Playful Rooted

Gosh, you guys. We all really miss Kauai. Four-year-old Luca says, all the time, totally unprompted, that he wants to go back. It is SUCH a magical place. Magical not just for the beaches and scenery but for its rich, vast, nuanced history. The beaches are incredible; don’t get me wrong. But Kauai is so much more than palm trees and beautiful sunshine. I felt this palpable sacredness the whole time we were there. In the mountains, in the ocean, in the trees. Sacred. There’s no other word for it.

I could spend a long time trying and failing to accurately describe the majesty of Kauai; it’s something you have to experience in person, I think. So instead, here’s an overview of some of the places we went and the things we did. (This will also fail to accurately capture how wonderful it is! But I’ll give it the old college try.)

Waimea Canyon

We stayed in Lihue on the south side and decided first to head west and check out Waimea Canyon, sometimes called the Grand Canyon of Hawaii. There’s a winding mountain road that you can drive all the way up to reach the top of the Canyon and look down. Unfortunately, the day we picked ended up being super foggy, so we couldn’t see much from the very top. (Apparently, this happens a lot! Often, the fog will roll out quickly, but it didn’t the day we were there. Bummer.) We still got some great views on the way back down the mountain, though. These pictures (like all my pictures of Kauai!) don’t do it a single bit of justice. It was pretty breathtaking even from halfway down the mountain.

It may have been worth a revisit to see the Canyon in all its grandeur from the top EXCEPT that Luca had an absolute come-apart (as my mother would say) in the car on the way up the winding road. Car sickness and a very emotional four-year-old is not a great combination. (Frankly, I felt pretty nauseated driving up that mountain, too.)

Wailua River + Secret Falls

We rented stand-up paddle boards from the nicest and most helpful people at Kauai SUP, and not only did they give us advice on the best beaches to visit with the kids, they also mentioned this self-guided tour you can take down the Wailua River. Naturally, this was a must-do!

We launched from the boat ramp and paddled about two miles down the river to the “Parking for Waterfall Hike” location. Paddling down the river was so, so awesome. The most gorgeous day, the most incredible place, a placid river to paddle down, hibiscus flowers floating by in the water as though we were at a fancy spa and they were placed there on purpose.

When we reached the starting point for the hike to Secret Falls, we ditched the boards, and the real fun began: a hike through what looked like Jurassic Park!

We hiked through the jungle (!!) for about a mile to get to our final destination: Secret Falls. Thus named because it’s a real journey to get there. 😉 WORTH IT! A 120-foot waterfall in the middle of the Kauai jungle?!? Amazing.

That’s me out there in the COLDEST water I’ve ever felt. Also worth it. 🙂

I didn’t mention much in my last post, but on Kauai, the chickens are abundant. There are so many of them, and they strut around the whole island just like squirrels running around a city. It’s so strange! And even three miles into the jungle, what did we see hanging out right by the waterfall??

So weird!

Spouting Horn Park

I had read about Spouting Horn Park while I was gathering intel for the trip. It’s this spot on the shore in Koloa where there’s a hole in the rocks, and when the tide comes in, the waves rush up through the hole just like a geyser. I had read that it was cool to see at sunset, so one night as we were finishing up at Poipu Beach (which is super close), I said we should go check this out. Everyone was all, “Naaah, I don’t want to, it sounds boring, I’m hungry, we’ve been swimming all day, let’s go home,” and I was like, “No, jabronis. No. We’re here, and we’re doing this.”

Everyone complained at first, and then everyone loved it. Mom wins.

The waves come in approximately every thirty seconds, so we got to see the water rush up through the rocks many times as we stood there. It was honestly really cool.

And such a beautiful place to watch the sunset!

Kapaa Town

Kapaa is a VERY VERY VERY cute little town about halfway up the east coast of Kauai. It’s actually the largest town on the island, and it’s so adorable and charming. Full of great local restaurants, juice bars, and coffee shops (I’m STILL dreaming about the Macadamia Nut Latte from Java Kai). Since we stayed in Lihue, which is about 15 minutes away, we got many of our meals in Kapaa. And lots of juices. And lots of coffee. 😉 This is also where we went grocery shopping and rented our paddle boards and all our snorkeling and boogie boarding equipment. If we lived on Kauai WHEN WE LIVE ON KAUAI ONE DAY, I would totally live in Kapaa!

In a way, Kauai feels very frozen in time about a couple decades ago. There’s not cell service everywhere, and can you spot the pay phone in the photo above? It’s a fully-functioning machine that requires an actual quarter to use. As you can probably guess, I ADORE this. I love the slow pace of life. I love that it’s so casual and free and relaxed and just liberating and lovely. Island living; it’s totally for me.

Hanalei

Ah, Hanalei! If I would live in Kapaa, I would visit Hanalei as much as possible.

The most beautiful bay I’ve ever laid eyes on. The most stunning mountains and taro fields and palm trees. So much rich history. A top-notch district of local food trucks with a ton of different options. Except for the very-touristy shopping area (which is precisely why I’d choose to live in Kapaa instead), I loved everything about Hanalei.

Like all of Kauai, a piece of heaven on Earth.

I absolutely loved seeing all these families surfing together in Hanalei Bay! What a magical life!

Limahuli Gardens

On one of our last days on Kauai, we drove alllll the way up north to the Limahuli Garden Preserve. We needed a tiny break from cleaning up sand in our AirBnB, so letting the kids walk around a sand-less botanic garden instead of a beach for the day sounded like just the ticket.

It was unlike any garden preserve I had been to before; they had a guided tour that was REALLY detailed. We learned so much about native Hawaiian plants, their histories and how they were foraged and used for food and medicine, etc. Of course the kids didn’t really care, but I was interested! 😉

There was also a spot up at the top of a big hill where you could sit and look for humpback whales, which migrate through the area from November through March. We were there at the verrrry beginning of November, so it was unlikely, but we sat and watched anyway. Luca and I SWEAR we saw a fin in the water. Wishful thinking? Definitely. 😉 It was still a good time.

I haven’t really touched on the beaches we went to, but I’m going to do that next in a post about visiting Kauai with toddlers. (Reading similar posts from other people helped me to plan our trip with a 1- and 4-year-old, so I figure I’ll pay it forward.) Until then, I’ll just be scrolling through photos and wishing we were still in paradise.

xo!