Hawaii - Feb 1, 2026 - Day 9 - Hanalei Bay

We loaded the car with all the things we needed for the day. Food, chairs, boogie boards and water/drinks. We headed out after breakfast at our place to make the 1 hour, 15 minute drive to Hanalei Bay.  It was about 10:30 am.

After going to 3 parking lots, we headed back to the 2nd one that still had a parking spot to park in along the beach.  We packed up chairs, our food and went to sit by the beach. The waves were pretty big, and there were a lot of surfers out there.  Instead of heading for the water, we decided to get AA's camera from the car, and walk to the pier that we remembered from being there a few years go.

This is definitely a place people come to walk along the beach, so we decided to join them. In total we walked 4.35kms and it took us about 1 hour 8 minutes.  We both took a lot of photos, and enjoyed our walk and the views.  

At the far end there is a stream that comes into the ocean, the water is sure cold coming in there, and runs really quickly.

Back at our chairs, AA set up the umbrella we brought and we enjoyed our packed lunch.  It was easy just to sit there and watch all the surfers, and people walking along the beach, especially under the comfort of the umbrella.

After a while, we moved down to a "safer" section of the bay to do some boogie boarding.  AA was worried Lola was getting swept away in the waves, so we caught a few waves, and then swam back to shore. We enjoyed the sun to dry off, and moved 1 more time, closer to the car to sit and enjoy the views and ocean before it started to drizzle and we packed up and headed back to the car.  We had a reservation at 5 pm near our place, so we had to leave by 3pm to get back.

After we went in the ocean...

Location number 3...

clouds rolling in.

a one-way bypass.

Once back at our place, we cleaned up, and realized we should have put sunscreen on before our walk along the beach.  We got a little burnt, both of us. 

Lola called her mom to have a chat, where they let her watch the Canadian woman's curling final (which she had been following all week by the scores, unable to watch).  But they went to an extra end, and we had to go for supper so, we had to hang up, and she got sent the video of the last shot of the extra end.

We walked to Brennecke's, which is right by the turtles at Poipu Beach, we had a reservation at 5, but had to wait for our table to open up.  Lola had a Maui Brewing Root beer, and AA enjoyed his Kona Brewing beer.  The food was delicious, AA had the fish and chips, while Lola had the Seafood Tom Kha Soup, with Ono, Shrimp and Scallops in a Thai Coconut broth.  We both enjoyed our meal very much.

After supper we headed to see our Turtle friends, but wow was it windy.  The sand was blasting us in the face.  But we saw the turtles, headed to see the monk seal, and the lone turtle at the other end of the beach, while waiting for the sun to set.  A man took our photo, and even asked us to look at each other with the turtle in the background, it was pretty amusing.

checking where the moon was.

We couldn't see the turtles coming to shore as the water was so rough, and we couldn't see any whales or dolphins in the water as the waves were huge.  It sure changed from the day before. 

We also tried to see if we could wait for the moon to rise, but it was too windy and "cold" and the clouds were sure rolling in, so we just headed back to our place to tend to our sunburns with Aloe, and pack our bags.  Lola beat AA in a few games of cribbage as well.

It was a relaxing day, but still got a lot of steps in.

Hawaii - Jan 31, 2026 - Day 8 - Na Pali Coast

We had to be at the harbour by 8:30am, and it was about an hour drive so we left our place at 7:10am. We pretty much drove to where we turned to go to the canyon to catch our boat at Kikiaola Small Boat Harbor.  We were excited but nervous after Captain Rob went over how to not get sea sick, and how this likely will be a problem. Lola didn’t bring any med, not even Advil, so she was especially nervous.  Then to see how small the boat was… eeeeee. Others were also nervous by his speech…except for the family of 7 – 5 teenaged girls with their parents who met everyone on the boat before we even got to the boat. 

We took off our shoes and headed on the boat.  Lola picking a spot in the middle of the boat, under a canopy to try and conker the sea sickness.

We pulled out of the harbour, and to our excitement we thought we saw something in the water… nope drift wood, not super exciting.  Although not far after we saw whales. This was not a whale watching tour, but we got to see some!

the drift wood

As we got out into the open ocean, wow the waves were huge.  We tried to get photos and video, but it just didn’t cut it, we were going up and down on the waves like a surfboard, in our boat that our caption kept saying was made of Styrofoam.

We saw whales on our way out to the top part of the island of Kauai that is only accessible by boat or helicopter, or foot.. but no cars.  People are also prohibited to live on the Na Pali Coast there since about 1948 (when they made all the Hawaiian people leave). 

The coast was spectacular, at a height of 4000 ft tall. The wind was “calm” so there was a lot of sea mist, and it just floats there as the wind doesn’t push it inland very fast.

AA went to back/side of the boat to get some photos, while Lola went back and forth, as she felt better facing forward than sideways.  She couldn’t sit at the back of the boat as it was occupied by a lady that threw up well into the first hour of the boat trip. We saw sea caves, ancient burial grounds and the most amazing cliffs of the shield volcano.  The captain was very excited to be able to chat with AA while he was snapping photos.

listening to Captin Rob

We were out on the water for 5.5 hours, the coast was spectacular, and something we don’t regret doing. We ended the trip by going back to the “side” where we had lunch on the boat (Lola even got a gluten free turkey sandwich, she had to take the cheese off though), bag of chips, and juice.

As we were heading back, we saw a pod of spinner dolphins come right up to the boat. After lunch we headed past the harbour and went for a little snorkel.  The water was deep, but we saw a turtle.  It seemed way closer in real life in the water than the photos show (hopefully you can find it).

school of fish

can you find the turtle?

 

A quick 15 minutes back to the harbour we got off found our shoes, and headed back to the car.  What an incredible thing, and Lola didn’t get sea sick.  She knew the tricks, looking at the horizon and trying not to be on her phone too much.

We drove back to the condo and we both had a nap.  Lola doesn’t nap, but wow she slept over 1 hour.  AA had to wake her up, not sure if it was the early morning, or the stress of being out on the boat for 5.5 hours.

We were determined to see the sunset, so we walked to the beach.  The turtles were there, and so was the sunset. The moon was so beautiful too. Once the sunset, we walked in the water to see the sea turtles coming in. The water was calm and so refreshing.

see the turtle?

We made supper at the condo, sausage, rice, veggies and fruit.

After supper we played some cribbage, then walked to the beach to say goodnight to the turtles. 

Lola had some pretty good hands.