. We are supposed to take a boat trip to visit the Napali coast today. You know, those cliffsides where they filmed Jurassic park helicopter ride. Well, as it turns out, there’s large storms to the North and that’s creating high winds on the North and West sides of the island and creating something like 40-60 foot waves!! Napali Coast is on the NW side, so I’m guessing that ride will get diverted to a different location where the waves are calmer. It’s also really fascinating how the mountains on the islands have such a large effect on weather here. Opposite sides of the island experience completely different climates at times.

In the morning at 8amish, they bring the parrots out from their nighttime rest spots.

Lol. I went to get Little KL from ah gong and ah ma’s room in the morning, and he was set up in the bathroom with ah ma so that the rest of the room can be kept quiet and dark while ah gong keeps sleeping.

In fact, the waves were so big today that they are hosting The Eddie today. I believe these are expected to be the biggest wave for the entire year. I guess if our boat trip was going to get cancelled to the original destination, it might as be well be due to the biggest waves of the whole year.

Coffee and blogging.

Our scheduled boat ride isn’t until the afternoon, so we decided to go on a short morning hike to the cliffs on Shipwreck beach right by the resort.

Checking out the tide pools.

Limpets. Cool.

Sea urchins. I wonder if you can just pick the roes out of these and eat them?

Lots and lots of limpets here.

And a dead crab.

More urchins.

And some little fish. I wish I could spend more time here but ah gong was freaking out about the kids being close to the waves. We were totally fine, but he was really stressed out.

OK, onto the hike to the sea cliff.

Shipwreck beach. This is a public beach right by the resort next to the hiking trail.

This bird started following us around on the trail. Was not shy of human presence at all.

Oh shit, the bird was walking by us and all of a sudden, we see it strike at a lizard on a plant. Wow.

The bird kept on following us around on the trail. I think he/she was using our movement through the trail to flush out lizards and then he/she could then try to eat them. Smart.

It’s getting warm.

Up this hill, then we get to the top of the cliff.

Super easy hike.

It’s super hard to get a family photo where everyone’s looking at the camera.

People go cliff diving over here. I wouldn’t, it’s really high up.

Everyone complained a lot about how the sun was in their eyes.

Alright, that’s enough walking for now. The pool is calling so time to head back the way we came.

How did they get those stickers that high up? They must have climbed that post.

Kids are all about that water slide.

Except for PL, who for some reason just wanted to lay around with towels around her. I asked her if she felt ill, she said no. Ok….I guess you do you.

Time to head out to the port. But first, lunch and get more motion sickness meds.

Longs Drugstore, I think CVS owns them.

Such a different feel than Oahu.

Ocean ahead of us again now.

Eleele, where the catamaran will be leaving port.

Lunch first at the brewery.

Oh look, they’ve got The Eddie broadcasting on TV. The waves were HUGE.

We all took dramamine before lunch, and immediately put everyone in a very drowsy and sleepy mood.

Again, it’s a real issue. So many wild chickens here in Hawaii.

Lots of gecko in Hawaii too.

A butt, but really cute sometimes.

Poke every time baby.

Time for our tour to meet up and leave. As expected, not going to see Napali coast on the NW side. We’ll be going to Kipu Kai on the SE coast away from all the large waves. There’s some chance of seeing sea life, so hopefully we’ll get some of that. Still a little disappoint that we are not seeing Napali coast. We made it a point to come to Kauai just to see Napali coast since that’s what Ah gong wanted to see here in Hawaii. We tried our best, just didn’t work out. Ah gong doesn’t seem that bothered by it though. I think I’m more stressed and disappointed than he is on this issue.

The catamarans straight ahead. Two boats will be going out today and they hold I think up to 49 people each.

Super quick safety overview.

Then we are on our way.

That dramamine is making me super sleepy. I’m holding a cup of coffee in my hands.

Looks like we’ll get some rain soon.

Everyone is feeling super sleepy from dramamine.

It started sprinkling rain outside so we all came inside. Again, so sleepy.

Then we came back on the deck because the captain announced that there are dolphins. I wanna see dolphins!

Spinner dolphins.

Oh wait, there’s more. Humpback whale, mother and calf.

KL points at whale. I’ve always wanted to see humpback whales. I guess this semi makes up for not seeing the Napali coast.

More dolphins putting on a show.

Better sighting of the humpbacks. Super cool to see in person. I’ll check seeing a humpback whale off of my bucket list.

Look at that turquoise blue clear water was dolphins swimming in it.

National Tropical Botanical Garden. It’s closed on the days that we are here otherwise we would have visited.

The onboard chef grilling up our dinner.

CL is suffering from motion sickness despite the dramamine. Poor girl.

Hey look, it the Grand Hyatt where we are staying at.

Remember that cliff we went hiking up to earlier this morning? People are now lining up to jump off of it. You can make out a person mid jump in the picture.

Kinda like Napali coast, just not on the coast.

The bar opens up.

Some sort of signature tiki drink. It was very sweet.

Wild goats.

People points. This is Kipu Kai. Apparently in a trust that the trustees won’t allow a sale to resort companies.

Hawaiian monk seal resting on beach, apparently endangered with less than 1500 left.

Reminds me a little bit of the sea cliffs in Ireland.

The girls and ah ma.

Just ignore the foreground and it’s like being at Napali coast.

This is a very long cruise, at about 4 hours long. After we’ve reached the turn around point, they raised the sails. I doubt it’s really for sailing but more for just makes for a better photo.

Dinner is also served. Not in a great appetite to eat due to all the motion. I’m feeling ok, but CL is really not feeling well.

CL requested to hang out by the railing just in case she throws up.

Past the Hyatt again.

You know CL is really feeling ill when she doesn’t eat any of her dinner, takes a tiny bite of cheese cake and pushes the rest away. Poor girl. Being seasick really sucks.

RL took a pano shot on her phone and this is the result. Kinda cool.

She was feeling so terrible she actually fell asleep in this position. Kinda funny, but also kinda not funny.

Still trying to sleep and not throw up.

Looks unreal cheesy. Setting sun in Hawaii with a spinner dolphin breaching. Is this really happening?

Poor girl could no longer hold on any longer and threw up as we were at the home stretch. No worries, the crew were well prepared with buckets of water to rinse the little bit of vomit that made it on deck. Apparently, someone always throws up and the most they had was 30 people throwing up during a ride when the seas are really rough. Wow.

Well, that was fun, sort of. Glad to see the wild life. Next time if I do this ride again, it’ll be Napali coast or bust.

Driving back to the resort, all the Christmas lights are lit up.

Kids showering yielded the secret message again.

Good night Kauai. Disappointed some, exceeded in expectations some.

To be continued at Kauai Day 3.