Friday

Today we conquered part of the Na Pali Coast.  It is one of the most beautiful trails in the entire world.  It is also, according to Backpacker Magazine, one of America's top 10 most dangerous hikes.  The hike itself, the Kalalau trail, is 11 miles one way to a beach that you can only get to by foot or boat.  We didn't hike the whole thing because that would require backpacking.  Instead, we hiked 2 miles in to a very nice beach (Hanakapi'ai) and then 2 miles inland to a very famous waterfall (Hanakapi'ai Falls).

The hike was very intense.  The 2 miles in to the beach weren't so bad.  The beginning had some very slippery rocks to climb, but that was the only major problem.  The beach is not a very good beach to swim at because it is so close to the current and.. check out this sign we saw..

Isn't this the scariest sign you've ever seen?!  We even saw people swimming in the water...
Anyways, we then left the beach and hiked inland to go to Hanakapi'ai Falls.  This waterfall is made famous from Jurassic Park!  If you've seen it, then you know that when they first land on Jurassic Park they fly down a waterfall with the helicopter.  Well, that scene is THIS waterfall!

The trailhead marker said that this hike was only 2 miles one way, but it definitely felt a LOT longer than that.  The hike was very technically challenging.  It involved a lot of mud.. a lot.. and climbing over rocks, fording rivers and getting very dirty.  But, it was a beautiful hike into the jungle.

 

After a long, long, 2 miles we made it.  It was amazing!  300 ft of just water falling.  

Well, we made the trek there and we started hiking back.  We realized about a mile from the falls that we didn't have enough water to get us back to the car.  We even loaded a whole 2 Liter bladder full of water, but it wasn't enough apparently.  We only had about 3 miles left to hike, but in Hawaii where the humidity is crazy, being with no water is awful!  We were tired, sore, had headaches, and were extremely thirsty.  We pushed and prayed the rest of the way and made it.  We chugged a lot of water when we got back.

That hike was one of my favorites.  It was incredible and beautiful!  Here are some pictures :)  Tomorrow I think we are going to give ourselves a lazy day.  That was an intense 8 miles.

Thursday :)

On Thursday we decided to chill out and we spent quite a bit of our time walking around shops looking for cool souvenirs to take home.  Nick and I went to this craft fair in Kapa'a and found handmade wine bottle holders that could be personalized!  So we got a couple and had our names put on them :)

We then played in the pool a bit, BBQ'd and went to Lumaha'i again to watch the sunset.  It was awesome!  We sat on the beach for awhile and there were a ton of these little crabs. 

We had some fun playing with the crabs and we chilled on the beach until the sun went down.  It was wonderful :)  We love Kauai!

Now, it's Wednesday!

Today we went for a hike up a mountain ridge called Nonou Mountain.  It was FAR better than our hiking book led on.  It's about a 1.5 mile hike up to this picnic shelter.  Along the way you get amazing views of the south shore.  Up at the top you get a couple different viewpoints of the northern mountains and the south shore.  Nick, however, found a trail that led up even higher than the picnic shelter.  So we hiked about 1/2 mile more and also did some rock scrambling to the very top of Nonou mountain.  It was AWESOME!!!  We had an alomst 360 degree view from the top. 

 Isn't this incredible?!

After that awesome adventure we went snorkeling in Poipu.  It is an awesome beach! (Unfortunately we didn't get any pictures)  The fish there all swim right under you!  It was crazy, but a lot of fun.

Then we went shopping in Koloa and decided to go out to dinner.  We found this restaraunt kind of on accident called Tiano's.  It was pretty good food for a decent price. 

While eating we had a palm tree full of parrots!  They were so loud!

Tuesday!

Nick and I are still on Washington time.  We tend to wake up pretty early, which actually isn't a bad thing!  We got up, made a smoothie (yum!) and headed to Kapa'a. 

We stopped at the Kilauea lighthouse, but it cost to get in so we didn't go up to it, but it was really beautiful!


