Monk Seal, Waterfalls, and a Glass Beach

We had a busy day yesterday, from sun up to sun down {and then even after}!

We started off the morning by going to Tunnels Beach which is a little north of where we are staying. There are very few parking spots for Tunnels Beach so Ryan and I used the time zone difference to our advantage (well, that and apparently people on this island are not early risers either). We were the first ones to the parking spots (woo hoo) at about 9am! The surf yesterday was HUGE! The waves were 20-30 feet and there was no swimming advised (ha - like you'd find me getting pummeled by those big things!). Since there was no swimming and we were the first ones on the beach, we decided to take a walk down the beach to see the other end where their appeared to be even larger waves. We met one of the locals walking on the beach and she told us they don't get many days with giant waves like these and she considered these "Hawaiian Snow Days."  Huh? I didn't even know Hawaiians knew what snow days were.  We eventually found a spot to put down our towels and I was able to just sit and enjoy the sound of these monster waves crashing into shore.

One side of Tunnels Beach.

Half of the other side of Tunnels Beach.

Ryan got caught off guard from one of the large waves.

This is zoomed in as far as our camera will go.

No swimming today!

These waves were really pretty but scary knowing they could cause a lot of damage.

Gotta love SPF 50 {and the shade of palm trees}!

Just as we were about to leave, we noticed some people looking at something in the water. They happened to be looking at a Hawaiian Monk Seal. These seals are considered a critically endangered species and I was hoping that we'd be able to see one while we were here. I sent Ryan with the camera to take pictures of the seal just in case it didn't come out of the water. I stayed back and collected all of our stuff up. Well, we didn't have to go very far because the seal ended up coming ashore not far from where we were laying out.

Just coming up out of the water.

It looked like a lot of work just to get this far.

Just relaxing....

...until a wave comes.

Trying out a new spot.

Another wave, so she moved to another spot.

Ryan was talking to some locals before I got there with all of our stuff and apparently, all the Monk Seals are tagged so that they can keep track of them since they are endangered. Well, the locals had Ryan take a picture with our camera and then zoom in so they could see the numbers. This little Monk Seal was a girl and she was born in April 2011 {I think they should name her Hillary if they haven't named her yet :)}. I guess her mother lives on Oahu and comes over to Kauai once a year to give birth. Even though these Monk Seals are a little ugly at first glance, after looking at her for a while, she is actually really cute. I'm glad that we were able to get a little history from the locals, that's always nice. She didn't stay up on the beach long, the waves were so big that when she'd reach a dry piece of beach, a wave would come up and disturb her. So she went back out to sea.

One of the best pictures from the day!

Is it just me, or does she resemble Zoey in this picture?!? {hehehe}

Goodbye!

After finishing up at Tunnels, we planned to head to the south part of the island to see the Waimea Canyon, but after we started driving, we realized that it is a REALLY long drive to the canyon and we probably wouldn't have enough daylight. So change of plans {good thing I had my trusty Kauai Revealed book with so I could look up something else to do}.

One of the many one-lane bridges on the island.

Taro field.

We stopped and had shaved ice which is sort of like a snow cone but WAY better. They even put ice cream in the middle!

Rumor has it that Kalapaki Shave Ice is the best shaved ice on the island.

After the shaved ice, we stopped at a couple waterfalls...

'Opaeka'a Falls

Showing our Minnesota Pride!

Wailua Falls

We stopped at Glass Beach which was really interesting. It isn't the prettiest beach I've ever seen, but the most unique by far. This beach is located near a garbage dump and apparently a bunch of the glass from an old recycling plant made it's way to this area. There was really very little actual sand at this beach, it was all little pieces of polished glass beads. Don't worry, I didn't walk bare foot. Ryan and I kept our shoes on!

It looks like sand here but its not...

You can sorta see the glass sand here.

Here is a close up of the glass sand.

And the not-so-pretty aspect of the beach....the waste facilities.

