Goodbye Kauai

Sorry for the delay in our final blog about our vacation on Kauai. Even though we are a week late, we will go ahead and conclude our time on Kauai.

Saturday…Woke up slowly realizing that Friday had been as close to a perfect day that any of us could recall. Bored with the beautiful views from our lanai, we decided to head out for a local breakfast. Just down the street was the Ono Family Restaurant. They were highly recommended and the line of people waiting for a table showed that their reputation got around. We sent out big guy, Mark, into the line to claim us a table. Mark’s patience paid off and we were soon enjoying a great local breakfast. We only ate out twice for breakfast and we would rank this restaurant the best.

Recalling the exploits of yesterday, we decided to head for Poipu to snorkel at some of the beaches we had scouted out. We got to Maha’ulepu Beach to find that the water was a bit rougher than yesterday. Everyone has to die sometime and if you got to go Kauai’s a beautiful place to do it. So we donned our snorkel gear and went out to explore. Unfortunately visibility was poor and ocean conditions a bit sketchy so we only went out so far before returning to the safety of shore.

Time for lunch. What! No takeout sushi? We had to settle for a fast lunch at a hole in the wall Mexican place called Taqueria Nortenos. We proceeded down the road to Spouting Horn to check out some snorkel spots we had scouted earlier in the week. We stopped at the beach (PK Beach) across from Prince Kuhio Park. It was pretty much just a rock cove and Cheryl and I grabbed our gear and went out to explore. We headed out past a shallow reef that protected the cove and soon found ourselves in a wonderland of fish and coral. Cheryl wanted to claim that were thousands of fish but I think we finally settled on hundreds. Regardless, this was some great snorkeling. As we returned to the safety of the cove, Mandy and Mark showed us where the turtles were hanging out near the rocks. I turned around to see if Cheryl wanted to go check them out only to find that she was already rocketing over to where they had been seen. I got there just in time to see Cheryl swimming along right behind a giant sea turtle. Silhouetted against the afternoon sun, it was my most regretted missed picture. We proceeded to play around with at least two turtles in the area. You could tell we were having fun when you saw Cheryl break the surface of the water screaming “I swam with the turtles, I swam with the turtles". What a great way to end our snorkeling on the island.

What haven’t we done on the island? Sunsets! How could we forget about Kauai sunsets? The best place for a sunset is on the balcony of the Princeville Resort where you can enjoy pupu’s (Hawaiian for appetizers) and drinks while enjoying the view. So we jetted from Poipu to Princeville and arrived in just the nick of time to enjoy the sunset, mission accomplished.

Time for dinner Allyn Fratkin says “if you are what you eat, then the Payne’s are going to turn into fish". We did like “Finding Nemo” so maybe it’s true. SUSHI TIME!!!!!!!! The gold medal winner of the 2004 Payne Sushi Challenge goes to Kintaro’s. The four of us headed out for our final dinner on the island and we had a blast. Once again they did not disappoint. We have found a second favorite restaurant on the island (TidePools being the first).

Sunday… The day of departure We met up with the Hammill’s (friends from church who were also on the island) for breakfast at Eggbert’s in Kapaa. The food was good but our server was terrible. We had a great time talking but we had to rush to catch our plane. Remember that four people plus luggage is greater than a mid-sized rental car! Mark using the ancient practices of “packito", a long forgotten art of Tibetan Shirpas, was able to get all of our luggage into the car. We were all amazed - so amazed we forgot to take a picture. We were flying back to the mainland while Mark & Cheryl headed for the Big Island. It was more than once that we concocted plans to extend our vacation and go with them. Alas, they all fell through and we found ourselves on the long flight home.

This was likely our last trip to Kauai for a while but oh what a trip it has been!

Here's a link to some of our best trip photos. Enjoy! http://www.flickr.com/photos/51782520@N00/sets/870897/