After we made that short pit stop at the lighthouse, we went to check out Anini beach.  It was really beautiful!  We didn't swim, but  we walked around and sat for a bit and watched a few surfers and a cool kayaker.  It was really nice and relaxing :)

 Then, we went to Bubba's Burgers.  It is apparently Robert Downey Jr's favorite place to eat in Kauai... okay.  It was pretty good for a burger place.  Not the best burger in the world, but you can't beat the location.  :)

After getting fueled up from some good burgers, we walked around Kapa'a.  A very cool town!  There are a lot of shops and even more art galleries.  Have I mentioned that there are a TON of art galleries?  A lot of them are really cool.  Anyways, Nick got a cool t-shirt and I got a new dress.  Success :)

We then heard from some guy in the hot tub last night about this "secret-locals-only-know-about-it-beach".  We decided to go find it and we found it pretty easily.  It is about a 1/4 mile hike down a hill and it's a BEAUTIFUL beach!  Oh my goodness!  There weren't that many people, but it was very amazing.  Check it out for yourself :)

 There are some really awesome sea rocks.  Nick and I got a video of the waves crashing up on some of them.  It is really surreal.

Isn't it great?!  Nick and I have decided that we are going back to sit on the rocks and watch the sunset :)  It'll be beautiful and awesome!

Alright, almost done.  Nick and I didn't mention this, but past all of the condo complexes there is a little grass area that overlooks the ocean.  There are chairs and some really awesome BBQ's that are right next to the cliffs.  Nick and I decided to BBQ our dinner.  It was amazing!

We ate and watched the sunset :)  Then we did our normal nighttime thing, which involves handing out in the pool/hot tub.  Kauai is an amazing island.  Tomorrow will be even better :)

Nick and Alison

Monday, Monday

Today, we had plans to do a lot more hiking, but most of our day was spent shopping.  Luckily, the beaches and short hikes make up for any time lost.  We ended up driving about 1 hour to Costco and we realized, as soon as we got there, that we forgot our Costco card!  So we had to forget it and just drive to the nearest Safeway.  We also found out that it costs about twice as much to buy food here compared to the mainland.  Good thing we're so rich ;)

After about 3 hours of shopping and time wasting, we were able to enjoy our day.  We went to Anini beach and it was awesome.  The water on the ocean was so incredibly warm!  We floated and swam in the ocean and really enjoyed soaking up the sun.

We then hiked the first mile of the Powerline trail.  It is a hike that travels along the Hanalei Valley next to, you guess it, the power lines!

We got to hike around in parts of the jungle and witness the beautiful flora of the island.  There are so many different plants and flowers!

We ended our day with a long walk around the community of Princeville (our temporary home) and a very refreshing dip in the hot tub and pool.  Tomorrow will be another wonderful adventure!  We'll be sure to share with you our next day's adventure :)

Mr. and Mrs. Sokol

Adventurism

It is the end of our first full day in Kauai.  We had a very eventful day yesterday.  We had flight issues and our plane had to get re-routed.  We thought that our flight was getting delayed to 2:30 (instead of 9:20), but it turned out that we just got switched to a different flight (thank you!).  We ended up flying into Maui first, then flew on another plane to Honolulu.  We were then put on stand-by for the flight to Kauai.  By this time we were really tired and sick of flying.  We sat nervously for about 20 minutes and then finally got called to the plane!  It was an awesome feeling (even though we had to get split up).

After spending $6598756 on the rental car and extra hotel things we got to relax and watch the very end of the sunset on top of the cliff.  BEAUTIFUL!

We also had dinner on the way to the hotel at an awesome restaurant.  It was called Wahooo Restaurant in Kapa'a.  Here is just a picture of the awesome fish we ate.

Overall, our first day was a crazy adventure.



PS.  Check out our sweet condo!  Thank you Grandpa and Cindy!!!

After a long hiatus, we are back and MARRIED!  Nick and I got married on July 3rd, 2011 in Yakima, WA :)  It was an awesome/beautiful wedding! 
Currently, we are honeymooning in Kauai.  The island is so amazing!  We want to share some of our hikes with you because they are too beautiful not to share.  So keep reading!! :)