Here's a picture of our current ride :)

After the glass sand beach, Ryan and I drove to a little town by the name of Hanapepe and walked on the swinging foot bridge. I only made it a few steps before Ryan started jumping up and down and freaking me out so I had to turn around. Ryan on the other hand made it all the way across and back.

Sl...ow....ly....taking a few steps out onto the bridge.

Ryan has no fear sometimes!

After the bridge, it was time to make the long trip back home. We were both tired {me more so than Ryan of course} and daylight was fading fast. We had plans to grill some steak when we got home, but after driving for over two hours, we decided to stop at Bubba Burgers for dinner. It was delicious! We sat outside, overlooking the ocean and ate our hamburgers.

By the time we got home, I was practically sleeping so I went straight to bed :)

Ashley

Finally, it's vacation time!

I've been looking forward to this vacation since before we actually booked it! So glad to be on vacation. I can feel the stress melting away :)

When we got into Kauai, it was starting to get dark here so we didn't take many pictures because we couldn't see anything. Ryan and I did attempt to take some pictures of ourselves as we waited for the rental car shuttle.

Here's my attempt...

(Ryan is telling me 'move it more your way.')

Here is Ryan's attempt...

After this, we stopped - ha!

We are staying at The Cliffs resort in Princeville. We rented a condo here through homeaway.com. I'd recommend homeaway.com to anyone who is traveling. You can find places to stay that are very affordable. Our condo is nice, and it's better than staying in a one-room hotel room. We have one bedroom, a living room, dining room, kitchen, two bathrooms and two balconies. I'll eventually post on our digs here.

Since it was dark for the entire drive to the resort, yesterday morning when we woke up, it was truly like waking up in paradise. Ahhh, so relaxing. Here are some views from our back balcony as the sun was coming up.

It is so gorgeous here. The whole island is like one big garden!

Part of the reason why Ryan and I like renting places off of homeaway.com is because most of the places have kitchens. Although we are on are vacation and I'm not wanting to cook at the time, let's be realistic, it's super expensive to eat out three meals a day and then times that by 7 days....yikes! We spent yesterday morning running errands (aka trying to find our way around this island and buying groceries.)

The view of the ocean from the resort.

Topical view as we are leaving the resort.

While we were out and about, we stopped at a little whole-in-the-wall for breakfast/lunch.

The Tip Top Motel and Bakery.

They were apparently in the middle of repairing/painting the wall behind Ryan.

Even though it was a little whole-in-the-wall, it was a really busy place and we ended up having to wait for a table. The food was also really good! {I think it helped that we were both starving hungry!}

After we got back from getting groceries, I was tired and ready for a nap but Ryan and I were ready to hit the beach :) We decided to go to the beach closest to our resort but not before slathering up in SPF 50 {otherwise I'd fry to a crisp}!

Beautiful drive to the beach.

Almost to the beach.

Wyllie beach was the first beach we stopped at. This was a small little beach but it was nice because there weren't a lot of people there. We laid our towels out. I stared at the ocean, enjoyed the warmth of the sunshine, listened to Ryan snore (hehehe) and then I fell asleep. I could sleep on the beach everyday.

After I woke up from a nap, there were a lot more people on the beach and Ryan and I decided to head to another beach. 'Anini Beach is essentially the same beach as Wyllie but they are seperated by a fresh water stream {which was rather cold by the way}. There was a lot more activity on 'Anini Beach but the beach was beautiful none-the-less.

Wind surfer

We went to the none busy part of the beach.

Kilauea Lighthouse

This Stop Sign has seen better days.

 After the beach, we went back to our condo, freshened up a bit, read a little about the island to decide what we wanted to do the next day and then decided to go out to dinner. It looked like it might rain but never ended up raining. The sun coming through the clouds was gorgeous!

We stopped in Hanalei for dinner. Here is the view we got to enjoy during dinner!

Ryan and I ordered some fruity drinks for dinner. It ended up being a bust! They were not good at all! Ha - oh well. There is always next time.

Ryan and I are looking forward to more beach time today! Will post again soon :)

Ashley